With a cough-cough here, and a bark-bark there

This is the second trip in a row where Luke has come down with croup either on the trip or on the way home. He had a shot of steroids on Wednesday, but sounded bad enough last night that I "slept" in his room with him. Needless to say, we are both exhausted and he has another appointment today. Claire also has croup, but seems to be responding better to the meds.

Our trip to Tucson was a fun one, though - we arrived on Friday night, shortly before my dad did, and spent three days enjoying excellent food, consuming copious amounts of wine, and eating cake in celebration of Tempie's 3rd birthday and my sister's thirtysomethingth birthday. We also got to see our neighbors, the Humphreys, from when we lived in Tucson.

Luke tries to steal cake from the birthday girl. She is not amused.

He thinks he has scored the jackpot: watermelon and goldfish crackers at his level. I didn't see him with an empty hand for the duration of the party.

Kate gives Grampa a kiss.

Kate and Luke playing with Olivia and Isaac.

The best of the approximately 47 photos we took of the children lined up in order of age.

A week of parties

First visit with Santa, at the 561st Christmas party.

The school Christmas concert. Kate is the tall blonde in black on the left, and Claire is in red and white on the bottom row, turned around to look at her big sister. She spent most of the concert in this position.

Erika, Megan and me at Blue Martini on patch night.

A pile of sugar on a red cookie. Gross. Even she must have thought it was icky, because she later licked the frosting off and left the cookie.

The 422 Christmas party.

Candy canes. They love them.

Books from Santa at the 422 party.

At Pure on graduation night.

Reason 41 that I love Vegas

Visits from family and friends!

Uncle Dan and Kate.

Luke drools on Niki.

Hey, it's only July 9th

And here are my 4th of July pictures! It's been a full week. Tim had a long weekend to celebrate Independence Day, and we were busy almost the whole time. We invited friends over on Friday night, as they are ready to PCS. The kids swam and swam and ate and swam and lit fireworks and cried and covered their ears. Then they slept.

Saturday was a party at another family's house. The kids were up until 11pm that night...and crabby. Kate tried her first sparkler, and just as I was telling her not to touch the end of it (it had just burned out), she started crying. She had already grabbed it. I did the same thing when I was little, which is why I knew to tell her not to touch it, but I got to her too late. She is fine - just small white burns on three of her fingers.

On Sunday, we went to Max's birthday party at the gymnastics gym (is that redundant?), and they ran and jumped and ate cake. They slept pretty hard that night, too. We took Tim to the airport on Monday morning so he could go to "fanistan", according to Kate. We've been keeping pretty busy since then, so they are holding up fairly well.

Bandages.

Three months old: 25" and 16.5 pounds. WOW. Someone's been eating well.

The kitty is ready for fireworks.

And then there was the party bus

As most of you know, Nellis AFB is home to the USAF Weapons School. They have two classes per year, and this means every June and December people fly in from all over the world for a string of fabulous graduation parties. Living here has its advantages, because last week I got to participate in the A-10 wives' soiree - a righteous tour around Las Vegas in our own Rock Star bus.

We started at the local casino, and then boarded the bus for our next stop at the Blue Martini. The bus driver took perhaps the longest route possible to get there, but it allowed us all some time to get to know each other. Michelle and Lysandra entertained us with their dancing skills, which garnered some looks from the local traffic on the I-15. After martinis and shots at the Blue Martini, we went to the famous Las Vegas sign, where the bus driver took a photo of all of us...but not the sign. I'm pretty sure the whole point of the picture was to have us and the sign in the photo, but whatevs.

When you put the pictures together like this, it actually looks like what I had in mind!

From there, it was off to Mandalay Bay's exclusive Foundation Room, a posh bar on the 43rd floor overlooking the strip. More shots and more drinks led to much silliness, including this photo which shows Jenna, Aubrey, Erin and me, and something unmentionable floating in Erin's 'tini. Also, Lysandra might have drunk-dialed Katie, who lives on the east coast...making for a very late night call. Sorry, Kates!

Hawg wives know how to party.

The Polar Express, 2008

The drive. We were an hour closer than last year, but God played a cruel trick on us: Arizona does not participate in Daylight Savings Time, so we lost an hour. And there was traffic on our way out of Vegas. And snow in AZ. So it might have taken us longer to get there this year than it did last year.

At the Grand Canyon.

Note the completely inappropriate glove-wear on Claire. They are likely acrylic, and my size.

Rare snow down to the floor of the Canyon.

