What to do when you have the flu?

Potty train your 2-year-old, of course.


I must be insane. It looks like this is going to be a several-day bug with my fever coming and going, so since I'm just sitting around and trying to recover anyway...we decided to give it a go. Thank the Lord Grandma will be here this weekend and we'll have another set of hands! (And she thinks she's coming up for burgers and fireworks...) ;-) Andrew's mama is such a dear. She's volunteered several times to drop everything and come up to take care of us, but we're managing to manage so far. Can't wait to see her this weekend as we begin packing and enjoy some grilled food and fun!

2am.

I have a fever of 103 right now and my skin hurts and my headache is blinding. I emailed my dear mom-in-law in the hopes that she can move her little trip up to Frostburg up by just a couple of days. I feel like death. I can't call anyone else because everyone has kids. I don't know what else to do. I think I should wake him up right now. Ugh. This stinks.

All Out of Words.

You can click here to find out what we've been up to for the past week. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. I'll try to update as much as possible, but for tonight, I don't have a whole lot to say without getting worked up. Grandma will be at home tomorrow and I'm sure she'll be back to reading my blog, so I need to think of something incredibly funny and enlightening to post.
In the meantime, call your grandmas and tell them how sweet they are.

You can also make a list of things you hate, like cucumbers, calories and cancer.



You know what I don't hate? "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets." Now there's a riveting movie! Just as good as the first one! I can't wait to watch it with Andrew!

Movin' To The Country...

Giddyup, y'all! You know we love to move, and this is one of our most exciting yet! The house is under contract and we're heading deeper into the Maryland countryside. This time we're moving into a pre-Civil War farmhouse outside of Cumberland. It's surely haunted and leaky, so we're psyched. And it's not ours, so we can enjoy the "rustic history" without worrying about who's going to pay for repairs! We couldn't be happier about this next little jaunt.

See that big red brick with the crack down the side? That's our baby!

Lake Day!

Andrew and I took the girls up to the lake for a day with Katie and Yeff. Lucy was SO excited. She couldn't stop talking about Jeff and all the fun things they were going to do! She had a blast and was just a dream the whole day! It was a little rainy at the beginning of all the fun, but it didn't stop Katie from insisting on maximum excitement. We had a great time, as we always do with our wonderful friends. Katie also learned that I have a blog and I told her that she's famous here, so let's try to make her feel welcome. :-)

Katie and Luce waiting for the rain to clear up.

Lucy was having way too much fun "scaring" people through the buffet window.

Our sweet summer girl!

Plenty of food, beer and laughter.

Tom with Molly, who was but a mere blastocyst at last year's events. We actually told Katie and Jeff that we were expecting before we told anyone else, since we'd found out just before leaving for the lake!

Katie and Sharon playing shuffleboard. Katie's ridiculously good at it. I didn't even get to play last night before I was so busy wrangling children. Sob.

Strawberry Picking!!

Falling Behind...

Hi there loyal readers...boy do I have some pictures to catch up on! Let's start a few weeks ago.

Here's Lucy, lying on the floor of the deck, playing with dog food. Well, whatever.

Our big girl has been learning to drink from a cup and is doing great! She still has yet to spill a drop! Here she is eating "duh-bee-yees" and practicing her mad skills.

Here's Molly with her very first ponytail!

Like I could resist.

Maple is shedding.

Here is Lucy standing atop daddy's grill parts. She has a blast "helping" him put that stupid thing together.

I can explain. It was the evening after the yard sale and we hadn't moved the formerly-for-sale futon back inside. We're really not as trashy as we look.

Ah yes, the baby powder incident. She's so cute.

Happy Father's Day!

What do you give the man who has everything but a huge TV and a grill? Well obviously you give him a huge TV and a grill! I'm pretty sure he lucked out in the gift department this year, but the girls and I are the ones who are really lucky.

These pictures are from yesterday. A little piece of evidence that each day Andrew spends with his girls is special and unique. He makes memories with them each and every day, and I love that. We took the girls to the lake yesterday and he took Lucy out in the rain to play. She was just tickled, getting all wet on Daddy's shoulders.

And here is Daddy and his Mini-me, cuddling and looking at a flower. Molly always as a big smile for her Daddy and I love getting to know her. I love looking at her and seeing her Daddy's easy-going, "Que Sera" attitude. She's just so easy to love, and she gets that from him.

