Changes and Cherry Blossoms

Postpartum jean shopping. Road Trips. Driving through Nebraska OR Kansas. Sick kids. Potty training. Cockroaches. March Madness. Dickie V. Jimmy Buffett.

The above are all things that I hate, and now I have something new to add to my list...house hunting. We sold our condo 1 week ago (YEAH!), but since then I've been on the brink of losing my mind. I thought that finding a house would be fun and exciting...ohh how young and naive I once was. Why was I not adequately warned of the stress that accompanies this process???

Dragging my children house to house...not fun. Keeping my children from touching the personal property of others...not fun. Trying to find a house in our budget, in a good neighborhood, with good schools AND close to the metro...NOT FUN! With that said I think the hard part is over. There have been tears, gnashing of teeth and hair pulling. We've aggressively scoured the county and I think we have narrowed down our search to 3 neighborhoods. At this point we are just waiting for the right house to pop up.

In addition to selling our condo and house hunting here are some extra happenings for us this past week-

• Luke now requires CONSTANT supervision while awake. His latest activities include shoving mounds of toilet paper in the toilet, coloring 70% of his body with marker, and overflowing our bathroom sinks with water.

• I've now embraced the official "mom on the go" uniform- jeans (or sports pants), a sweatshirt, and sneakers. Ensemble completed with wet hair thrown into a ponytail and minimal makeup.

• Afton has decided that she no longer likes to sleep in her car seat, thus making the whole "mom on the go" thing a little tricky.

AND FINALLY....

• The cherry blossoms arrived this week!!! I'm convinced that the Japanese were thinking of me when they gave the US the cherry blossom trees nearly 100 years ago. We went downtown Saturday morning and were able to enjoy them during their peak period. Between that and General Conference I have to say that the week definitely ended on a high note.

*Afton was with us, she just slept the entire time. So much for coordinating her outfit to match the cherry blossoms!

Bye Bye Hyundai

I always knew this day was inevitable and it has finally arrived... Andrew was in a car accident. I'm not saying it was inevitable because I think my husband is a bad driver (I don't), but because I am a psychotic wife who sometimes imagines the worst scenarios possible (like Andrew having a terrible accident). With that said, this was not a terrible accident. Yes the Hyundai was destroyed, yes the accident caused major delays during rush hour (sorry Grant!), but with the exception of a few scrapes to the knee, Andrew is perfectly fine. It's in times like these--and thankfully there haven't been many of them for us--that you realize how unimportant things like cars really are.

The accident was caused when Andrew (who was going straight) and the driver of a small SUV (who, coming from the opposite direction, was turning left) collided in an intersection. Since both were only going about 25 miles per hour the damage was substantially minimized. Here are some pictures of Andrew's now-wrecked car.

What was stashed in the back of the car (and trust me, it was a lot) went flying out the back window.

For the time being, Andrew is back to taking the bus to the metro. So far his only complaints are the occasional long wait for the bus and the crazy people who ride with him (example: once a woman jumped out of her seat, pointed at Andrew, and started yelling, "He's a homosexual! He's a homosexual!" over and over...). Eventually we'll replace the old Hyundai (Thanks Tim for giving it to us in the first place), but in the meantime I'm looking forward to hearing some more fun public transportation stories!

One more gift just for me...

When I discovered that our neighbor was moving I thought that there was no way this month could get any better. Ohhh was I wrong! Anyone living in the East knows that for the last week or so we have had weather in the 70's. After what has seemed like a never ending winter, this is just what we (I) needed. It has been so nice to let my stir crazy boys get outside and run, jump and play til their little hearts are content.

Andrew had the day off on Friday, so we went down to Great Falls and hiked a portion of the "Billy Goat" trail. The next day we headed downtown and hit up the newly reopened American History Museum. While fun, it was packed and my kids kept looking for the dinosaurs (sorry boys, wrong museum). Since it was such a nice day we decided to skip out early and walk around the mall and memorials for a while.

Andrew and the boys at the base of the Washington Monument

Now the only thing that could possibly make our March better would be if our condo sold...of course that just might be asking too much for one month.

Cel-e-brate good times, COME ON!!!

When we first bought our condo (nearly 4 years ago) it had a clean, crisp aroma to it. It was August at the time, so the combination of sunshine and fresh-smellingness made our new home very inviting. We lived like this for nearly 2 months. Then one day a strange, distinct odor entered our lives. For the longest time we couldn't figure out what it was or where it was coming from. We started smelling "the odor" from under our bathroom sink, the garbage disposal and even the dishwasher, until it ultimately took over our entire home. It wasn't until weeks later that I noticed the same smell coming from our new neighbor's apartment. Upon closer inspection I was immediately able to identify the mystery odor- cigarette smoke.

