The Next, and Hopefully Last, BIG MOVE!

Well, big news here on the homefront . . . we're moving . . . yes, we're moving . . . again!  Greg was offerred a plant manager position at a pasta company right outside of Kansas City, Missouri (the city is Lee's Summit) and he accepted the job on Wednesday.  It was too good of an opportunity to pass up and he was getting more and more frustrated with his job here.  This company is a smaller, family owned business and it is a unique opportunity for Greg to lead a plant they way he knows it should be run.  The area also has one of the top rated school districts in the state and we are focusing our house hunt in that area. 

We have only been here a year and half, but I kind of always felt like this wasn't the end of the road.  We told the kids this weekend - Katrina was excited and Ethan was devestated.  He curled up into a ball on the couch and hid under the pillows crying, but he came around a bit later and started requesting a playground and a treehouse or fort.  Katrina wanted to start packing immediately so we need to get her some boxes.  We will be working with a relocation company again for the move which makes it all very easy.  Not really much to do other than getting the house thoroughly cleaned and then maintaining its cleanliness which is not something I enjoy. 

Greg will head down tentatively on April 9th to start and hopefully I will be down a week or so later to find a home.  We are hoping to move in mid-May, but it might end up being at the end of May depending on how quickly things move.  Sometimes this feels like a weird dream, but we are all excited.  Lots to be done before the - gathering medical and vet records, school info, continuuing to clean, touching up paint, etc.  It will be sad to say goodbye to all of our friends here when the time comes.  This is a very friendly part of the country and it has been so easy to make friends.  And we will be farther away from our families again which isn't something we wanted to do.  However, they are all getting to see many parts of the country that they probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.  Think of us as "opportunity expanders."  And our kids will be excellent at US geography.  So that's the big news - I will try to post more often to give updates and hopefully post some pictures of the kids in our final weeks in Michigan!!

All grown up!

This weekend Ethan crossed another milestone - he learned to ride his bike without training wheels and he is fabulous at this now!  He can go all the way around our gravel circle driveway without stopping and he is very proud of himself (as his sister - she was very proud - so cute to watch).  He looks so big while he is riding and I can't believe he is actually doing it all by himself!

Both kids are enjoying the warm weather.  Katrina is teaching scooter classes and jump roping classes to her ever willing student, Ethan.  She is a scootering whiz and both of them are actually really good jump ropers.  It used to be so easy to wear them out when they were little - now they can play outside all day and the aren't even tired at bedtime.  Even if their parents are.  They are also avid rock collectors and today Katrina drew happy faces on over 150 rocks that she then sorted into groups of ten.  They also now enjoy jumping off the roof of their little cottage that once upon a time they used to play in.  Apparently the roof is a blast - I didn't quite envision that when they were little.  They play so well together though and are best friends 90% of the time.  The other 10% of the time they are the best of enemies.  But they are cute!

Silly Kids

I have been meaning to post for awhile, but I have some pictures I want to upload on to here that are on the downstairs computer and I just never seem to think of it when the computer is on.  So while I wait to get the pictures, I thought I would post something that was very entertaining to the kids today.  Pizza dough.  It was almost an hour of fun to practice throwing it in the air and then they tried to make shoes out of it (we have a lot of hardwood so this project worked out fine. . . and I don't mind messes most days).  Best yet the kids did it all on their own without any interaction from Greg or me.  Sometimes watching a ball of dough bounce off the high ceilings is totally worth it for a few minutes of uninterrupted thoughts.  Not an activity for all households and a dog ended up eating half the dough which put a damper on the fun, but man, it was fun while it lasted.  And then Ethan moved on to flapping his arms as fast as possible with complete focus and yelling, "I'm going on my first flight!"  Never a dull moment!

