in case you haven't heard

we're having a baby! super excited. super tired. a beautiful built-in excuse for not cleaning, cooking or blogging in about a month. i'm feeling better and starting to care about the way my house looks. i figure since i've been cleaning for the past 5 hours, i should throw in a blog before i start my cooking spree. conveniently, this comes the day before my mother and other family comes in town. perfect timing.
the baby is due in january. i'm 11 weeks tomorrow. sorry, no pics of the ultrasound. requires way to much energy to scan and upload.
yes, my tummy is growing. with baby #4, it doesn't need coaxing or coaching. it knows the drill.
no, i haven't had morning sickness. never had it, in fact. i was, however, on bedrest for three weeks. some complications that have seemingly been resolved. must be due to my "advanced maternal age", beautifully stamped on my medical folder.

progress is sweet...

renting this house is NOT! have i mentioned to any of you that i am OVER this situation? if i clean this house, it still doesn't look clean. i miss my home. big time. chris has been working his tail off at the new house (we call it mona, after the street). anyway, mona is coming along well. it's amazing how much work you can get done when you put in 12 hour days and eat dinner at 9 o'clock about every night. love you, hon. thanks:)
wanna see the progress?? i need to get over and take more pics, it changes by the day and it already looks different. the roof has shingles, the framing is almost done.

before shot. needs work.

tore off the roof. we're gonna raise that baby.

taking time to visit dad for dinner.

adding some height to the house.

ta-da! new roof!

back of the house with a view of the nasty addition. can someone please tear it down??

thank you scott:)

roof, front view, with paper. sorry no shots of the shingles. i bet if you close your eyes you can probably imagine how great it looks with them on.

distractions

Yes, we are moving. This week. This post should probably include the hundred or so boxes, the carton of packing tape, the constant mess in every room (due to my cleaning strike until the BIG DAY). It should include as little as possible because my time is at a premium.
Going through room after room, box after box, reminds me of the little things that happen everyday that make our lives great. Here's a glimpse of our past week, ignoring the fact that we are moving and normal life just doesn't feel very normal right now.

Chris's garden is going strong with collards, peas, broccoli, spinach, lettuce...

here are some rosemary transplants soaking up the sun.

a trip to Jamestown with Marshall's class was a great distraction

and then there's Easter. one of the only sundays i was happy to have afternoon church. we finished it of with a wonderful meal at hilarie's house. the day was pretty much perfect, and i will always remember it being the calm before the (moving) storm.

motivation

After months of endless waiting and cleaning, we have a contract on our house. I guess we're actually selling it. Please hold your applause till April 17th. That's when we go to closing. Yup, three weeks till moving day...how did that happen? Looks like we're gonna move into a rental the next street over while we build the new house. WOW. Talk about throwing us for a loop. I've been living in a state of constant cleanliness since school started. I have zero motivation to get up and do anything now. I could honestly sit on my couch and not care (too much) about how the house looks. OK, maybe that's not true, but seriously, I'm drained.
So, I need to give a shout-out to my peeps who've given me a reason to do what needs to be done.
Here goes:

Thank you Jenna,
The smell of Windex in your house made me want to clean my windows today. Sparkly.

Thank you Hilarie,
The mere mention of your chocolate chip cookies had me mixing up a batch of these. Mmm.

Thank you Jaesi,
Your fabulous pics of Puerto Rico reminded me it's almost swimsuit season. Dang Cookies.

Thank you Nicole and Brooke,
You make the best walking buddies for the impending swimsuit season. Two loops?

Thank you Charlene,
Seeing your sweet new baby today reminded me how sweet my big babies can be. Sometimes.

Thank you Rachel,
Since you never answer your phone I have more time to get things done around here. Brrring...Brrring...

Thank you President Obama,
Your speech tonight pushes American Idol to Wednesday night, so I have time to update this blog. And eat cookies.

So, thanks again guys.
I feel much better.
I'm here if you need anything.
You'll find me on the couch.

labor day

I have it in good with the superintendent of Norfolk Public Schools. Dr. Stephen Jones and I have a little agreement. Works pretty well. Here's the deal. I promise him some straight A, well behaved kids to balance out the riff-raff you sometimes find in Norfolk. In return, he gives me one day a month for these kidlets to come home early so I can squeeze a little more work out of them.

Child Labor Laws being what they are, I can't work them 24/7...they must attend school and get some formal education. I get it. This deal is a good compromise.

I just wonder if they'll ever catch on.

Hope not:)

one year older...

Brooke and Stephanie

You know you love 'em. I know I do:)
That's why I'm having a birthday brunch at my house this Saturday at 10am.
Let me know if you can come. Bring a dish if you want, but you don't have to.
Birthdays are always a great excuse to catch up with the gals...
See you Saturday!!

snow much fun

Yes, we're home. The trip was way too fun. Well, maybe not...fun doesn't even come close to describing it. I think I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Let me just set the stage. 9 inches of snow the night before we arrived. 3 more inches the day of arrival. Beautiful sunny skies the next 2 days. Rain to send us home. We took the trip with the Valle family. Everyone except Gaby-Baby got to hit the slopes. The best part for us was the runs we took as a whole family. I am loving this new stage in life.
The families had slope-side rooms next door to each other. We shared meals, babysitting and Abba Sing-Star. The boys found the deck to be a great place to "sword" fight. Night time swims were a must. You start out in the indoor pool and then before sanity strikes, you swim through the tunnel to the outdoor pool, complete with a waterslide and hot tubs. Only the insane survive it. The waterslide is a blast if you enjoy getting your hands frozen to the railings on your way down. As you hit the water a brain freeze sets in to complete the fun. The kids couldn't get enough. Oh, heavenly hot tubs. Our defense against hypothermia.
Marshall is getting to be a great skier. He skis fast and loves the black diamond runs. Nicole snowboards and they had built up a little rivalry. They would race nearly every time they could. Here's the evidence, I mean video, of the race. Beware...Chris filmed this while he was skiing. It's a tad shaky:)


Good-bye Snowshoe. See you next winter...