Laundry day

Because we are showing the house again, and because it is just a good thing, I have been trying hard to stay on top of the laundry. Yesterday I hid some
Dirty laundry in my car before a showing. So today I dumped 2 loads on my bed to do during the day. I came in the room to fold them and discovered my cats, blissfully curled up with the fresh previously hair free clothing. It's good to be a cat!

Trouble on the home front

We got word today that the buyers for our house decided they were done waiting and found another home. Frankly I'm not surprised, but I am frustrated with the bank for not getting a move on and causing us to lose this sale. Not only thy, but the other family who was interested in the home has also found another house. Not just one buyer but two in one slow bank move!!

Fortunately we had a couple come through today looking at the house. It is spring and the housing market is picking up, so hopefully we will get more traffic coming in. But this might mean we are back to the begining with the bank and now have to wait to restart the process. What a mess!!! I am really stressed about this whole situation.

Applesauce 101

So on scale of 1-10, I give this a 7. I made Emily fish her applesauce cup out of the trash and eat it. The lid was mostly sealed an it was on the top. I had had it with the complaining about everything today. Even now I can her them whining in the dining room. Aargh.

Her primary complaint was that she would smell like a garbage can and dogs would try to eat her if she ate it. Let's ignore the fact that we have no dog. And the trash is change daily. And that it had been there a minute or so. She ate it and hopefully won't do it again. If she had not insisted on that Flavor, I would have been so annoyed.

And now for a wonderful story...
Monday night she helped me unload the car and put away all the groceries. I was putting a sick and cranky Josh in bed. She did all the work for 2 kudo stickers. She did not complain at all. It was wonderful. I can't find everything right away, but I really appreciated the help.

Sydney was doin her homework so that is why she did not help out.

Josh dining

Josh has decided that milk is best poured out of the bowl and either drunk out of the bowl or sluped off his tray. Yummy!

Curls and attitude

Last night I tried out my new satin wrapped foam rollers on the girls. I convinced Sydney to let me do it to her and true to form, this morning after I unwrapped her, she immediately wanted me to straighten them. She sobbed in the car and on the way into church.we ould not undo it because we were running late. I think she was afraid her classmates would laugh at her. After church the curls had relaxed a bit and looked incredible, but she does not want me to do it again since no one in her class told her it looked cute. Emily on the other hand liked hers very much. If I do say so myself, they were perfect fat sausage curls!


Full of attitude. Just unwrapped a fluffed but before I tried to tame them.


Before


After church so curls are slightly deflated but still cute!


This is Sydney after church! So cute!

Funnel cake yummyness

We are out of school today for a teacher work day, but it would have been a snow day after the dumping we got this weekend. So I needed something fun to soon our third housebound day! I was reading on facebook and my niece mentioned making funnel cakes! I got on my favorite recipie site and was ready to go!

Funnel cakes get their name from the funnel you use to pour the batter into the hot oil. Only my funnel was too small so I had to use a measuring cup. Emily said they look like tangled up octopusses but she ate 3 of them. Now she is lying on the couch moaning "too much funnel cakes"

Hearing issues

It might be possible that all those cases of what I thought was defiance and disobedience from Sydney was really due to hearing issues. She passed the test in September but she failed the ice cream test at lunch. So I used my trusty iPhone to administer a hearing test. She really failed that one! She never once hit the normal range in her score. It might be because she is a bit congested right now, but I'm calling ENT tomorrow!

In september she still had tubes in place. They told us at an appointment in dec for an ear infection that 1 was gone and probably both. I had hoped not to go through a second set. Now I just hope we can get it done before we lose Tricare.

Dracula lady

Because we were running late for church, I grabbed makeup to apply in the car. After I finished applying it, I turned and asked how I looked. Did I mention I was not driving?

Karl made a funny face and said "you look nice?" then said he wasn't sure what I wanted to hear. (ravishing would work for me) then when I replied I needed to know I looked ok since I had done this all in the car, he said well "you don't look like Dracula lady! You look good to me!"

So.. Let's hear it for all the nondracula ladies out there!

Daddy daughter dating

Today Karl is braving the silliness and taking the girls to see the movie of their dreams, The Squeakl. I think I spelled that wrong. Anyway, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2. He has been gone this week so this will be a fun outing for them! And I will get to see it plenty of times in another few months when it comes out on DVD. They both got haircuts today and look cute.

All is going well for the new job, but no news on the sale of the home yet.