Claire, cold, but being a good sport.

Three napless, wet and very cold children aboard the Polar Express in Williams, AZ.

Reagan and Kate enjoying hot chocolate with their daddies. At the hotel bar. We should have had the bartender add some schnapps to their mugs, for the lack of sleeping that occurred later that night.

Kate gleefully making snow angels. She is also oddly inappropriately dressed in all cotton.

Reagan and Kate hunching their shoulders in a failed effort to stay warm. The winds were gale-force, and the windchill must have been in the single digits.

We survived. We even had a good bit of fun, in between the refusal of the children to nap in the car and very few bed times before 9pm. We left on the day Las Vegas was supposed to get several inches of snow, so it was slow-going. The roads were clear, but wet, until about an hour before we got to Williams. Then, it was craziness. Trucks spun-out and in the ditch, semis driving (without chains) like there was no snow. We made it in one piece, though, and quickly settled into our room. Shayne and her family were right next door, so the kids had loads of fun running back and forth through the shared door. The boys dressed Kate and Reagan up in their snow gear (or what constituted 'snow gear' for us) and took them outside. They were gone longer than expected, but that was because of their detour to the bar for hot cocoa after about 10 minutes of snow.

We pushed for the train at 8pm, and had to wait. The train had some electrical problems, so it was running behind, and we made the mistake of standing in line for it outside. By the time we made it inside the train, we were all frozen, wet, and slightly miserable. The kids were tired and cold, and we all vowed to never do this again. I think we might have made that vow last year. But the kids loved looking at the lights, drinking hot cocoa, eating stale cookies, and seeing Santa. We made it back to the station right at bedtime: 10pm. It was a rough night.

The next day we took a day-trip on the train to the Grand Canyon. It was gorgeous. The kids loved it. Kate saw the Canyon, immediately made a snowball, and threw it over the edge. It was a proud moment for Tim. There were a few meltdowns on the way back (see also: no naps), but we survived.

The next day we drove to Tucson to see my sister and her family. Lucy is adorable, and my sister is glad to be home from the hospital.

Going to see Santa!

Well, we're off tomorrow morning to ride the Polar Express. Last year was a lot of fun, and I anticipate even greater exuberance this year due to the girls being a year older. This year, we are going with Kate's best friend, Reagan, and her family, who are also some of our best friends. We are extremely excited, and Kate can't stop talking about how we're going to see Santa! And Reagan! And snow! And Reagan! And have hot chocolate! And see Reagan!

After that, and our trip to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, we drive to Tucson to see my sister (who just got out of the hospital yesterday) and her new baby, Lucy. See you at the end of the week.

A busy morning

Kate diligently studies the toy catalog, carefully examining every page.

Aliante Station was not as exciting as I had hoped. The girls were not thrilled with it, either.

I find that if I pack the morning full of things to do outside the house, showing up back at home just in time for lunch, the day goes by faster and generally there is less whining. With that in mind, we met up with friends who are in town and had breakfast with them at the Hash House. Mmmm...pancakes bigger than my head. I'm still full. From there, we went to find the last book in the Twilight series, to no avail. [I finally found the book at Costco this afternoon, after frantically searching for it at three other stores, with no luck.]

To take my mind off the failed shopping trip, we went to the Aliante Station casino, which is blocks from our house, and which had its grand opening this week. I had hopes of a mall-type structure inside, since it has several restaurants and a movie theatre, and the outside appears big enough to house at least several shops. Again, disappointment. The casino is all nice and new, but it already reeks of smoke, and there are no shops. We will not be hanging out there having playgroups anytime soon.

After naptime, we made paper chains to give the girls (Kate) a visual time frame for when Tim will be home. Bad idea. I told her that every night after dinner we would tear a link off the chain and when all the links were gone, Daddy would come home. She obviously wanted to tear all the links off right away and make her Daddy appear immediately. She was very dismayed when I told her it didn't work that way and that he wasn't coming home tonight. Lessons learned, eh? We'll see how tomorrow night's link goes and maybe that chain will just get recycled after bedtime.

Kate has also taken to wailing/screaming/crying at the top of her lungs at bedtime, and I don't know what to do about it. I think maybe she is scared? She says she wants to keep the light on in her room. I had to stay in there last night with her until 10pm when she finally fell asleep. Thankfully, tonight, it is quiet at 9pm. Which is good for her, because she was about to lose Sleeping Beauty movie rights soon, as I guess it has to be the dragon that is freaking her out? Ugh.

