One year ago

Wow, it is hard to believe that we have been in Maryland for an entire year now. I vividly remember the stress of having to move. From selling our home to buying a new one to physically moving and everything in between. Our home sold in 3 days, yes amazing. We hit it at the right time. Finding a home in Maryland took a bit more work. We took one family trip and the husband came up alone a few times on house hunting missions. It was difficult dragging around three children. The last trip the husband made included videoing 4 homes that he liked. Guess what, I ended up not really loving any of them. So we decided to bid on a house that I only saw on the computer and my husband walked through once, quickly at that. We had a tip from a neighbor who knew someone who lived here....and she was one of those people who researches every little aspect of everything. How could we go wrong? The bidding process did not go so well and I thought we lost the house. After my husband saw my tears he upped the bid just a bit and it was rejected again. A few days later they came crawling back to us and asked us if we could raise our bid $10K. We stood firm in our offer AND we ended up getting the house.

Once the house was purchased our focus was getting us packed. Yes, we had movers but we would be in temporary housing for 3 weeks. We had 2 cars fully packed and mine had a roof luggage carrier that was stuffed to the max. We left NC on Friday November 15th and arrived at our apartment on November 16th. I will never forget this day. The boys were out with their Dad lugging things from the car to our 2nd story apartment. The boys took off and ran into a different building and into a strangers' home. I will never forget the panic I felt when my husband came into the apartment asking me if the boys were here. I immediately picked up the baby (yes he really was a baby back then) and we ran outside calling their names. Thankfully, they figured it out and ran back outside. That is my first experience here.

We arrived prior to Thanksgiving and my first priority was to get the boys enrolled in school. My husband was having to start work right after Thanksgiving. After many phone calls to the school board and the school I was able to get a meeting set up to turn in our documents (contract on house plus the lease term on the apartment). The main rule was to ensure the kids were never late or we could possibly be "kicked out" until the move was final. You can believe they were never late.



The process of moving into our home was not smooth either. We had painters in the house for what seemed like forever. They were delayed in starting so we had to move them around from one area to the next in order to accommodate other workers. I was never so happy to have all of the work completed in our home. It seems like the unpacking process took forever, actually it did take forever. But as the weeks went by the amount of boxes were diminishing little by little.

The hardest part of all of this was having to put our dog down. She started limping, almost to the point of not being able to walk, upon our arrival. After many tests it was determined that she had cancer everywhere. We still miss her so much. She was the best dog ever.



We have come a long way in the last year. We are starting to put down roots here in the great white north. We have made a lot of friends as have the boys. I know I am doing well when my GPS system is not being put to use. It is a good feeling to know where I am going. I am not sure that I will ever get used to the cold weather but I am learning to dress a little more appropriately. Will we be here forever? Who knows but for right now it is good.

And as I know that you have been concerned, I am happy to report that we have not seen any moths in the last month. I still look for them though........

Some Pictures

The baby has won for now. I have placed his booster seat at the counter so that he can be like his brothers. Sometimes I think he is growing up way too quickly.


The boys in their assigned seats at the counter.

Jay is using his fingers to get his homework completed.

EE and the baby!

The boys all desperately needed haircuts. We took them to a kid's hair salon as we had a coupon for a free haircut. I have to say that the ladies were not really all that friendly. We got there shortly after they opened and had to wait 15 minutes or so. As we left I heard the wait time was 45 minutes. I could not imagine waiting that long. We typically go to the barber shop near our home.

These were a few pictures before we headed out to church. We went to the same church we have attended before. The church just moved into their new building this past May. This was our first visit to the new space. What I find odd is that worship takes place in a gym like room. There are basketball hoops hanging on either side of the room. There is no pretty stained glass or other indications that this is a church. I am not sure why it matters to me other than I like the visuals while worshiping. The chairs although comfortable are not permanent fixtures. The church didn't have enough funds so they could not add on the preschool program at this time. The boys did their Sunday school in a cubicle like area on the ground floor. They had many friends from school in their class. They were very excited about that. It was interesting that I had to fill out a card for each of the boys. On the card it said parents are expected to volunteer. Wow....I am not sure if we are going to join yet....much less volunteer.

We did get a different feel of the church on this visit, better than in the past. We met the Pastor on the way out of worship. They are having a Walk to Bethlehem the first weekend of December that we will attend. I wonder if it will compare to the one our church in NC had?

I am not sure what we will do about a church. I do know that I want us to get back in the habit of attending church...

Drama

I have always said this neighborhood is filled with a bit of drama. Sometimes I am all about the drama and other times it seems so silly. There are many people in the neighborhood who have been here since the beginning which is about 7 to 8 years ago. As people got to know each other groups started to form. These groups hold fairly tight around here. I don't like to think of myself as part of any group but it seems as though I probably am. It is fine with me but I do make an effort to become friends with others in the neighborhood. There are a few ladies with potential kid friends to my baby. I try to get together with them when I can.

