Closing Day!

Home, Sweet Home.

When It Rains. . .

To go along with the downpour we got the other day (between 5-8 inches in 24 hours!!!!), life seems to be pouring down on us right now. Nothing totally serious, but just all those little things that seem to come at once.

Bugaboo has his third cold in 2 months. I'm hoping that this is just because all the North Carolina germs are new to us and by winter, he'll be healthy as a horse, but if not, its going to be a long, long winter.

I got the packet from Bean's preschool and realized that she had to have a doctor's checkup before she can start school. Which was fine since she was overdue for her 4 year-old check, but not so fine since that gave me a little over a week to find a doctor and get an appointment. Luckily, we found an office that had some openings the other day and squeezed that in.

While at the office, I decided to get Bugaboo caught up on his shots. Maybe not the best idea since he hasn't been feeling great, but he's not THAT sick, and if we wait for him to not have a cold, he might be 10 before he finishes his 1 year-old vaccinations. Well, Bugsy doesn't handle shots well. And 2 days later, he still points to his legs, says "ow" and then bursts into tears.

We've had a lot of tears lately.

I'm feeling the mad rush to get ready for our crazy weekend of house repairs and the beginning stage of moving--trips to Home Depot, up to the house to wait for storage container drop off, packing up to "camp out" this weekend, trying to come up with food choices that don't require a fridge since that doesn't come for another week, and things for 2 kiddos to do to keep them away from the power tools.

The final straw--because of everything going on, and probably just because our kids like to make sure we remember that they are in charge, both have been waking up a couple times a night for a week now. Last night, Bug woke at 2:20, 2:45, and 3:20 and then Bean was awake around 4:30 and then again at 5:45 and came crying into our room by 6. It was not a good night for any of us.

We're heading into a very busy month running on empty. Let's hope that the high of being home owners is going to pull us through.

Fun Times

Thanks to an idea from this website, Bugaboo was very busy for a LONG, LONG time with a fruit box from Costco, tongs, and a box of pasta.

New costumes at the library dress-up stage.

And Bugaboo's "bed" courtesy of Bean.

Just a note on Bugaboo--He's started asking for the "potty" and has actually pee'd several times and even pooped once. I'm just going to let him do this on his timetable since he's not even 2 yet, but I'm hoping this means that the cloth diapers are working how everyone says they do and he'll be out of diapers sooner rather than later. If we could get his nasty poops on a more direct route to the toilet, I would be a happy mama.

Countdown to New House Day

Only 6 days left!!!! It felt like this summer went fast, but now, these last couple weeks are dragging by as we wait to close on our house. We've spent the last 2 Saturday mornings up there checking repairs that have been done, measuring for things we'll be doing, and just getting excited as we plan and picture where our things are going to go. The kids already love it (they love the stairs, especially!) And next Friday is the big day!!!!

Nature Walk

Even in the city, we can find plenty of nature.

Baby's Day Out

Bean insisted that Baby come with us today on our adventures. Which turned out to be a lot more adventurous than planned. I don't know what it is with places being closed when I decide to go, but we've had some bad luck lately. First, there was the carefully planned day last week where we made it to Costco right at 10 a.m. so we could finish our much needed shopping in time to make the 11:30 storytime at the library. Except Costco was having register problems and didn't open that morning. And then, when we finally left at 10:30 so we could still make the library, we found out that the weekly storytime had been cancelled because of staff training.

Well, today, it was the nature museum. I guess I didn't read the part where it isn't open on Mondays. So instead of an hour or so looking at animals indoors, we headed down to the pond in the park and ended up taking an unprepared walk (no stroller, no snacks, no sunscreen--all big musts in my book) all the way around, making a too-long detour to the bathrooms for an emergency, which of course were by the playground, so we had to make a stop there, and finally finding our way back to the car when it was already past lunchtime.
But I think Baby had a good time. And we got quite the looks, and even a few nervous comments about me letting my kids swing/carry/drag my baby around. I sometimes wonder what Daddy-o and I were thinking when we got such a realistic looking, two month-old doll for Bean. It used to startle us, too, when Bugaboo was a baby and we'd see a baby laying on the floor or in some place that we knew we'd never set our baby.