For a while we tried to ignore the smell, but it turned out that this neighbor was a SERIOUS chain smoker who stayed indoors ALL DAY LONG. After a little deliberation, I convinced (forced) Andrew to go downstairs and kindly ask if she could possibly smoke outside, or at the very least, crack open a window every now and then. Her polite response, "no".

In a nutshell, we have been dealing with this stench for years. To say that it has been an inconvenience would be a major understatement. "Life altering" would be a more accurate description. Nothing we did (and believe me, we tried it all) alleviated that stale smoke smell from our condo. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT??? I am totally willing to put that all in the past because this past week I had the pleasure of watching our neighbor pack up and move!!! I've been dreaming of this day for what seems like forever and now that it has arrived I can honestly say that it has surpassed my expectations! For the first time in years I have been able to walk through my door and NOT be smacked in the face with that disgusting smoke smell. I feel like I should be in a Frabreez commercial!

Underneath it all my now ex-neighbor really was a nice lady. I wish her all the best in her new home!

Luke's 3rd and another milestone...

Luke finally turned 3 last Sunday. I say "finally" because it seems like he's been three forever. Maybe it's because he's been insisting that he's 3 for the last six months. He's a funny little boy.



MY main mission for the big event was to make Luke think he was having a party, without actually giving him a party. I'm still not sure if that is possible, but we settled on cake and ice cream with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Coco and his buddy Truman. Luke was in heaven.

Moving onto another milestone...I said my first official swear word in front of my children today. I made it 5 years, and thinking back, it's pretty impressive that I made it that far. (For example, I once found Luke with a handful of Sam's poop which he had fished out of the toilet...I had enough restraint at that time to only scream at the top of my lungs.) But today, while I was at the gas station filling up my van, gas started spewing from my fuel tank in every direction. I was sitting in the drivers seat and I happened to look outside to see gas projecting 10 feet into the air. I was caught completely off guard and yelled the first word that came to my mind, "S@#*"! In my attempt to get the nozzle out of my tank (while still shooting gas) I got gas all over myself. I'm not sure, but I think I let out a few more expletives- safely out of the range of my children that time. At this point I'm still trying to get the gas smell out of my clothes and holding my breath to see if Sam or Luke repeat what I said.

*For those wondering, air in the gas tank was the culprit of this fiasco.

Afton's Blessing Weekend

By reading this blog it may appear that Afton gets all of the attention, but I promise that it's not like that at home! (OR is it???) At any rate she'll have to move on out of the spotlight for Luke's 3rd birthday which is in a couple of weeks.

However, this past weekend it WAS all about Afton as the family gathered for her baby blessing. I admit that I have been looking forward to this weekend for the past month and it did not disappoint! Family, friends and good food....what could be better? We were able to take my parents and sister to the Dullas Air and Space Museum, and if you ever come for a visit its likely we'll take you there are well. I'm really not even interested in planes or any other flying contraption, but I can't get enough of that place. Its pretty cool. We were also able to see our friends Mary and Chris (I grew up with Mary), who were in the area looking for housing....yeah! They have a little girl who was born 2 days before Afton, so it was fun to see the two babies together.





These are some pictures from the lunch following the blessing. My favorite line of the weekend came from my mother who said (while looking at Afton), "I know this baby. Why does she look so familiar?" No, she was not having a "Saturday's Warrior" moment. It's just proof that ALL of my babies have looked just like my brothers, sisters, and I did as babies! (I would add some pictures if I weren't too lazy to scan them in.)

The two Grandmas

Mary, Chris and baby Lizzie

Let the torture begin!

Some of my fondest memories are of my mother making matching dresses for me and my sisters and then having a nice little photo session with us. If you can't sense the sarcasm here (which is likely) then let me be more clear- it was torture! I am 11 years older than my youngest sister, so by the time she was born I felt a little too old to be playing dress up. Of course my complaining did not deter my mother, who in hindsight made some pretty impressive dresses complete with puffed sleeves and smocking! (I'm sorry for being so difficult Mom!)
While I do not see myself making dresses (I'm NOT that talented), I do see myself getting out of control with the girly photo sessions. I know that as Afton gets older she will hate them, so I'll do myself a favor and apologize in advance!