I miss uniforms

I ironed 3 for Karl tonight and thought fondly of my previous life which included minimal ironing. It isn't that we bought all new shirts, it just finally matters if they are ironed or not. And getting Karl packed each week has been exciting! Browns are not created equal! And what is up with the new trends in men's footwear with the elongated toes?? So weird!

Water bottles all round

So after several attempts at finding a sippy for Josh, he has announced his preference, mine!

I have bought 4-5 different styles and brands and I suppse I should be grateful there is one he likes, I would just rather not have my favorite bottle all crusted with crackers and sticky paw prints. Tonight was the final straw. He took his spaghetti all covered with sauce and smushed it into the cap. Gross.

I got online after dinner and ordered one for him, then added one for each girl. They love mine too. In fact this summer they broke the flip thingy off the top they loved it so much. And bit the bite valve almost all the way through! And since they still use sippy cups at night to have access to water that they can't spill, we figure it is time to upgrade them to a age approriate and still spill proof drinking container.

My beloved bottle is in the sink soaking off the sauce and sticky paw prints. I just hope the others get here soon!!

Diji delight

We bought 2 Diji players last week. Or rather the girls used their allowance and bought them. Amazingly enough they both can play them without much help from me, which is not the case with video games, and they are practising math and spelling facts.

Skip the eduational nonsense and focus on the important part! They did their chores to get playtime and they did not fight with one another the whole time they were playing!

Dinosaur

There is a show on PBS kids called Dinosaur Train and my kids live it. They now know more than I ever did about dinos. In fact Emily was able to inform
me the other day that I am like a Trillodon since I have a good memeory and can remember things from when I was a young girl. Apparently the trillodon had the largest brain and is throught to have been the smartest of the dinos. Should I be flattered at having been compared to a dinosaur?


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Perfect Timing

Josh loves the bathroom. There are a myriad of toys; toilet paper, full cabinets, tooth brushes, and a water activity table his size! Well we have been trying to keep him out of the "water table" since it is just gross. And we have also been trying to encourage flushing vigalance with the girls. Most of the time they get it right.

Tonight Josh was taking a bath and Emily came in to use the bathroom. Immediately as she stood up, Josh threw his rubber duck. Naturally it landed in the unflushed toilet. Luckily for me, Karl is home this weekend:)

Beware the Silent Toddler

Josh is officially a toddler. At least, he can walk. he looks like a drunken cowboy, but hey, he is totally mobile. The other day I changed his diaper, but he wanted to play, so I didn't rush getting his pants back on, and then since he was so happy with his toys, I wandered off to do a few things. I realized about 45 minutes later, he had been silent a very long time, not chatter, just playing noises. So I went up to investigate. He was happily playing still, but without his diaper. I looked all over his room and found no diaper, but there were several puddles. Yuck! I cleaned him up, washed his legs, and rediapered him. I added pants this time so Houdini could not get his diaper off again. Then I cleaned up his room. But I could not find the diaper. I started to feel awful thinking how could I let him run around without one? Was I losing my mind? But then as I was getting dinner ready I found the diaper. He loves throwing things off our loft ledge, and the diaper was another casualty to his need to fling!

Oh dear, I just heard a matchbox car splash into the toilet bowl.
... And he dunked his lovey! At least the toilet had been flushed this time!

Monthly update

Well, I am a little shocked that it has been a month since my last post. Whoops! Where has the time gone? So the skinny on our life for the past month...
We put the house on the market and we got an offer on the house, and we accepted the offer. But we are waiting for the bank to approve the offer because we are hoping to do a short sale since the house market tanked after we bought the house. If we get the bank approval, and if they do the paperwork in a timely fashion, our closing date is January 4th. So the Pilz Family will go house shopping and move afterthe holidays.

Where you ask? What a wonderful question. We are looking at Boston and D.C. We want to be near family and are getting some really exciting job offers in D.C. and Suffolk right now, but not as many exciting ones in Boston. It is a challenge for Karl to decide what he really wants to do right now, and a bigger challenge for us as a family to decide where we are going. Naturally we a re torn. We have come to love this area, and will miss it very much. We love the weather, the community we live in, the proximity to all the comforts without as much hustle and bustle of a larger area, and all the many comforts there are to our location.

I have never been great at moving or change. I feel like a cat, clinging all paws spread wide to the bathroom door frame prior to a bath! It is not easy or fun for me to move. That is probably why we never made it overseas. I think I felt more adventurous prior to having kids, but the post-kid me does not feel so inclined. I can't help thinking that if we seem unable to take advantage of what our current areas have to offer, why would moving to another country jump start our inner tourist? But as Karl pointed out, we would have fewer responsibilities with a rental home overseas. But since we no longer have overseas job offers, I am not stressing about that any more. I do feel like grabbing the girls from school to go tour Williamsburg before we move though. I can't believe we didn't make it to Busch Gardens this summer either! I love that place, or I did when I was 14!