New Creations

I finally got the creative juices (or at least the crafty ones) flowing this last week.

First off, I have been planning on making korker ribbons for ages--I got the wooden dowels almost a year ago, but they sat in our garage, and then in my closet here until two days ago. There are many free instructions out there on the web for making all types of bows and these were actually pretty simple. The hardest part is getting all the little ribbon curls to stay still while you tie them up.

Now Bean will have some fancier ribbons to match at least some of her dresses. And then the scrapbooking. . .

I got a Crop-o-Dile for my birthday and have been having fun with eyelets ever since. I also had noticed that I'd been doing more girly layouts lately, so this round is split evenly between the two kids. I certainly don't want #2 getting a complex when he's older (just in case any teenage boy actually cares to look through the scrapbooks his mom makes for him).

And finally, this isn't craft related, and I don't have a picture because we were eating out in the courtyard and I'd already made 2 trips back up to our apartment so I wasn't going back for the camera, but our dinner tonight was too good to not mention. I found a recipe for Gingery Salmon with Peaches in the August Real Simple--actually, Daddy-o picked it when I handed him the article on 20 minute dinners and told him to find something new for this week. We'd never had ginger with salmon before, but the combination was incredible! And even though I'm always a little hesitant about grilled fruit, the peach/red onion combo was delicious, too. Add a wildrice pilaf from Trader Joes (with a handful of quinoa thrown in--I'm determined to get my kids to like this stuff), some grape tomatoes and carrot sticks, 15 minutes slapping the bugs away, and we had dinner!

Summer Day

It was an absolutely beautiful day today--blue skies with wispy, white clouds and a slight breeze that kept it from being too hot, even in the sun. It reminded me of a California summer day, not a North Carolina summer day. And that made me homesick.

So far, I think we've stayed pretty busy getting to know our new area so the homesickness hasn't really been there. And I've found that moving around with my family doesn't give me much time to think about where we've come from. Not like the moves I made when I was single and I usually took several weeks to start to feel comfortable and would lose my appetite and just wanted to go home, even if I was having fun and loved where I was.

But the newness is wearing off. And our trip to the beach reminded me of how easy it used to be to hop on the 52 and be at La Jolla Shores in 5 minutes (although it could take an hour to find parking in the middle of the summer if you didn't get there soon enough). And the weather today made me miss the relative coolness that used to mean summer to me. Oh, and watching the Olympics reminds me of how much time I used to spend swimming and diving each summer. Summers are just different now, no matter where I am.

Guess we need to do some more exploring and find new things to keep us occupied and excited about Charlotte. I found a preschool for Bean that will start in about 3 weeks that she and I are both really excited about (I'm excited about the school, not just that she'll be gone--that one I have mixed emotions about). So Bugaboo and I need to come up with some goals and fun things to work on this fall.

We did visit a new park today--it was beautiful and had a lot of picnic perfect places, like the patio above. We'll have to come back with more food than the bag of pretzels I had in the diaper bag.
And Bean is working on her picture taking skills. I thought this picture of Bug turned out great--and who needs a picture of me ;)

Beach Trip

We decided we needed to take advantage of the forcast for an absolutely beautiful weekend with no thunderstorms insight, so we got up Saturday morning and headed out for Myrtle Beach. It is supposedly about 3.5 hours from here which we knew was going to make for a LONG day for us, but the ocean was calling for us (and Bean has been asking when we were going to the beach ever since we got here). A few wrong turns later and a long line of cars waiting to get into the state park, and we finally made it there in about 4.5 hours.
But our time at the beach was great. The water felt awesome and it really was a gorgeous day. Bugaboo was fascinated by the waves and sand--loved watching his feet sink into the sand as the water washed out.
The water was quite a bit warmer than what we're used to so it was a lot easier to get the kids to go out with us and both wanted to go swimming (or "me me" as Bugaboo calls it). They loved the waves crashing into them, as long as they were safe in our arms. It was a workout for us to keep ahold of them sometimes!
And of course we had to build sandcastles.

And bury Daddy-o.