We love you, Andrew, and all you do for our very happy family. From working long hours to reading that extra bedtime book, for cuddling us all in bed too long and going to work late, for remembering to lead us in Grace at every meal and for leading us in Grace through every day. We love you and we'd be just a bunch of emotional women without your gentle guidance, patient example, laughing smile and unfailing devotion. Happy Father's Day!

Lake Day!

We're headed up to the lake in just a little while. We're going to have a day full of fun with the Z's and we can't wait! Lots of food, boating, shuffleboard and laughter, AND Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake. Except I tweaked mine a bit and use devil's food cake mix and I mixed toffee bits into the cream cheese mixture. Yu-um.
Well, Andrew is going to yell at me if he finds me blogging instead of helping him pack. :-)

I want another baby.

I can't help myself. I do. Molly isn't just easy. She's a dream baby. I don't feel like I have two yet, to be honest. I don't know that it's even wanting another baby so much as just wanting a little more chaos. I must be on glue.

Well, today has been a bit long and terribly boring. The electrician came by today and fixed our hallway light! Yay! It was a long time coming. Other than that, we're having a rainy day. I took the girls out and braved the weather to return some library books and buy lettuce. I'm just crazy like that. I came home to an escrow surplus check and our new lease agreement in the mail. Whoopee! Unexpected money is always fabulous, and our lease agreement is awesome too, I suppose. I think we're going to move July 11th. 7/11 sounds lucky to me, and Andrew and I live to beat the odds, so it seems fated.

Our new house will be a very large, very old and somewhat dilapidated farmhouse on 110 acres, about 20 minutes from here. It's a 4-bedroom with tons of room for the girls to run. We don't know how long we'll be there, but on the off chance it's a long time, we have room to spread out. We're excited about spending the rest of our summer there, at the very least. Lucy is very excited about living next to cows, and Andrew is very excited about living next to a fishing stream. I'm very excited about hearing nature again. It was like coming home when we stepped out of the car and heard nothing but birds and running water. The house was built in 1830, so it could use some TLC, but the owners have been working really hard and it's in awesome shape for as old as it is. It's tempting to make it permanent and official out there. Wait'll you see pictures. Nothing but trees, grass, and blue sky for miles. The best news is, sweet Maple gets to come with us! I answered the "no pets" ad and took Lucy and Mo out to charm them. Once they envisioned Lucy running barefoot through their fields and chose us from among 10 families to rent the place, I casually mentioned the heartbreak of leaving Lucy's best friend behind they were happy to welcome her to the farm, too. Luce will be so happy to have "MoMo" at her new house. She keeps saying, "I like the house! I like the farm!"

Let's see...in other news, the house stuff is going well. Our buyers have been approved for their financing and the structural inspection is on Friday morning. Say a prayer around 9:30am EST! After that we just have to sit and wait until closing day. I think we're going to get out and go camping for a weekend, as well as packing and moving, so we'll be too busy to sit around and bite our nails.

Tomorrow the girls and I are going to the zoo! We're terribly excited! Our playgroup is chartering a bus, so Lucy gets to ride with all of her friends and spend the day with the animals! We have to meet the bus at 7:30, so I need to spend tonight packing and getting ready. So exciting! I'll post pics tomorrow night!

Well, that's about it around here. We have a big day at the lake planned for this weekend, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. On Sunday the girls and I plus Maple will be heading downstate for Paul's show and lots of Merkel family fun with Andrew is on a business trip. I can't wait for the show!

Ooh, a clean kitchen AND a new look!

Yeah, I'm that good. And tonight I'll be freezing gallons of fresh strawberries that I picked this morning with two babies in tow. And I'm typing this one-handed. How DO I do it??

This is better than...

• the last bite of a sundae cone
• going to bed too late and getting the giggles with Andrew (okay, maybe not better than that.)
  
• Frozen grapes
• Selling your house in 36 hours
  
• A new ringtone that makes you smile
• Drinking too much with your friends and still laughing the next morning
• Puppy breath
• Sleeping babies
• Molly's smile
• Impromptu roses
• House hunting
• chocolate cake and a spoon
• mimosas
• fun mail like a CD of pictures from Grandma Susie
• Grandma Susie's "helllooooo!"
• Making people guess who's pregnant when you hear it from someone else
• a positive pregnancy test
• Singing in Church on Easter
• Holding pinkies with the one you love
• Smiling over the tops of sleepy heads
• A pint of ice cream and a big blanket
• wet grass sticking to your bare feet
• 10% raises
• Grilled chicken and veggies
• An almost-ripe banana

Okay, so maybe it's not as good as all those things, but I'm RUNNING to re-read my copy to get ready for what is bound to be the best movie of the summer!