So here we are, trying to ifugre out the future and dodging our day to day challenges. The fun crisis-du-jour was Emily dealing with a round of lice. YUCK! I don't like pest. I pay happily for a bug spray service. This has always been lurking in the back of my mind as a childhood curse I was hoping to avoid and never experience. No such luck! Have I ever mentioned how thick her hair is? No, well, let me mention it now! Imagine all the hair on my head, and Karl's head put together, now give Emily just a little bit more than that. I saw something in her hair at a doctors appointment on Wednesday, and pulled it out to look at it. The hairs on the abck of my neck registered it as a possible disaster, but I tried to convince myself it ways nothing. I googled it at bedtime, and felt a dull thud. I told myself if I checked in the morning and found any more, well then it might be lice eggs. Yup. In the I found 5 more right away. Since Heidi had come for a visit, she was able to watch my kids while I ran to Walgreens for supplies. The combs I bought had little affect on her hair, and not wanting to dump major chemicals on her head, I began to section out her hair and pull any eggs I found out between my thumb and fingernail. Eeew! it took about 9 hours to do her head the first day. The next day took about 6 hours. I did a poison free shampoo that day to kill any adults that might be there since I never saw or found any. I still think that is weird. I have not found any eggs in the last 2 days. I am hoping Heidi doesn't find any either on her girls. Sydney and Josh and I seem to be fine. I hope we all stay that way.

Other fun things, we got denied insurance coverage for Emily's sensory therapy, but I got it back after about 6 weeks by using a new script with a different code, one that tags her as having Aspberger's syndrome. I am thrilled we can go back for the last few weeks we are here, although I am happier to report that my child has worn jeans 3 times this school year od her own free will, and 1 without any extra therapy from me! Woohoo! Major progress!

Sydney and Emily finished Little League. They stuck it out, and I am proud of them. They got trophies, and they are proud too. We may not be ball people, but Emily did get 2 runs in the season, and I think 4 total hits. Sydney at the end did quite well at bat. In the field she got better at the end, but had a habit of biting her nails and searching the ground for interesting plants.

We have started calling Sydney "Magpie" since you never know now what she will collect. The other night I could not find my phone. Karl found it under her pillow. I left it in her room at bedtime, so she popped it under her pillow. a good friend sent her a pair of cargo pants, and when she saw them, she looked at the pockets and said "wow! Mom, I could put a lot of things in my pockets!" She makes me laugh. I ratted her out at the parent Teacher Conference this week, letting her teacher know she can read. He He. Now she will have a little more challenging work to do. Crazy girl. Emily is doing wonderfully well in school and I will miss her teacher. She is awesome and the perfect fit for Emily.

A funny comment. The girls were watching Qubo, and an ad for some sort of Ab Excercise Gadget came on that promised to tone and shrink your midsection in a matter of days. Emily watched it, and turned to me and said, "Wow Mom, you could really use that! " So true! Thank you so much, I thought.

And Josh has taken his first few steps. He does it best when he is not paying attention to the moving part and just in pursuit of something. He is much more interested in the home than I remember the girls being. He loves to empty cabinets, dump spices, unstack cans, sit in pots, unroll toilet paper and dump anything he can find into the toilet. He also likes batteries. And wheels. And licking the floor. His best words are "Dis" and "Dat".

Well, we are off to decide our future! Keep you all posted!

Battle of the Paper Tiger

We have spent the better part of the weekend in the girls room. We put the house up for sale last Thursday and I had some great pictures of most of the rooms in the house ready to go. Not because the house was clean and lovely and we took pictures that day, no, they were there because a wonderful friend helped me work on the house for her home staging class. And I almost immediately ruined all our hard work in the office and bedroom. The layout is there, the surface clutter just never really go licked completely. Only we never went in the girls room. we didn't want to traumatize them or us. too bad. I could have used her help.