A Heartwarming Site

Katrina has been begging to go ice skating so this weekend the kids and I went to the ice rink so that she could skate.  If her mother were at all brave, she would have put on skates and headed out to the ice with her kids, but I have only ever skated once and I just remember falling.  So I sent my two kids out onto the crowded ice by themselves.  Ethan hasn't skated in over a year, mind you, but I really felt I would be more of a hazard out there than a help.  But I felt guilty the whole time I watched them out there.  Katrina held his hand tightly and skated him around the rink twice before he was done (he only fell once).  And then Katrina took off and held her own amongst the college girls and other skaters. She is doing great at her lessons - is a fabulous spinner and backwards skater.  Ethan has requested that the next time we go, he wants one of the things that little kids can hold on to so that they don't fall.  I might actually brave the ice if I can hold on to that thing behind him - maybe I can pull it off that I'm just trying to help my son skate instead of the other way around!

Signs I Am Getting Older

Lately there have been some clear signs that I'm getting a little bit older. 

1)  I have had so many friends having surgery this year that I no longer can just count them on one hand.  It takes both hands, and maybe even a few toes.  At what point did my friends start falling apart?  Maybe, though, I am not getting older.  Maybe I'm just picking older people to be my friends. 

2)  My kids are getting way too big.  Katrina is 2/3 my height now and Ethan isn't far behind.  However, I feel way too young to have kids THAT big.  Maybe my kids are just overly tall for their ages.  I will only buy shoes a minimum of a two inch heel to counteract this issue.

3)  I can't seem to stop griping about how fast people drive.  I've blogged at least twice about that fact this year.  Maybe though, it is just the fact that I live in Michigan where people drive REALLY fast.  Perhaps I should travel to other states.

So wait,  maybe I'm not getting older.  The circumstances around me are just changing.  I had some other things that made me think I was maybe getting older, but I can't remember them.  So clearly it has to just be the circumstances around me.

Simple Misunderstandings

This weekend I worked on painting our office (the next step is flooring!).  Katrina was helping me paint and she asked me where Greg was.  I replied (evidently not so clearly - I must have been speaking quickly), "He is upstairs working on some other things."  She replied in a surprisingly calm voice, "What is he smothering?"

Other than the painting and flooring project, life is just merrily rolling along!  Ethan can now write sentences and I love reading them (words are written as they sound - spelling isn't important yet).  Katrina can read just about anything and loves to start new books.  We have plenty of snow for sledding, although it will probably melt some this week.  The kids are staying busy with bowling lessons and Katrina loves her ice skating lessons.  They learned how to spin last week!

Things That Make Me Laugh at Our Home

So lately there have just been some things around this place that stop me in my tracks and make me laugh.  One such thing happened when I was walking out the front door (the area in front of it is our "time-out" spot) and looked at the bottom of the wall and noticed that one of the children, both deny doing this although I have my number one suspect picked out, had written "Etha" there in black crayon.  Fortunately, we don't have anyone named "Etha" here as Ethan insisted - wasn't him.  Whoever it was, they were clearly feeling trapped like a prisoner over there, found some stub of a crayon, and felt the need to write his/her name so that someone who cared might one day find the name there and know of his/her woes. 

The other thing that strikes me as being funny is that one of the lightswitches in our bathroom has a top hat sticker at the top of it.  I wonder what the thought process was of the child who stuck it there.  Whenever I turn on the light, I think in my head, "Well, how do you do, Sir Lightswitch?," and feel like I should make a slight nod of my head in recognition of this mighty regal lightswitch in front of me.  Perhaps I need to get out of the house more, but still makes me laugh.  That lightswitch is all dressed up with no where to go.

Another funny thing to me - Ethan has taken over the shelves on the TV stand.  At the end of the day when we sit down to watch TV, I look into those cubbies and there is a whole world under there sometimes.  Sometimes there will be nine zhu zhu pets lined up in a row looking at me, sometimes there will be a whole Lego scene, sometimes stuffed animals, and currently his money is lined up neatly in there as he is trying to save up money to buy some Legos.  And I think it is a subtle hint to us that he doesn't want us to forget that he is trying to buy Legos.  Hint hint, mom and dad. 

Lastly, one of my funny things here is Cat School.  Katrina has almost daily sessions of Cat School with all four cats.  She gets them all rounded up, locks them in her room, and gets to teaching those cats.  On her walls you can find her lessons - working on writing their names, spelling, sometimes math . . . all of the essentials really that a cat needs to know these days.  I can hear her threatning them with time outs if they don't hold still, telling them what their homework is, telling them they need to listen - it is her very favorite game.  So funny to stand outside her door and listen.