Here is what has transpired the last few weeks. I will refer to Group 1 and Group 2. I will say that I am in Group 1 with my neighbor and several others. Someone from Group 2 had an adult Halloween party on Nov. 1st. We heard the party going on, just a few houses from ours. Apparently, the cops were called on the party, maybe more than once. The first visit was at 11:30pm. There was someone that made a comment that it was probably my neighbor that called the cops. My neighbor was out of town by the way. When she heard this and found out who supposedly said it she decided to call this person on it. The person denied saying it that she had repeated what someone else said and included that she didn't think that would be right. She went on to tell her who did say it but asked her not to say anything to this person about it. My neighbor talked to the party thrower and explained that it was NOT her that called the cops.

On Halloween I found out that the police were at a house in the neighborhood, not far from our house. My neighbor happened to inquire from a mutual friend to find out what was going on. It is not every day you see police at a house in the neighborhood. The mutual friend must have said something to the person. The person then texted my neighbor's husband and made comments about his nosey wife. Did she think I am beating his wife or something? It ended up being a ridiculous exchange of words. Not for sure, but we think that there was a man following a group of girls who were trick or treating. If this is the case....did he not think this was worthy to share with the entire neighborhood. There are lots of kids in this neighborhood.

Lastly, there is a boy (high schooler) who lives a few houses down who has been riding a dirt bike on the road after school. I have seen him a few times. I was standing outside with my neighbor when he went flying up the sidewalk with a passenger who had no helmet. The boy then came back did a few doughnuts and then went to put away in the backyard. My neighbor went to talk with him asking if his Mom knew what he was doing. He did not answer any of her questions and played ignorant on the subject. My neighbor emailed his Mom to tell her she was sorry she was so hard on her son, but wanted to make sure she knew what was going on. The Mom was very thankful to my neighbor for letting her know. The dirt bike is now gone...apparently it came from his father's house.

Does this kind of drama go one everywhere? I do not like to be the center of the drama but it seems like I get to hear about most of it. It does seem like there is always something going on with this person or that. I tend to not let things get to me like most people. I honestly just don't have the time or the effort to put into it. So for now I will sit on the sidelines and just listen and maybe add my 2 cents in when I feel like it.

A little syrup

I should always be mindful when the baby is out of site and it is quiet. I mistakenly left the bottle of syrup out yesterday morning and the baby decided to smear it everywhere (counter top, chair, himself). And although I love syrup on my pancakes it does not make for such a lovely scent on your body.

The other night at dinner Jay bit down on his loose tooth and it started bleeding. When Dad got home he pulled it right out. Jay ended up losing it but we managed to find it on the floor. He was very excited about the tooth fairy coming to visit. He has 3 more loose teeth in his mouth so this may get a bit old after a while.

Tonight we are headed to our neighbor's house for dinner. Her husband is planning a birthday dinner for her and I just found out that she doesn't know anything about it. Luckily, I have not mentioned anything to her. This is the same neighbor that had the big "surprise" celebration a few weeks ago. Guess what I found out.....she ended up figuring out that something was going on that day. It was supposed to be a work functions and when she called someone at his work to find out what they were wearing the person didn't know what she was talking about. Then she called one of her other friends on the day of and her friend's son answered the phone and sounded surprised to be hearing from her. The friend was supposed to be at a function with her son. Then another one of her friends who calls her everyday....hadn't called her for several. Lastly, they walked right by the room at the restaurant and the blinds were open and she saw the bags with "40" on them. Which brings me to my question.....can you really ever be surprised?

Personalities

The baby's personality is really starting to show itself, and many times it is not so pretty. He has decided that he no longer wants to sit in his high chair. He instead would like to sit at the counter like the other boys. The other morning was a power struggle between he and I. I would not serve him breakfast until he sat in his high chair. He decided to cry for 30 or so minutes instead of giving in. I finally had to force him in his chair. It was 9 am and he usually eats by 7:30. This is on on-going battle between us. I am not sure how it will end. He has also decided that he no longer wants his sippy cup and would like to use a cup just like his brothers. I thought he was not wanting to drink his milk in the morning because he would refuse his sippy cup. He would sometimes throw it back at me. I finally realized that it wasn't the milk but the cup. I am not ready for this change but at times I do let him drink from a cup. It usually ends up all over him or the floor. We stick with water for now. He is very stubborn and wants what he wants when he wants it. Of course, much of this has to do with almost being 2. He is trying to figure everything out including me.

Jay mentioned last night that his friend told him about the finger you use that is a cuss word. That would be the birdie finger. We asked him if he knew what it meant and he told us that it means all the bad words like stupid. So once again we find ourselves explaining why we don't do this gesture and we don't say bad words. He also filled EE in on the a** cuss word.

