New things....

Church yesterday went well. The building is just down the street from our home, so we all got to walk to church. It was hard coming home up the hill (really not that steep- but it was so warm that it was difficult for us all. Well mostly Bug who wanted to ride in his old stroller that Ladybug is using now).

I got to tell you my friends who are members of the LDS Church, I have NEVER in my life ever experienced such a quite Family Ward. You could hear a pin drop. In fact I am sure every single person in the chaple heard Bug's rantings when a couple sat down on the same row as we were. He got very loud. I remember thinking that he was so loud at Manito Ward, but ladies (and gents) that was nothing. It being so quite in the Franklin Park Ward made Bug's behavior all the more embarrasing. And to top it off while I was out in the hall with him I heard Ladybug crying too, and when I came around the corner and saw Bryan with her, he told me that she hit her head on the pew and screamed. He said that every single person turned to look at him and gave him the look like "TAKE HER OUT!!!" It didn't get any better during R.S./Presthood meetings. She was the only child in the room. Honestly, I have no idea where all the other children where. I am sure she is not the only child not old enough to go into the nursery.

Besides the ward being so quite, I would have to say that the people are nice. We had several people come up to us to say hi and ask us if we were just visiting or if we had moved into the ward. Bug really liked Primary, and got up and read the 6th Article of Faith in Primary. So he had a good time. Hope that continues.

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We are working on the food allergy issues. Slowly I am reading all that I can on Wheat allergies. I am seeing some improvement on his behavior but it could just be because he is going to school, or that he is taking his asthma medication. I am not totally sure.

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School continues to be a great source of enjoyment for Bug. He has been waking up in the morning asking when it is time to go to school. And he rambles on about what they did in class when he comes home for the day. I have noticed some improvement with his attitude towards me and around other children.

I have to add before I close that I LOVE opening his back pack up when we get home and fining all the fun stuff he has been working on. Today I found a piece of paper that had his teachers writing on it that had Bug's name and two other children's names spelled really silly, and a note off to the side saying that they created new silly names for each other. I asked Bug the kids real names and he told me and it was nice to see he has made some friends.

Oh and one more thing....the broken frige that has been sitting in my back yard for the past two weeks is finally gone! Whooo HoOOOo! The land lord finally came by and picked it up! Also a truck that said, "Got Junk?" came by today to take a look at the storage unit that collapsed last winter because of the snow fall we got. He will be giving the land lord an estimate on removal of it. * special note * it was to be gone before we moved in and now has been 4 weeks of me calling every day M-F asking when it will be removed. The guy is hoping that it he will be by on Wednesday to remove it! Once this is gone, all I have to bug the land lord about is the two broken windows down in the basement.

Ahhhh the joys of renting! But I am going to make this house feel like a home. One step at a time.

~Brenda

Thursday thoughts...

Just some random thoughts.

1. Why does my son wake up at the crack of dawn. And I mean the crack of dawn. It was 4:30am this morning when he woke up and the sun was up. He thought it was morning and kept saying, "But the sun is up."

2. Need black out curtains for my son's room, or I might just tape up some tinfoil, to keep the sun out of his room at 4am.

3. The Tinfoil will fit very well for the house that has a broken frige and smashed metal storage garage in the back yard, and the crab grass lawn. I have called the rental company every single day for the past week to have the broken frige removed from my back yard, and keep getting the run around. The lady who runs the company promises that the frige will be removed tomorrow or Saturday. I am at my wits end. What should I do if it doesn't happen?

4. The joys of renting a house. (see number 3)

5. Love having my phone back. Have to rememeber I can call long distance anytime I want now and there is no extra charge. I have been so use to using calling cards to make my long distance calls that it feel so weird. I had a long talk with my mother this morning because I COULD with out any guilt. NICE!

6. Love finding paperwork (art & school work) that my son does in his back pack after school each day. Oh and a shout out to my friend Alyson who asked her son if Bug could borrow one of his back packs since I could not find one for Bug when he started school. Wrong time of the year to be looking for a new back pack. Alyson's son was so nice about letting Bug borrow his Incredible Hulk back pack. Bug loves it and looks so cute. I need to remember to get a picture of him.