Just some funny little things from up here in Michgan.  Hoping that you find funny things in your home today!

Turkeys, Turkeys Everywhere and Sunsets

Here is a funny picture of what I came home to the other day.  Notice Sarah, the black cat, on the far left side of the picture.  The turkey closest to her was pecking on the glass at her.  Sarah was fascinated.

Here is a picture of a beautiful sunset.  If we are sitting at the kitchen table, two people face this view at dinner time.  The other two people have their backs to it.  Prior to me taking this picture, Greg had commented on how pretty the sunset was and I turned around and wow, it was gorgeous.  Sunsets this beautiful happen a lot up here.  I'm not sure if being close to a huge body of water makes the sunsets prettier, but Michigan has amazing sunsets.  I almost feel like applauding sometimes they are so magnificent.

Homework

I didn't tell a little story that happened when we were getting ready to go sledding the other day.  I had taken Ethan's coat off to put his mittens on and was pulling on one of them kind of hard to make sure it was all the way on.  My hand slipped off and my knuckle hit the poor kid on his lower lip.  He cried and cried and there was a bump there for about 10 minutes - it had to hurt and I felt horrible about it.  Well, we had to work on homework later that day and one of the things he had to do was to write a sentence and draw a picture to go along with it.  I asked Ethan what he wanted to write and he said (in a nice slow voice like you would use if you were talking out loud while you were writing), "My mom punched me in the face."  Great.  I ended up getting him to write about playing Wii, but geesh!  The guilt!

Last day of winter break. . .

Oh, how I dread the end of breaks.  Greg and the kids head back to work/school tomorrow and I am silently hoping for a snow day (even though that wouldn't cancel work for Greg as I'm sure he would point out if he were reading this).  We finally have some snow, although not as much as they said we would get.  We have about 3-4 inches.  We went sledding this morning and discovered that when you only have 3-4 inches, it is not a good idea to use a blow up sled.  One of them popped within the first five minutes - it was quite a ride down though!!  I need to invest in better sleds, I think.  We had a great break though which included trips to Build a Bear and the Children's museum.  However, I think the kids favorite parts were playing a card game over and over (Sleeping Queens), playing with the cats (Katrina's favorite part - Chewy has been dressed up in more outfits over break and Sarah the cat just watches from a distance now looking relieved that she is not the one being dressed up - Chewy is also very good at "sleeping" in a baby crib and he doesn't seem to mind wearing a bib), playing Wii (Ethan), and eating candy from Christmas stockings (both of them would agree on that one).  I also enjoyed eating way too much candy over break.  Happy 2012 to all of you!!

Official First Day of Winter Break

So here is a little view of what we have done on our first official day off.  Ethan has done several puzzles and Katrina has had "cat school" where she was trying to teach the cats (unteachable, she decided) and then she decided that if Chewy couldn't learn, he would be a baby.  Now they are both making bookmarks and are both whistling next to me.  Overall, a great first day!

Signs your baby isn't a baby anymore . . .

So although Ethan is five now and I realize he isn't a baby anymore, there are still moments where I can't believe how grown up he is.  The other day we were playing in the basement and he said, "That's phat!".  Can't quite remember what he was describing, but he used this word correctly.  Then the other day he was pretending to surf on a couch cushion that was tilted up (he is a firm believer that couch cushions are merely giant legos waiting to be built into something) and he was yelling for me to watch him do a surfing trick.  He yells out in this teenage sounding voice, "That was sic!"  Not even hip enough to know if you spell that word with a "k" at the end or not, but I'm thinking it is such a hip word that it can't possibly have a "k" at the end. 

Today are holiday parties at school.  Katrina's party is 90 minutes long - that's a heck of a party.  Ethan's is an hour long - then we have one more day and we're on vacation!!  I think I'm more excited than the kids. 

