Slacker

Wow. It's been awhile I guess. I sometimes get ideas for a blog post, but it turns out I'm pretty lazy. Finding time to sit down and write it, find a photo maybe, be funny and charming. Gah. Too much work. So the blog sits. Sorry.

November 1st the great grandparents moved close to town. They were in Illinois, about 3 hours from us, and now they're about 15 minutes away in an assisted living retirement place. It's pretty awesome. I can't tell you how much the girls hated driving 3 hours to see them, and we didn't do it very often. Now we see them all the time, as often as we want and it's so easy to pop out there if they need something or to pick them up and bring them over for a holiday or a visit or whatever. They love it there too, they have their own apartment and space and they brought their dog with them. There is a nursing staff keeping on top of the diabetes involved which is great because he can't slack off or they'll get on him about it, so it's better for them as well. It's pretty awesome.

November 17th we moved the in-laws into their new house. It is a beautiful ranch style home with three bedrooms and two baths and a full unfinished basement. It's really wonderful. I love all the choices they made for finishes and now I'm so jealous I have started plotting how to upgrade my own home :) It is so nice to be able to pop over there now - they're only 4 minutes away, less than 2 miles. Previously they were 2 hours away. The girls LOVE this new drive to see Grandma and Grandpa. LOVE IT. So the 17th we got up early, took the girls to my dad's house for the morning and we headed to their old city to load up the moving trucks (actually moving boys did that) and head back here. We got in the car at 930 to head out of town and we passed my father in law in the first truck about 10 minutes outside of their old city. We got to the storage place, I got into the driver seat of our truck, the husband got into the other moving truck and we headed directly back home. It was the fastest we've ever taken that trip. Then we sort of watched the movers unload and helped direct. The 5yo wasn't feeling well, so it turns out I took a sick kid to my dads and she threw up (mostly snot) about five times while she was there. She has a really weak stomach, so a cold = vomit, nearly every time. She was mostly recovered by Sunday and we helped settle the in-laws into their home more. Moving furniture, assembling beds and arranging their basement a little bit so it was another usable space. It's really really nice and we couldn't be more pleased that they're hear. Since then, they've called a couple times to borrow something (a lot of their things are still in boxes and kind of hard to find) and they say whenever we have a minute to bring it by. It literally only takes 4 minutes (it'd be less without stoplights and signs or traffic) so we always just pop over there for what they need. I think they're not used to that, but it's huge for us, we love that part. The whole point of them moving here was to be closer, see us more..pop in. It's pretty awesome.

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind. Since all our family is all in town now it's easy to schedule and figure out what we're doing when. So we had Thanksgiving with the in-laws, great grandparents at an aunt-in-law's house. It was great food and visiting and we got to Skype with my sister in law and see that squishy baby she's got. It was a great day, and we were home before dinner time. That's both a bonus and a drawback. Bonus because we had time to start on our Christmas shopping plans but a drawback because we had no leftover turkey. Friday we headed over to my brother's for another Thanksgiving. Their new house is nice and big and the kids can run off and play and we can hardly hear them. We played pictionary and catchphrase and it was a pretty great day. Saturday and Sunday we caught up on things around the hose and tried to pin down our Christmas gift plans. Ideally we wanted to be all done with the shopping by early December.

We succeeded mostly. We've only got to find a couple more gifts for the girls, pickup something for my nephew and new neice and figure out stockings. We've got a date planned for this Friday to leave the girls with the in-laws OVERNIGHT and finish up our shopping, have dinner and a night of our own. I hope nothing gets in the way of that. It seems like every time we plan something without the girls..it gets interrupted by puke or something. So I'm really hopeful we can do this. It's just an overnight and Christmas shopping, but I could really use that.

I'm looking forward to Christmas. My sister in law is coming for nearly a week and bringing that squishy baby girl and I cannot wait to see her in person and get some squeezes. It'll be so much fun to hang out with them and to have everyone so near by and avoid the inevitable driving they end up doing when people are spread out. This way we can gather at my in-laws easily throughout the holiday and get our fill of each other. It's going to be awesome.

In unrelated news I have this odd pain in my upper back. Sort of below my shoulder blade, but it feels more...inside. I'm terrible at explaining it and I blame it on sleeping on a MyPillow that was too fat for me for a week. It feels kinda like there's a little bouncy ball in there..and so if I just sit normal, it's fine. If I reach for my nightstand light..or breathe super deep, or sneeze, gah the sneezes...it feels like the bouncy ball doesn't fit anymore and it hurts a bit. I convince myself that its a muscle pull most likely..most of the time. I dunno. I saw a chiropractor who called it weird and I'm not sure it's really that big of a deal or worth seeing an MD so they can say 'yup, muscle pull'. So, I dunno..it seems pretty ok right now, so I'm just going to live with it for a bit. If it's a muscle pull it'll eventually improve...right. How long is eventually..that's the question I guess.

Thankfulness

So I suck at blogging. There, I said it. I really really want to write all kinds of things. Blogs and novels and stories and diary entries, and letters to people that I love and to people that piss me off. But apparently I suck at all of those things. So... Oh, dawn... made a list of what she's thankful for, and I think maybe I should try that. An attempt to pull myself out of this weird funk I'm in.

So...things I'm currently thankful for....let's see...

1. My kids - they are really at the perfect ages. The oldest (9) is so smart and independent and fun and cautious and thoughtful and sensitive. Third grade has really helped her blossom. She's got great friends and everyone loves her, she's doing very well in school and LOVES school, which is excellent. The youngest (4) is also super smart, inquisitive, and imaginative. She loves preschool and is learning all kinds of things. She asks me questions the oldest never did, so she's giving me a clue about what a pistol she'll be in a few years. Then I guess I'll be grateful her sister is the cautious one.

2. Preschool - Thank GOD for Noah's Ark Preschool. She is learning so much, and socializing so well and it's such a nice break for me to focus on work for a couple hours. I'm really looking forward to next year when she'll be older and goes for three days a week instead of two (and in the afternoon so I don't have to rush around in the morning with two kids).

3. My Job - All jobs have drawbacks, but I love the work and I love most of the people and I'm grateful to have the flexibility to work from home and be with my children as necessary and still use my brain every day.

4. My family - Whatever our dysfunction, I love them. All of them.

5. Books - I live vicariously through books. In a related vein I'm super thankful for my Kindle and the local Library. I cannot imagine not wanting to read like I do, and I'm hopeful that my girls develop that love of reading as well. The oldest is well on her way.

6. Video Games - I love xbox live and the ability it gives me to mindlessly shoot people or things and get out some aggression without injury. Right now, Gears of War3 is my current addiction. I love it so much, it's probably unhealthy.

7. Financial planning - I'm grateful for our EdwardJones guy. For his advice and expertise in planning for retirement and helping us to grow our money to serve us best when we're ready to retire. He's also a really nice guy with kids of his own, so he's reliable and trustworthy, which is sort of hard to find right now.

8. My faith - as shaky as it is sometimes, my faith keeps me from running away screaming. I am a true believer. A Christian, follower of Christ. As much as I want to go to church, and don't, I still know He is always with me and hears me, whatever I need. And I rely on that regularly.

These are in no particular order - only in the order they occurred to me. I wouldn't want to indicate that anything was more valueable to me than my family or faith, but the order of importance changes daily.