Sigh

I haven't written in a week. I don't know what to write about. We haven't done much lately, as everyone has been sick, and I feel sort of all Gloom and Doom about this pending move and I'm not sure how to reconcile it. Also, I'm tired of moaning to all of you about our housing woes, but my children are bored to tears with it and I think Tim is, too, and it seems that real estate is the biggest single thing I have going on right now. So please forgive me, and/or skip this post if need be.

I've never been really sad about a move before. I've always looked at it with a sense of adventure and excitement: we'll live in a new place! We'll make new friends! We'll go to new restaurants! This time, however, is different, and I think it's mostly because of the kids (and the housing). At first I was all excited. Las Vegas! Still good weather, but a bigger city, cheaper airfares, etc.!

Then I started to realize some things. Like pre-school. The girls are both in this fabulous pre-school here that is uber-cheap, flexible, and the teachers are great. I called the school in Vegas that friends of friends recommended, and neither Kate nor Claire is currently qualified to go there. Also, it is very expensive, and not flexible. WHAT am I going to do? I must have a pre-school for them. MUST. For my sanity and theirs.

Add to this the fact that we will not be joining a traditional A-10 squadron. I don't think the squadron is traditional in any sense of the word, actually. It will be a great job for Tim, but I have a feeling the social structure is non-existent, which may be frustrating for me since I know no one there and since Tim will be gone a lot more than normal.

I think if we had a house to move in to, things would look a lot happier. We have not heard back on this latest house yet, although our offer has been in for almost 2 weeks. We are starting to see one of the major downfalls of dealing with foreclosures and short sales: you don't have a good contact to talk to or negotiate with. The banks handle everything, and since they are flooded with foreclosed homes, things take forever. For instance, remember that house we bid on the first time we went to Vegas 2 months ago? The greenbelt house? We just found out this week that we are now the only bidders on that property, and would we like to buy it? Of course, we are not so hot on it now, as we think the amount we bid is too high, and it is at the top top top of our price range. And it still needs appliances. It is pretty, and we could certainly live there, but I like the price of the new Oasis house better. I don't know how long we can stall on the greenbelt house, but we're going to push it to the limit because I also don't know how long we will have to wait to hear about the Oasis house.

We had Shayne, Reagan and Dane over for dinner last night, as they had to leave for SOS this morning and will return after we have gone to Vegas. The girls had a blast in the pool, swimming and splashing. At one point, I had to unlock the back gate for Shayne, so I left the girls in the pool alone. DO NOT freak out on me here, people. All is good. The back gate is right next to the pool fence, and Reagan had waterwings on. Kate did not, however, and thought it would be fun to swim out to Reagan at the exact moment that I was about to re-enter the pool area. Shayne and I watched in slow motion as Kate reached out to Reagan, and then realized that Reagan could not support her. I was sort of stuck in one position: not really fear; more like curiosity. I know that sounds crazy, but Kate has now had 2 years of ISR swim lessons and this type of situation is exactly why we have paid lots of money for the girls to learn to swim. Kate kept reaching for Reagan and then realization hit her that her plan wasn't working, and she flipped onto her back and floated for a few seconds. Then she flipped back over and swam to the wall. By then I was in the pool and planning my discussion about how we don't swim off the steps unless mommy or daddy is in the pool. These swim lessons have given us 2 great things: very good water survival skills for the girls, and for me, a sense of calm in the face of a pending water disaster.

Enough random complaining from me. What are you up to this weekend?

Silly us

My friend, Camille, our kids, and I were planning a trip to the zoo this morning. We're both hoping to wear the children out of their fascination with the zoo before it gets too bloody hot to spend more than 3 minutes out in the sun. Being that it is late March, we are almost there already.

I arrived first, with Kate and Claire in the backseat joyfully telling me about all the animals they were going to see (okay, fine, it was just Kate saying the names of animals, but Claire was energetically yelling 'puppy' over and over again, like she does). I could barely get into the parking lot, there were so many cars there. There were also many signs telling me that the parking lot was full, and that spillover parking for the baseball game was just down the street. I was trying not to get peeved about all the baseball fans parking in my the zoo parking lot, while I slowly drove down each (of 4) aisle(s), desperately seeking a parking spot. As a last ditch effort, I drove down the aisle closest to the zoo entrance, and counted 11 free parking spots. I have noticed that there are consistently 11 free spaces there, and always thought that they were handicap spots. Not so. They are for Alternative Fuel Vehicles. ELEVEN parking spaces for Alternative Fuel Vehicles, and probably 40 spaces for Regular Fuel Vehicles. And those AFV spots are Always Empty. Are you kidding me? How about 11 parking spots for new moms? Or moms with more than 2 or 3 or 4 kids? Or something more reasonable that will actually get some use?