As for EE, he is pretty clueless when it comes to this. I guess most of his friends don't have older brothers filling their minds with such nonsense. EE was sick for a good week. He was coughing non-stop. I tried to take him to the Doc. on Saturday. I had all 3 boys (Dad was out of town at his college reunion). We had an appointment at noon and we waited for 45 minutes until the baby started to melt. I have to admit I melted a bit too. We were all hungry and there were so many people in the office. I have never left an appointment like that. Luckily, that evening the pediatrician across the street came over to listen to EE's lungs. She said he sounded fine but to track his fever (he had been running a fever since Friday). He is now much better but still coughing a little.

I found a list that Jay made the other day (corrected for spelling):
Plan A. Start stacking leaves.
Plan B. When its half way done make sure all the leaves are gone.
Plan C. Then we jump in the leaves.

I love the fact that he had to map out how to play in the leaves. A boy after his mother's heart. I love lists!

Living under a rock

I really feel like I have been living under a rock. Or maybe I was just trying to escape all of the presidential/vice presidential debates and news. I found out yesterday that postage was raised one penny. And not only that but it was raised back in May. Really. Could it have been that long since I mailed out a letter? No it hasn't been so either someone turned their head and forwarded my mail or they just didn't notice. I think it may be a good idea for me to do a little bit of current event reading every once in a while.

A little bit of reading

When we came upstairs last night for baths and showers we found the boys, all three of them reading Junie B. Jones' books. EE and Jay love Junie B. Jones and the baby found one with a school bus on it. He loves buses or how he says it "buthses", even if their is just one. He also wanted me to read the book "The stupid smelly bus" to him before bed. He always gets to pick 2 books. They are usually the same ones, Dr. Seuss' ABC, The tooth book, Big Red Barn or Mr. Brown can Moo can you? There may be a few more but I am normally reading the same one over and over, so this was a nice change. Here are a few pictures from when we came up last night.

EE reading.

Jay and the baby!

All three of them reading.

The baby had gotten up on the area around the tub with Dad to read. He moved when I came in with the camera.

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The baby has a canine tooth that is finally starting to pop out. This may explain his cranky mood and difficulty napping lately. His new words are uhoh, ary (sorry, because he is having to say this a lot. He also know the sign for sorry because he refused to say it for the longest time), buthses, bath, bat, cookie (this one is very important) and maybe a few more. He wants so badly to keep up with his brothers. He can turn on the CD player on his own and will constantly play the song "if you are happy and you know it". He also changes the ringer on the phone every day. He is certainly learning lots of important skills. I think he should be saying more words than he does but I am sure it will come in time.

Jay learned a new word at school the other day. He told me he knew a cuss word, "a**". He learned if from one of his close friends at school. Great that public school education is paying off for us. In reality, though I know I can't shelter him from bad words and all the other bad stuff in the world. I had a talk with him and we talked about the word and what it meant. I ended with I had better not hear it coming from his mouth. He knows that yukky soap will be involved if it does. I am a little nervous about the Christmas season and what they will hear on the bus. They have so much fun with Santa and I don't want it ruined right now.

EE is a little oblivious to the cuss words and such. He is going to be working on something very important to him....so stay tuned.

I VOTED

The boys and I made it to the polls this afternoon for me to cast my vote. We made it in and out in a flash. Now we must wait and see what happens.

EE and Jay have been out of school for the last two days. Yesterday I let them each have a friend over. They played a little, ate lunch, did a craft, played outside and of course played a little WII. They all had a great time together and no arguments.

Today after a quick trip the gym I met a friend and her kids at the bowling alley. The boys bowled for 2 games and then they helped finish their friend's game. The Mom and her youngest child did not want to finish playing. They had such a fun time.

The time change has not been kind to our family. The entire family has been getting up way early. Jay seems to be having a hard time sleeping in which is not new but it seems that he is getting up earlier than before. He says he hears dogs barking, which belong to our neighbor. The neighbor keeps the 2 dogs out all day and night. And they bark so much.

Looking forward to getting back to a normal routine tomorrow.

Trick or Treat

So many parties so little time. The boys had a party at school on Friday. I volunteered in EE's class. The kids were all so excited. We were invited to 2 parties before trick or treating was to begin. We only made it to one. The party was amazing. She had hired help to watch children, servers and a bartender. She moved all of her furniture off her main floor. The bar was in the dining room, the food in the living room and many tables were in different rooms so that people could stand and eat. The inside was all for the adults. The outside included a tent with food and drink for the kids, a bouncy house and a hockey table. It was so over the top.....but it was fun.

The boys trick or treated for maybe 2 hours. The baby last for maybe an hour or so. I pushed him in a stroller and he only got candy at a couple of houses. There were a couple of houses providing adult beverages. I was able to get a warm spiced apple drink at one. It was very tasty. The boys had a blast but are so tired today.

I had to bribe the baby with candy to sit so I could take this picture.

Our pumpkins.

I didn't realize he had gotten into his candy and was chewing on it wrapper and all.

The boys got way too much candy. We sorted it and they kept some and dad is taking the rest to work on Monday.