Impatience Wins Again...

Drumroll please...we have a winner! The winner of this gorgeous family locket made by the amazing Melissa is #9! Congratulations, Cindy! You'd better get to naming that little girl so you can order your necklace!
As for the rest of you, please visit Melissa's awesome store. I think I'm going to do some major Christmas shopping there this year - as a matter of fact, Etsy now thrills me to the point that I believe almost ALL of my Christmas shopping will be done there. But after hearing my locket clacking and jingling as I take care of my little sweeties, I think I'm going to start with Melissa! I'd like to give a giant thank-you to Melissa for her participation in this contest. It was my first and it definitely won't be my last. Thanks Melissa - from first glance at your store to now, you've been a dream to work with. I'll be sending Cindy your way to collect her fabulous necklace!

Victim: Cheese Stick.

Andrew: What would you like to snack on dear?
Lucy: Ke-Ke's (Cookies)
A: Absolutely not. All the cookies in the world were eaten by the Cookie Monster just last night. What else would you like?
L: [Sad/Angry face yells] Bad Ke Ke MonTo!!! (Bad Cookie Monster). [Happily/Excited] I want cheese peeeeeaaaasss (please)
A: Okay, let me get you a cheese stick

(as I turn to the fridge to get a cheese stick)

L: (whispers while fidgeting nervously with her fingers and staring at the floor) Yeah Baby I'm going to BITE that cheese!!! [followed by evil giggles which continued until she innocently looked up at me!]

Where'd THAT come from!?!?! Where/when did she learn to say "Yeah baby" anything!? Does she get some kind of evil pleasure from biting cheese sticks!?!?

L: Tank you (Thank you)
A: You're welcome
L: Wuccum (welcome)
A: No, you're welcome.
L: Yes. Tank you. HOT DOG! (And runs to watch Mickey Mouse in living room with her victim.... the cheese stick).

Yeah, she's very polite but sometimes the pleases/thank yous/welcomes are either in excess or used inappropriately! :-)

Ahhh... 2 year olds are so special!

I should mention...

...how awesome the past 24 hours have been. I'm just having a great day already. Tomorrow is our yard sale, so I'm totally pumped about that. Today we have to haul everything into the hallway and finish arguing about what's going. We also need to figure out what we're going to SET things on. We might call Fr. Ed and beg him for a couple of tables.
I also have a massage this morning. Don't worry, it's not for fun. :-( I can't wait for my back to start healing a little bit. I have no idea what's wrong with it, but all the Tylenol in the world isn't working anymore. I'm not a "pain" person and anyone who knows me knows that I never stop moving. I have a really hard time feeling broken.
I got Lucy a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD last night. She's in heaven! Uh-oh, trash day! Gotta go!

Dontcha Forget, now!

The contest ends TONIGHT! Make sure you enter - make haste! Melissa is just dying to make you the perfect necklace! Her store is full of all sorts of awesome goodies, and might I add, you'd be very proud of yourself if you started your Christmas shopping now, wouldn't you? You might also consider the fact that it's still wedding season and there are a lot of sappy brides out there! Imagine being THAT friend who actually managed to capture the sentiment of the day with a family locket. Oh yeah...she might even forgive you for drinking too much at the reception.

Going, Going, Gone!

We sold our house today. It was on the market 36 hours and we made a healthy (unexpected) profit!

So, as of 7/24, we're homeless! If you know anywhere in the west MD area for rent please let us know!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!!! :)

ANDREW (AND THE GIRLS)

Update!

We got an offer last night, so that was thrilling. It was, however, a bit lower than we wanted to go and our realtor encouraged us to counter, so we'll be waiting around today to see how they respond. We'll keep you updated!

In the meantime, I'll let you in on Lucy's favorite song lately! She has this book and she and I read it over and over and over. She loves to dance while I sing it to her. I remember my grandpa Weaver singing it to me when I was very tiny, so I love that Lucy loves it, too.

PRAY PRAY PRAY!!!