And do some body-surfing.

The high tide also created this river which was perfect for the kids to play in and we didn't have to worry about them being swept away with each wave that came in. The buckets and shovels were another story.


And finally, these last few are just some of my favorite shots from the day.

The drive home took even longer because our little pee-body had to stop three times besides the dinner stop, but we made it home with two sleeping kids (and a sleeping mama who only woke up long enough to carry Bug into the apartment and collapse in her own bed--Thanks Daddy-o, for driving and getting everything out of the car!) Next year we'll be getting a place to stay because fun as it was, its just not right to spend 9.5 hours in the car for 4 hours of play time.

Random Food Thoughts

I have a few different foodie thoughts I've been meaning to post.

First, I am completely hooked on tabbouleh this summer. I've been eating it for lunch most days this last month. Its just so light and cold--perfect for hot summer days. And there is always plenty for me because no one else in my family is as crazy about it as I am. BUT, I did make a change with this last batch and Daddy-o decided he likes it much better. I got the idea to use quinoa instead of bulgar from here and it is delicious! Much less chewy (which gets big points in Daddy-o's book) and since quinoa is a complete protein, its a perfect vegetarian meal. And just like she does, I like to add feta to mine most days (I've been leaving the tomatoes and feta out until the moment I'm going to eat it so it doesn't get that old, soggy feeling on the third or fourth day.)

Completely unrelated, but also along the lines of good summer food, we have been LOVING having Trader Joes close again. And we've found some new favorites. First, their BBQ sauce is delicious--just the right amount of kick to it to make it really good, but totally palatable for the not-so-hot loving (that would be me--I like to still be able to taste the flavors in my food, not just the heat). And same thing with their stir fry sauce--just the right amount of spice and heat. And then in the cold relm, we've been eating a lot of tapenades and brushettas--our two favorites from TJ's are the basic brushetta and the Roasted Red Pepper and Artichoke Tapenade--we just spread them on toasted bread and its another light summer snack. Sometimes I'm too lazy to even toast the bread.

We've also tried a couple new recipes recently that were fantastic--this Asian Spinach and Pasta Salad which was recommended by Jane over at This Week for Dinner (and I followed her changes since I had the same things onhand). And I made Pad Thai mostly following this recipe which came out pretty good--maybe a little dry, but still had a lot of flavor. I've been craving a lot of asian food lately, apparently. And its nice because it doesn't involve turning on the oven which is pretty much a deal breaker for me until it cools down. Except for desserts. We have had to cheat a few times and turn on the oven to bake my favorite cookies or a peach/blueberry crumble. I would even do those on the BBQ if I knew that they'd turn out okay.

Household Roles

We had an "at home" day today--I don't do these very often because it usually only takes a couple hours for all of us to be going crazy and for the house to be completely trashed, but since the high was supposed to hit 98 today and we'd already gone to the museum and swimming yesterday, I just decided to hibernate in our airconditioned apartment for the morning and try to get a little cleaning done. Obviously its somewhat counterproductive since the kids are usually messing things up as fast as I can pick up, but I can at least do laundry and throw things away.

So while the kids were playing, I decided to take advantage of the time and set up the ironing board where I could talk with them and actually get something done. Bean, of course, wanted me to play with her and this was our conversation:

Bean: Do you want one of my toys? You get to pick a big one and a small one.

Me: I picked out my toys already--the iron and a big pile of clothes.

Bean: No! I mean girl toys!

I'm thinking she means kid toys as opposed to adult toys, but then she goes on:

Bean: Those look like boy toys.

You can tell who usually does the ironing in our house. In my defense, Daddy-o does most of the ironing because the clothes that need to be ironed are mostly his, and he's way faster and neater about it all than I am. But every now and then, I do try to iron a bunch of things so he won't have to get the ironing board out every morning. Oh, and I do iron the kids' sunday clothes, a fact that also hasn't escaped Bean since her next question was, "Why are you doing that right now? We're not going to church today."

Not sure if I should be proud that I've taught my daughter that ironing is not necessarily women's work, or if I should feel guilty that I don't do it more often. Except I really don't feel any guilt.