Happy Birthday Emmie!

Happy 4th birthday to my little firecracker! Emmie has been so fun since day one. She is the kid who always cracks us up. She also asks me questions like, "Do pretend bugs have bad dreams?" (Yeah, I'm still working on the answer to that one!)

Calling All Chocolate Lovers!

Found this recipe recently and thought it looked intriguing. I would try it, but with moving I'm not exactly Betty Crocker right now. :)

Chocolate Cake-in-a-Mug

1 - coffee mug (microwave-safe)

4 T. - cake flour (plain, not self-rising)

4 T. - sugar

2 T. - cocoa

1 - egg

3 T. - milk

3 T. - oil

1 - splash of vanilla

3 T. - chocolate chips (Optional)

Add dry ingredients to the mug; mix well with a fork. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in milk, oil, and vanilla, and mix well. Add chips, if using. Put mug in the microwave, and cook for three minutes at 1,000 watts. Cake will rise over the top of the mug -- do not be alarmed. When finished, carefully remove mug from microwave and allow to cool a little. Tip onto a small plate prior to serving, if desired. Yields one generous serving or two "more virtuous" servings.

Three Months

Well, it's the 19th again. He would have been three months old today. My current state of emotional health? Fairly good, I think. I'm sad when I think of Thanksgiving or Christmas and what we're missing with him gone. But I keep remembering that we will see him again someday.

We got the key to our new home today. It was so exciting. I haven't been there yet but Ethan stopped in and turned the heat on. I like how he thinks. :)

Today's conversation with Emmie:

Me: What are you grateful for this year?

Her: God

Me: OH, that's SO sweet honey! What else are you grateful for?

Her: Nothing.

Sigh. What else can I expect from my silly three year old? At least she's thankful for God.

I think we might be making progress on the potty training front. Ryan tried wiping his own bottom while I changed a dirty diaper tonight. It was not helpful. We actually haven't begun training him yet because he's not real interested. Oh well. He's my third kid. I'm not trying to set any records with this one.

Seattle was good. I forgot my camera. We went running the first morning on HILLS. I haven't done that before. Here I was all proud of myself for being able to run with my hubby, but the first time I have to run uphill I age fifty years. Running uphill bites. I'm glad we're moving to a flat town.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go

We're off to Seattle this week for Ethan's work. We're going to be working a booth for some Christiam musician's something or other. Okay, really Ethan is going to be working; I'm just there to smile and make people want to come to our booth. :) Works for me!

I feel really bad because we have a baby dedication at church this Sunday and I should be there as the nursery director. But to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I could handle it. This weekend we were planning to dedicate Ryan and Isaac. We did the girls together and it seemed perfect to do the boys together. So . . . that's not gonna happen. It hasn't even been three months yet, and the pain is still fresh. I packed up Isaac's memory stuff today to move to the new house, and I have this irrational fear that I'm going to lose the box in the move or something.

Happier news . . . Allie has her first loose tooth! Of course she's probably going to lose it when we're out of town, but I'm excited for her. She's saving up money to buy a pink, furry Bible cover, so a visit from the tooth fairy should make her pretty excited.

The lease has spoken! And it has said we are in the clear. So take that, rental agency. Aaaaahhhhh, it feels good to be right. :)

Thought I'd post some pics of the new house. Of course, it doesn't have any personality yet because WE haven't moved in, but it will.

I like the kitchen colors.

Not sure the pantry is big enough. Haha.

Ryan looking out the window in the girls' room.

This house came on the market when the deal fell through for the people building it. They had good taste on the inside colors, but what I don't understand is this: they chose a cream colored house with WHITE shutters on the outside! That should be illegal, don't ya think? I absolutely can't wait to get my hands on those shutters. I told Ethan this and he mentioned that we would need to buy an expensive, really tall ladder. Here was the rest of our conversation.

Me: I don't think we need a ladder. I'll just lean out the windows and paint the shutters.

Him: (barely concealing laughter) You will NOT lean out the windows. You'll fall.

Me: I will not fall.

Him: You WILL fall.

Me: What makes you think I would fall? I'll keep more than half of my body inside the house!

Him: That doesn't matter. I know you, and I know you'll fall.

Me: (glaring at him)

Him: There are some people who are good at climbing, and you're not one of them.

Me: What the heck! You don't even know how I climb! I don't even know how I climb!

Him: I just know.

And so on. So apparently I can't climb. Nice to know.

Memory Lane

All of this fun packing has made me decide to run away for a few days. Why not, right? I mean, it's not like we have a deadline or anything to move out. (Well. . . okay, that's not exactly true.) But I have decided to take a mental health break while Ethan's out of town and take the kids to visit Grandpa and Grandma.

Since I'm on their computer, I have to download pictures from their files. I just found a bunch of pictures of the house I grew up in. I lived there until I was eighteen and left to tour with the drum corps. While I was gone that summer, they moved. Nice, huh? (Kidding! Don't feel bad when you read this, mom.)

Here's some of our yard. Yard, yard, yard. Oh, I should mention that these pics were obviously taken on one of those delightfully freezing winter days, so it's not that pretty to look at.

We used to have deer come into our yard and eat the strawberries. It drove my parents crazy. We also had a cow wander through one time that I remember. I used to think I could survive on my own by eating honeysuckle flowers and apples off our trees. (This was when I got mad at my parents and wanted to live outside. I know, so mature.)

Here's the house. This was taken a couple of years ago when the current owners put it on the market.

Well. That's my old bus stop.

And the nearest paved road. Hmm.

My brother and I rode our bikes a lot when we were little. We also rolled down the hill in barrels. We didn't have many neighbors, so we kind of wandered all over the place. It was a good place to grow up.

I promise to answer those questions about our new home soon. Like maybe tomorrow. :)

Movin' Out

We are up to our ears in moving boxers. Boxes, I mean.

Here's how packing with my kids has been going. I put five books in the box. Ryan takes out seven. While I find something else for him to do, the girls decide to make a fort out of the neat stack of boxes up against the wall. I explain that we still need to walk through the house. They don't understand. Then I look at the clock and realize we're late for ballet. I grab my purse and hurry the kids to the car. When I discover no keys in my purse, I ask the girls, "Where's mommy's keys?" and they reply, "Oh, Ryan was putting them in the box that you were packing." Aaaaghh! So it's five minutes of frantically ripping neat strips of tape off three boxes, looking for keys.

I will never move again.