I can see that there are about a billion people reading right now, so if you see this post, start praying! We're getting a second visit from last night's lookers, and it sounds like we'll be getting an offer. Can you even imagine? One day on the market wouldn't be so bad, now, would it?

A Good Day

It's starting out well, folks. Last night's showing was really, really positive. They saw six and have narrowed it down to our house and one outside of town. I took the girls out for a walk when they got here and as I was leaving I heard the girl say, "Oh! This one's not tacky!" So....there you have it. My house is not tacky.
My trusty car is back and the brakes are fixed! (To the tune of $450, but that's neither here nor there.)
We have another showing this morning, so us ladies are going to head to Gabe's to see what we find. I need a bathroom rug and light bulbs. Whee! This afternoon, we're just going to do naps and RELAX! We've spent so much time and energy cleaning that we really haven't had a chance to just sit down and play! Well, the girls and I haven't. Andrew and I went to Walmart together last night. As usual, that was a bad idea. We came home with a movie, milk and Double Stuf Oreos. It was major cheating, but it was nice to just watch our movie and hang out for the night. :-)
Andrew took tomorrow and Friday off to do more house stuff, so that'll be nice. 4 days with my honey bun! Okay folks, more later!

Contest, Contest!

I have no idea why this post is so far down on my page, so let me link to it HERE. Don't forget to enter to win a fabulous Brag About It personalized necklace!

Today, today!

The sign went up yesterday and our first showing is today around 4! I had no idea things worked that quickly around here, but there are very few homes on the market right no, so I'm guessing we're going to be busy showing this place!
Well, lots to clean before we rest! We did the entire basement last night and I still have to deep-clean the bathroom and find somewhere to stash all of the yard sale items. Yipes!

Vinylly, the perfect home!

When we decided to sell the house, I started thinking of ways to make people want to buy it. Obviously I've brushed up on staging my home, but I needed something that would make people think, "I've totally gotta live here."
Enter vinyl phrases. Now here's something that'll make you feel sentimental!

We stuck this $7 bad boy on the dining room wall last night and it looks AMAZING. With any luck, we'll snag a walkthrough with a person as sappy as myself and they'll be picturing Christmases and birthday parties before they even see the bathroom. That's the idea, anyway. These vinyl phrases are so pretty and they really added that "vinyl something" to the dining room. It takes up a big part of the wall and it just makes you smile when you walk by. Additionally, I've been more patient today. Because dagnabbit, we WILL have these moments to remember.

Post Script.

I have a little surprise for you! Stay tuned, y'all!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Happy Birthday To ME! For my birthday, my sweet Mama helped me have a gorgeous necklace made and it arrived today! I wanted something personalized with the girls' birth dates and I scoured tons of sites looking for the perfect one. I considered Nell and Lizzy, but the prices were outrageous and I actually really didn't like anything there that struck me.

What I did find was this:

I found this gorgeous locket made by a real peach of a gal, Melissa, who has an Etsy store called Brag About It. Oh, brag about it, I will! (If the link doesn't work, go to http://bragaboutit.etsy.com) I got it today in the cutest packaging and I was over the moon in love!

The ouside says "Better Together" which is the name of Andrew and I's song, and I added our anniversary because even numbers thrill my Andrew.

The inside has the girls' names and birthdates and a stamp of a lotus. Do you know WHY I chose a lotus stamp? Because a lotus blooms with the most perfect blossom even in the muddiest of water. The blossom never touches the water and it opens happily in the morning and closes peacefully at night. It blooms where it's planted, and that's a mighty nice thing, isn't it?

Needless to say, it's been a good day. Did I mention that this entire necklace PLUS shipping was under $40????

But that's not all, y'all! I wrote to Melissa and told her how tickled I was and she heard you all crying in envy. So she's going to make my dreams (and yours) come true by giving away one of these awesome lockets right here on this very blog! Hallelujah! Whether you have the perfect words to wear or you can think of something you'd love to give this to, now is the time to try your luck! (Somehow I get the feeling I'm going to see some lurkers coming out from the wings.)
All you have to do is leave a comment before 11:59 EST this Friday night. Tell us what you'll have put on the necklace if you win. If you don't have a blog or aren't in my cell phone contact list, also leave a way for me to reach you if you're the big winner. I'll draw a name at random.org on Saturday and will post the winner by 9pm EST on Saturday night. It's yard sale day, so noon might be a tad optimistic...

Good Luck, folks!