7. Nervous about going to our new church ward this Sunday. I hope that we fit in. I did speak to the Primary President yesterday and informed her of some of Bug's issues. I hope he fits in well with his class, and his teachers.

8. Love watching Ladybug crawling all over the place. She is getting so fast!

9. Ladybug has been having a difficult time falling a sleep to take her naps and go to sleep at night. It has been the last two days. It is frustrating to hear her crying, and I have done back in to comfort her after about 30 minutes of crying on an off, but she will just start crying again when I leave. She finally does fall asleep, but it just seems hard for her. She is now 9 months old so this might be a developmental thing but it is still hard. I have started the teething tablets again thinking she might be teething. It has been 3 months since the bottom two came in.

10. Ladybug has started shaking her head "NO" a lot the past few days. It is funny to watch her copy me when I do it.

11. Need to get out on a date night with my husband. So need to spend some time with him. I feel like I have lost contact with him. Hoping that next Wednesday we can go out.

12. Have been walking in the morning with my friend Alyson each day. It has been good to get moving each morning. I have been enjoying chatting with Alyson (althought I really need to work on not hogging all the talking time) and I have also loved getting a chance to listen to my Maniac Mommies podcast on my way back to my house.

13. Found my family picture and can't wait to get Bryan to hang it up.

~Brenda

BOXES!

Busy packing. We have a truck rented for this Wednesday to move out of our house and into the rental house. Even though we don't have to be out tell the 28th.

I can't believe our house sold so fast. 4 days. Makes my head spin.

I am excited about the change, because change is always good. It helps me to step out of my comfort zone. I need to get things done for the move, get boxes, call companies to move addresses, and ask for help from friends. The last one is the hardest for me. I find it so difficult to ask for help. I can't explain really why it makes me feel so uncomfortable. Even when people offer to help I feel strange. I feel like I need to do it all myself. I don't want to be a burden to anyone.

I did try something different this time since I am going crazy...literal. The kids are making me crazy while I have been packing. This is my first move with kids. And two of them too. My visiting teachers offered to help me out with the kids and also my friend Alyson will be helping us out for the next two days. THANK GOODNESS!

Bug seems excited about the move. He keeps talking about his new blue/green room.

We will see if it will last.

I dislike moving. I am sure you all can relate. But it will be a very good thing. As the decision to move was made several issues with the neighborhood has surfaced. The latest one was on Friday of last week when I was trying to get Ladybug out of the car (her seat is on the street side) and as I was pulling her out a car came speeding up to the van. Our street is very, very narrow. I mouthed, "SLOW DOWN!" The guy went past still way to fast, then stopped and backed up. I thought "GREAT! A guy who wants to have a confrontation. Just what I need, to complete this stressful day." He says to me, "I was not driving fast. It just sounds like I was. I have kids of my own and I don't drive fast. I was not driving fast." I just looked at him stone faced and said, "Everyone drives to fast on this street." And just stared at him. He realized I was not to be messed with. He finally agreed he was driving to fast and drove away. I am so done living on this street. So change is a good thing regarding this situation.

If you don't see a post for the next few days please now I am thinking about all my blogging friends. Wishing I was blogging instead of packing and moving.

~Brenda

The waiting game.

Both kids slept better last night. Ladybug didn’t wake up tell 7am! Bug slept through the night. Woke up at 6:30am. I didn’t sleep well at all. Thinking about where we will move too. At 5am I headed down stairs to work on packing some boxes of homeschooling stuff that I have collected. Got a bit overwhelmed. I want to organize what I have so I can better find things after the move but there just doesn’t seem like enough time.

Bryan headed to work at CME this morning earlier than I had expected, cutting into my sorting/packing time. My whole day didn’t turn out quite how I hoped. It wasn’t all worthless, just felt like I ran out of time.

Waiting for call backs from the 3 rentals I had called yesterday. The phone must have run 4 times before I had to take Bug to OT and every single one of those calls was a telemarketer!!!!!! I usually let my answering machine pick up and if it is someone I want to talk too I will answer the phone but today I was worried that one of the rental people would not leave a message so I just picked up the phone before my message started, and was extremely depressed/aggravated every time.