Bowling

The kids finished their six-week bowling "class" this week and they were both thrilled and so proud to receive a trophy with two golden bowling pins on top and a certificate to boot!  They had never earned a trophy before this and they were so excited - their first trophies!  To make it even more fun, at the final bowling session they had the nighttime bowling lights on and the disco ball spinning.  It couldn't have been more exciting.  They want to sign up again in January along with their bowling buddy and good friend, Max.  I have decided that bowling is a great sport for the kids.  No one can get hurt, it is nice and warm in the bowling alley, and you can get hot fries and cheese sticks!  WAY better than ice skating lessons, although Katrina wants to do these again, too.  I start shivering automatically at the thought - brrrrrrr.  However, if it makes her happy, it is worth it, but man, I shiver the rest of the night after those lessons.  Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Things that have to be embarrassing for a dog

This is a picture of Mater wearing his new red fleece jacket.  The poor guy gets cold and starts to shiver, but he is humiliated by this outfit.  Two funny parts of the outfit - it has a hood and if that wasn't bad enough it has a pocket right on his rump where he apparently could store treasures.  I think his expression in the picture says, "Seriously.  My life has come to this point?"  Yes Mater, it has, but you sure look cute in your fancy new duds!

Snow! And in a bubble!

The top picture was from last week when we actually had snow all day long!  The roads were slippery, but it didn't accumulate on the yard really.  We were SO excited to see snow!  The bottom picture is a bit hard to see, but it is a picture with Katrina (on the right) and her friend Sarah at the Children's museum and they are inside a huge bubble.  I took the picture on my phone which isn't the greatest, but it is better than nothing!  One day I will remember my camera. . .

Trick or Treat

So there are our pictures of Queen Amidala and Cad Bane, as well as our friends the Power Ranger, the sneaky ninja (who is actually a girl), and a clone trooper.  We had a great time last night going through a subdivision in town chasing after the kids who literally ran from house to house for about an hour.  I remember when we were kids we had so many trick or treaters at our house that my mom just sat on the porch and there was a constant line of trick or treaters.  We had grocery bags filled with candy in the living room - we lived in one of the few subdivisions surrounded by countryside so all the country kids came in to trick or treat.  Now my kids are the country kids. 

Only two more days until Katrina's SEVENTH birthday.  She is very excited.  Tonight the kids start bowling lessons (which I only remembered as they called me as I had forgotten to sign them up, but our friend and her son listed our kids as his partners - whoops!).  The kids will be thrilled at pick-up when I inform them that they are going bowling with their buddy.  Plus Grammy Sue is going to be there as she is coming to town for the big bday celebration!  What a fun day!

And it is our last day with Ethan NOT having braces.  Tomorrow at 10 am he is getting braces on just his four top teeth to try to correct his underbite.  Poor guy - I'm not looking forward to this and neither is he!!

Driving

So I really like Michigan.  People are very nice to me which after a year is still a pleasant surprise after three years in a place where very few people were friendly to me.  However, I do have two grievances, Michigan.  Number one, you all drive like maniacs.  I remember when I was in college and came up to visit friends who went to college in Michigan and as soon as you hit the state line, the driving style changed.  Yesterday I was turning left onto my road off a busier street and I got honked at apparently for turning.  I had to laugh though as the car sped around me - a cute little Porsche.  Two things that probably wouldn't have happened in AR -being honked at for turning and being honked at by a Porsche.  My dirty minivan took it all in stride though. 

My other grievance, Michigan, is you don't know how to hold doors open.  I must say I got used to people holding doors open for me in the south (although in Minnesota, I remember most men holding even elevator doors and allowing you to get in first and holding doors open in general).  The other day I had the door practically close on my face by an older man.  And he knew I was right behind him.  The dads at school are just as guilty.  Ethan will be taught to HOLD THE DOOR open and let women in first (and Katrina can also hold doors open for that matter) - just basic manners in my opinion.  Although that being said, every morning at the kids' school there are kids who stand there and open the door for all the kids coming into the building and they do so with huge grins on their faces so maybe there is hope. 

Tomorrow is Halloween and we are going trick or treating with FRIENDS (so much better than trick or treating alone).  A year can make all the difference with stuff like that.   