So I was/am horrified at the thought of someone actually viewing the house, and especially their room. we did not have a good picture of their room to put up either. So I went in and did battle. I threw out some stuff while they were at school, and then when they got home, the girls and I worked on it a bit, and then some more Saturday. We got toys taken out of the room and put into storage, and got the shelves in the closet tidied up, and made the bins face out with labels clearly viewable, with all the bins easy to pull down and to open. I threw away lots of papers in the closet when they were not there which helped so much although emily is getting better about letting go of paper. Sydney on the other hand has just gotten the nickname on Magpie. we have been missing a bolt for a chair I bought a few months ago but never assembled. We went to assembled it 2 weeks ago and could not find the bolt we had placed on the edge of the bookshelf. I found the bolt yesterday when I stripped and made her bed. She took the bolt to bed! along with rocks, shells, stuffed animals, a spatula, and not on that night, but another night her t-ball uniform.

About their beds. I had to make a decree that there would be only 10 animal limit. It noticed yesterday while making both beds to take a pretty room picture that my decree was being ignored. Not a good thing. I have a full large pink bin of stuffed animals in the closet and another full bin under the bed and still more stuffed animals hanging on a shoe organizer on the back of their door. We might have enough stuffed animals, maybe even too many. But any time we enter a store, they seems to be able to find another one that they don't have and would be absolutely devastated not to have in their collection. The asthma and allergy doctors both girls see are not pro stuffed animals. You could even call them anti stuffed animals. It is nice to have a good reason to forbid more animals entering the house. But I adore stuffed animals myself, so I know I am the reason behind their initial collections! Oh the shame!

So after the stuff that went to storage, and the papers that went to the trash, and the scrapping of tape off the window, and removing the pencil that had wedged up the window ledge trim, and the paint & crayon removal from the desk, the room looked pretty good. I sent pictures to the realtor. they were staged a bit since I took all the extra animals and pillows and blankets off their beds. When people walk through the house, they will see them, but at least they will have seen the house online looking its best.

On another note, I am going to Physical therapy for some under developed leg muscle that really have created a lot of pain in my hip joint. I started during pregnancy and was attributed to pregnancy and Relaxin and not to a muscular problem, but since it came back, and I can safely say pregnancy is not the cause I went to get Xrays and then ultimately to PT. The exercises are painful, and they are shocked by the knots in the muscles and the tightness of the muscles. I was shocked by the lack of strength in my glutes. All this time I figured with the size of the thing, you would think there was some strength there. Nope. Not much at all! if someone asks you to do an "Inchworm" Run away. it is no fun at all! But I have decided as much as I dislike Yoga, sorry, all those who love it, I do not enjoy it much at all, but I will say it helps me stay flexible, and when I go at least weekly, I have fewer knots. and I got this foam rolly thing which is good for getting out some kinks. Hurts like crazy though. Maybe one day I will get a deep tissue massage that will help too. I would hate to scream and run off the table though.

Karl is continuing his job search. I am trying for a zen like attitude based on faith. I believe he will find a good job soon and that we will ultimately be fine no matter where that job is. It seems to be working. Prior to feeling that impression, I was a mess of worry. Right now I am just not thinking about the little yuck details like moving and leaving friends and a really wonderful area. So my blog title is coming back to haunt me. We are moving. I should change it once this move is over! Friends keep asking where we are moving, and they look at me a little funny when I saw I don't know for sure since we have no job offer and we hoe to move in 3 months. well, really 2. yikes. that really is soon. I better go back to zen breathing.

Yikes, it is late and I need some sleep. No more thinking for me tonight. Time for my stretching exercises from PT.

How do HazMat teams do it?

So this has been a really gross weekend. Yesterday was a 2 header game day for Sydney, and a ball game and swim practice day for Emily. It ended with a bag when Sydney managed to run into another child on the playground during the 5 minutes Karl was helping me load Josh & the stroller into the car. Oh did I mention Emily ran into the wall swimming the backstroke at swim practice?

So Sydney ended up with a large bruise on her temple, but otherwise was quite perky. Then around 5pm, 4 hours later, she started to throw up all over the edge of the couch. We got her to the bathroom for the rest and called a friend who works as an ER doc. Possible concussion, watch for more symptoms. She fell asleep on the coach, then woke up around 7, and threw up 30 minutes later. So she went to the ER with Karl and got a CTScan. They came home around midnight, threw up some more and went to bed.

Josh who had fallen asleep at 5:30 for his second nap of the day woke up again at 4am. I was up there dreaming he was some sort of weird alien rock and I could not put him back in bed until the rock changed form. It finally changed form around 4:45. Fortunately for me, he was happy to go back to sleep.