At 10:45am I took Bug to OT but it had been cancelled because they thought we were still on vacation. They had booked another child in Bug’s time spot. Bug was having a difficult morning so it was probably best. He kept crying, thinking I was going to leave him while I was loading up the car, and then getting Ladybug up from her morning nap. Bug was in a panic when he could not find me in the house.

Errands proved to be more challenging and non-yielding. I went to the post office to see if they had our mail. The person who was watching our cat forgot to collect our mail. But when we got home there was no mail in our box. I was a bit worried that someone had taken off with our mail. But hopped that the postal carrier had just put a HOLD on delivering it once he realized we were not picking up our mail. The post office was packed, and when I finally got to the clerk she informed me that my mail was not sorted from this branch but out in Spokane Valley. Disappointed. Then I drove over to the Library to return some books, and Bug got upset because se could not go inside to check out videos, and more books. We were suppose to meet up with Bryan and I needed to get back.

When I got home one of the rentals called and the message said it was already rented, another disappointment. Bryan got home and we headed out to see the other rental. He told me that this rental company called and said it as still available and to stop by it to look in the widows. If we wanted to go inside to come by their office to pick up a key.

We drove over to it, and peeked inside, I instantly wanted to go get the key, but Bryan had to go to work at STA and the office was out in Spokane Valley. Sooooooo…we had a quick lunch at BK while Bug played in the play area. I filled out the application and afterwards I took Bryan to work, the kids and I drove to Spokane Valley and I picked up our mail. Yes, the postal carrier had put a hold on delivering it. Thankfully! And then I drove out even farther in the valley to go get the key for the rental. I then drove back to the rental and the kids and I went inside.

CUTE! It is not our home right now, but it is very workable. 3 bedrooms upstairs, 1 bath, 2 car garage with garage door opener, washer and dryer down in the basement. The basement is unfinished but Bug could ride his bikes around down there….it is huge and flat. It is ready to be finished downstairs. In fact it looks like it had been finished downstairs at one point but it probably was really thrashed and the rental company took it all out. Wiring could be an issue as well.

There is a huge back yard, with a swing set already there. Bug loves it! I felt safe with him outside while Ladybug and I wondering around inside. I had a hard time getting Bug to leave because he was having such a good time playing. But I had to get the key back before 4:30pm. The drive back to Spokane Valley from the North side of Spokane proved to be more challenging. There is tons of traffic on the streets I wanted to take because of all the construction that is going on. Sometimes it is easier to get around this town when it is winter with snow because then at least all the main streets are open and you won’t be surprised by construction work.

I barley got to the rental agency on time. I told them I would be back the next morning with my credit check money since I didn’t have my check book with me, and wanted to show the place to Bryan.

Got home and played with the kids a bit before it was time for dinner and bed.

Here is to a restless night sleep dreaming about whether we get the place and then where all our stuff is going to go.

~Brenda

Getting back into the swing of things...

Well, not to bad of a night last night. Ladybug only woke up one time (around 4am). I gave her a bottle and she settled right back down tell 8am this morning. Bug on the other hand was up 4 times through the night. He kept coming into our room saying he had a bad dream. I was pretty sure this as going to happen, since he had Mommy and Daddy in the same room and half the time got to sleep with one of us while we were on vacation. I stuck to my guns and took him back to his bed and tucked him in. Reminded him that Jenny (his stuffed giraffe) was there to keep him safe. He held on tight to her around the neck and settled back down to sleep. Here is hoping that he does better tonight.

We didn’t go to church today. I am just so warn out from the trip/vacation that I needed to just stay home. I got all the 7 loads of laundry done. Even folded and put away! That is a great accomplishment for me, because I usually get distracted during the day and can barely get one load done start to finish. So I am proud of myself.

I called 3 different rentals and left messages. I am kind of freaking out because we will have to be moved out of our home by the 28th of May.

It is really surreal that it sold so quickly. 4 days! Can’t believe it. Wished that I had another place set up. I would not feel so uprooted.
It is time for a change, I know that, but where is that change going to be? Waiting for call backs from the rentals. I don’t like the waiting game.

~Brenda