The Mitten State

There is lot to learn when you move to a new state.  Even after a year I'm still learning lots of things about this area.  Did you know the state of Michigan is shaped like a mitten and that Michigan refers to itself as the mitten state?  Who knew! 

On Friday, Ethan's class went to a pumpkin patch/farm.  We had a hayride, a fresh pumpkin donut, they played in a straw filled play area, they petted goats and chickens, acted out a story with props, saw pigs and cows, and then played in a big sand filled play area with all kinds of neat toys.  His class has 11 boys and 4 girls - didn't realize they had so many boys!!  We're getting ready for Halloween parties next week and I signed up to chair Katrina's before I realized that I now have two kids having afternoon Halloween parties instead of one so Greg is taking off work early to come and help.  The week after Halloween Katrina has her field trip to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum.  We have never been and I'm excited to check it out!

Katrina will be SEVEN in two weeks - how did that ever happen??  They actually don't have school on her birthday so we're doing a "spa day" with her two best buddies which should be an adventure.  They're getting their nails painted, a feather in their hair, their hair styled, and getting a glitter tatoo. It should be quite an adventure!!  She is very excited!!  But wow, SEVEN!!

Boo!

One of the things that makes me smile about Katrina is how she loves to decorate for any occassion.  Right now she has streamers hanging in her room in preperation for her birthday.  Last night, she found the window crayons and decorated the windows, glass doors,  etc for Halloween.  Several times today I have scared myself as I saw something over my shoulder and turned around only to realize it was the word "BOO!" written on the window which has made me laugh out loud.  I'll have to tell Katrina this when I pick her up today as she'll be thrilled to know her "boo" scared me. 

Ethan and I built a fort yesterday in the kitchen with chairs and a blanket.  Ethan has now moved half his bedroom into this little fort and would gladly sleep there if we let him.  Amazing how such simple things can amuse them for so long.  I don't think we built a single fort this summer out of blankets and chairs - how could that have happened?  I highly recommend building a fort today for a kiddo!  Days and days of fun!

Ethan just reported that there is a leaf storm outside.  This is one of my favorite times at our house.  With one little gust of window, thousands of leaves fall from our very tall, old trees surrounding our house.  It does indeed resemble a storm.  Ethan now has his binoculars out looking at the storm.  Good thing he put those in his fort so that he was prepared.

I am amazed by how much Ethan has learned at school so far.  He is picking everything up so quickly.  Katrina can read like nobody's business and is also doing well at math.  They both have FABULOUS teachers and we're so pleased.  Ethan's favorite part of school is "chasing girls on the playground."  Apparently, he and his "buddies" do this every day.  Some days he is so busy chasing he reports that he didn't even eat his snack.  Boys!

Fall

I heard the other day that this is suppossed to be a great year for pretty leaves and a great year for apples. We're off to the apple orchard today with some friends, which will be fun, but gosh I have so much to do at home that the party pooper in me just wants to stay home and get it done. I haven't been blogging much lately as I've had to do some much P.T.A. stuff on the computer that I have begun to not like getting on the computer. Which if you are really bored and want to check out my website, go to www.robinsonpta.com. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who visits the site, but the school wanted a website so I've had to learn how to do it as no one else would. Nothing fancy, but man has it taken up a lot of time. I've given up on adding any other fancy features as I'm 99% sure that would be a waste of my time. Gosh, positive attitude, eh?

The kids are both loving school. For awhile they were sleeping in until 7:30 or 8 on a regular basis which were records for these early birds! Now they have adjusted to the schedule and are starting to wake up earlier again. They come home from school bursting with energy and a lot of days we go to a playground with a friend to burn some of the crazies off. Chewy, the kitten, is doing well. Still as sweet as ever.

Yesterday at Meijer everyone was saying there were 20 foot waves on the lake. Ethan and I thought a trip was in order to see these waves and on our way there we passed several news trucks so we were getting really excited as they only send news crews if the waves are really good. We watched them for awhile, but we were both disappointed. Maybe five foot waves at most. Ethan was less than impressed and demanded that we go home. Twenty foot waves would have been cool though - can you imagine? That's big!

I need to email the help people about people not being able to leave comments. Keep trying and I'll email them for help! :)