Since it is Conference Weekend, we all stayed home to watch conference on TV. I am so glad we did! Neither girl really dove into the traditional waffle breakfast, but I didn't really think much of it. They didn't really eat a lot of lunch either. After lunch, Emily began to complain her tummy hurt. She began vomiting in spectacular fashion at 5. Same spot on the couch too, but she never made it to the bathroom for rounds 2 and 3. Never knew a kid could contain so much fluid.

So after we got her wiped down, and moved the couch out of the major pool, we tossed her in the tub with a bucket. Then we got gloves and started to clean. I love leather furniture. But seriously , no need to test the wipe-ability so much in one weekend. Plus I love my floor scrubber. But using vinegar as a natural disinfectant is a little smelly. Only the positive side, at least I didn't scrub downstairs yesterday as planned only to do it again today :) And thankfully that time, Josh was actually asleep in bed, so he didn't get in the middle of things.

So after Emily started throwing up, we began to wonder in Sydney really did have a bad concussion, or just a stomach bug and a bruise. Especially when we remembered Josh threw up on Thursday several times.

Oh well. I really don't think I could ever clean anything really gross, since this was pretty much pegging my gross-o-meter to the limit! I'm sure it's all in my head, but my tummy hurts.

Figgy Pudding

Just a note, in case anyone comes across 4 cups of fresh figs and decides to make fig cobbler, peel them first. Do not follow instructions for a recipe that do not include peeling and definitely do not serve it to company without tasting it first. Thankfully they were polite. I thought it looked pretty until I cut in and saw glob o' fig lying there. It was not a giant fig newton as I had hoped. It was just the wrong side of gross. Oh well. Maybe a fig & fruit medly, or just some fig jam instead. I think I like the concept of figs better than the reality. It is a texture thing again.

School Days are here again!

Yippee! It's finally over. That incredibly long summer has finally ended!!! Yeah!!!!! I am so happy it is September 9th. And fortunately for me, the kids are too! Even though I missed Orientation Day due to a trip out of town, we were ok. They both got on the bus, and as far as I know, no one cried in the hallway looking for class. At least, if they did, they didn't tell me, and that is as good as it never happening in my book.

Sydney is in kindergarten and loving it, and Emily is in second grade. She also seems happy with her teacher. I hate not having met them, so I know I will just have to go in sometime soon as put a name with a face.

I am really getting involved this fall. I joined PTA again, and this time I agreed to actually do something. Yikes. I am headed up the hospitality committee. We do thank you gifts and parties. It will probably be fun. We have something every month it seems but one. What a good choice. Unless we move at Christmas time, in which case, he he. I am outta here!

Then I signed the girls up for sports. I didn't think swimming was going to happen, so we went for Softball instead, then swimming became an option, well I really wanted that, Em really wanted ball, so we are doing both. Tueday through Thursday are intense, with a repeat of insanity on Saturdays. This continues until the end of October. Oh dear! I am going to have to start using my time at home better especially on the 2 Practice day or we will not make it these next 2 months! Hello Crockpot Thursday. Emily has swimming, softball, and wait, there's more, and therapy. She is skipping 7 weeks of Thursday swimming for therapy. And then there are practice and game conflicts to sort out for 3 Saturdays.

On the other hand, Josh seemed to enjoy watching t-ball practice today for Sydney. She did not want to join since she was afraid to get dirty. I have a hard time believing that since she is out in the backyard working with mud any chance she gets, and that mud is quite messy. I think she just doesn't like not knowing how to do things. She was "forced" to go to practice today and ended up loving it. She was hunting for flowers, kicking dirt and occasionally hitting the tee and ball. She even ran from base to base when she was supposed to run, and in a straight line.

I need to find a chiropractor. Yesterday I got some sort of stomach icky-ness and today I hurt my hip/back. I think it was a low grade bug since I felt like I was getting a mild fever, and I wanted to curl into a ball and do nothing. I could not celebrate my first day of school properly. And it was pouring rain. Today was beautiful so we took the pictures today. I was grateful to see them on the bus yesterday, and the camera was in the car, and I was not about to brave the rain to get it especially not with Josh in my arms. I feel less icky today, but sore instead.

Did I mention Karl is gone all week? I am happy for him since he is spending time with our extending family and going to 2 weddings, but talk about timing! Oh well. It is my bedtime now, so off I go!

I didn't mention my trip to Ithaca, so really quickly...We (kids and I) went to upstate New York to see family & friends. took the girls tubing on the lake at my aunt & uncles. had a blast there! Went to a wedding, took all 3 kids by myself, will never do that again. Girls were great, baby was less so. Saw family, had tons of fun! Driving was a little rough, but took the scenic route through PA so saw lots of pretty stuff on the way.