Anyway, I quickly called Camille to see if she had left her house yet. Luckily she had not, and we headed over to her house where there was no baseball game and where spring break was not a concern. There the girls played with her kids, Max and Emiliana, and we had some good mom talk. Thanks, Camille!

Ann Arbor

Snow is the best thing in the world!

We spent the last part of our vacation visiting with friends in Ann Arbor. I know: we were only gone for 8 days, including travel. There was a lot of driving involved on this "vacation". Anyway.

Ann Arbor was great! I haven't been there in years (my Dad went to school at Michigan for like 8 years, so we visited occasionally when I was growing up), and Tim and the girls had never been. Our friends Kevin and Tabitha, whom we know from Pope, and their daughter Natalie, are now living in Ann Arbor, so we had to stop by while in the area.

Kevin and mini-me, baby Natalie.

While there, Kate mastered going up and down stairs (I know most other kids probably master this by age 1, but we have no stairs), Claire said her first word ("puppy", of which our friends have 2), Kate went sledding for the first time, and we enjoyed lots of time over gourmet meals and wine with some of our best friends.

Tim got to talk "air force" with Kevin, and I got to trade memories and laughs with Tabitha, while the girls played together with all of Natalie's toys. Kate loved the snow, and thought sledding was the best thing ever, until she learned how to make snow angels. She didn't even complain when snow worked its way up her sleeves and down her neck. Natalie was a little dismayed with the snow and our insistence on playing in it. I think she's seen it before.

Kate could not get baby Natalie's name right: Analie, Emily, Ettilie, Atalie, Amily, etc. Natalie was pretty easy-going about the whole thing, though, and still let Kate pull her on the sled.

Y'all, this is sort of boring.

C'mon, baby Analie!

Snow angel.

Polar Express photos

Kate & Eric enjoy the Polar Express.

It's really difficult to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

Waving bye-bye to Santa.

Day 2

I am guessing by your silence that you are either:

1. Busy and have not read about my toy despair, or
2. Do not agree with my method of fixing the situation and are trying to avoid me, all the while *tsk-tsking* me and my mothering skills.

It is day 2 of Operation Clean Up Your Toys or Else. It is also school/daycare day, so it hasn't been a good measure for how things are going. We haven't been home much yet today. (Big thank you to Camille for a lovely lunch!) But I do think that Kate knew I was unhappy with the situation yesterday, and as Tim pointed out, I don't think she likes it when I'm mad at her. She was extra sweet to me this morning. I'm not really mad at her; I'm just frustrated with the level of mess that this house has reached, and she is a big contributor. So we're working on that.

And she has ways to earn her toys back. If she gets things out and then puts them away when asked to, she will get a toy out of time-out. She's a pretty smart kid, so it will probably be Thursday morning when all of her toys have earned a pardon.

Claire is cruising now. I think that's what you call it when they walk along the furniture? Leave her at one end of the coffee table, come come back moments later, and you will find her at the other end of the table (especially if there is a beer or a remote control at the other end). She is also walking behind her push-walker by herself.

What?

Pumpkins and crawling

Where's Kate?

Hold on to your shoes! Hide your breakables! Return all coffee mugs to their rightful place on top of tables and counters! Guess who's crawling? Good guess. Yes, Claire is finally getting somewhere when she gets up on all fours. For the past couple of weeks she would crawl a pace and then collapse on her belly. She got around a bit doing this (i.e., she wouldn't always be in the same place that you left her if you walked away for a bit), but now she is full up crawling. She must have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. It's amazing the things kids can do after a good nap or a long nights' sleep.

Yesterday we went to Apple Annie's orchard in Willcox. Fields and fields of pumpkins! Corn! Hay rides! Sunflowers! It was wonderful. Last year we went and it was freezing (probably like 55* or something silly like that), so we were prepared this year. And of course it was 75* and I was roasting. A group of us went, including my sister and her family, and Dana and her family. Kate and Eric waited for the great pumpkin together last October, but this year they were more interested in playing in the dirt.

Hayride.

Remember the Great Pumpkin, Kate?

Let's go find him again!

Playing in the dirt is better than waiting for the Great Pumpkin.