Time for 10

1. I'm still without TV and I'm just about ready to lose my mind. The Direct TV guy needed a 40 foot ladder to attach the dish to our house and a sub-contractor has to come and fish a line through the wall. I've decided that Sophie and I can just stay with my mom tomorrow night because I can't miss Lost for 2 weeks in a row.  

2. There is a grave yard in my new subdivision on the hill across from my house. I'm dying to get up there and check out my new neighbors. It looks super old so I'm morbidly curious to see who is buried there. And even weirder, one of my first thoughts when I noticed said grave-yard, cool photo ops!  

3. We had our first house guests on Saturday. Grammy and PapPap came down to visit and to help with a few things around the house. Now that we have room, we can't wait to have more guests!

4. Oscar the Boxer is in for a shocking surprise in a few weeks. We are getting an underground fence installed to keep his butt in our yard. Although, I'm glad that the thing has a money back guarantee on it because this dog doesn't seem fazed by much. I can see him calculating the risks of running through it. My money is on him saying "screw the shock, I'm running after that deer."  

5. And speaking of Oscar the Boxer, he is now officially OUT of our bed and on the floor where he belongs! In our old house we didn't have room for a dog bed in our bedroom and he ALWAYS has to be with someone. So I splurged on an orthopedic dog bed to put at the foot of our bed and he's been in it ever since. YAY!  

6. Little Bit is making her modeling debut on Saturday morning. HA! I got an email about a local photographer and a children's boutique doing a search for kids for their new spring/summer line of clothes so I signed the old girl up. Although I'm not quite sure if pig tails and pink chucks are the kind of kid they are looking for!

7. Gracie is having a birthday party at McDonalds in a few weeks and Sophie finds this to be the most exciting thing, EVAH. I wanted a McDonald's party in the 80's but alas the closest McDonalds was far far away. 

8. Do you think a cat could suffer from identity crisis? We are getting a boy kitten for Sophie's b-day, however, she insists on a girl kitty. So I figure it will be fixed anyway and we can just give it a girl name. That will work, right?

9. We are headed to Disney on Ice with Andrea and the Twinkies on Thursday. I haven't even told Sophie yet because I didn't want to hear the the constant, "is it time to go yet?"

10. I can't believe I'm posting this picture. What's up with my black slits for eyes? VOMIT!

35 Months

My Sweet Girl,

Today you celebrated your 35th month. Just one more and you'll be three! That fact is absolutely unbelievable to me. Your daddy and I sometimes get sad at the big kid you are becoming. You continue to tell everyone that you are getting a kitty when you turn 3. As luck would have it (or bad luck, that's yet to be determined), my roommate from college emailed me the other day to tell me that her sister's cat just had kittens and they will be ready for your birthday. So it looks like that birthday wish just might come true. I hope that it's one tough cat. I worry about you pulling a Lenny  on it by loving it a little too much. 

This past month has definitely been a roller coaster ride. And despite the few weeks of staying up way past your normal 8pm bedtime you've adjusted beautifully. You seem to love your new house and especially your new room. Gracie has already been over to play twice and without fail the two of you run to your room, slam the door shut, and get into trouble. Lets see, you locked us out on the first visit. The second visit the two of you decided to try out jumping on every single bed in the house and follow that up with a "we not doing nuffin." I guess Cindy Lauper said it best, "girls just wanna have fun."

So we've been without cable for going on 2 weeks now. So now we have watched the Wizard of Oz 8,993, 593 times. Actually, I can't say that we watch it. Instead, you like to stand in the middle of the room and act out every scene along with the movie. Is this normal? Do other kids sit on the fire place hearth, gaze longingly  out the window, and sing "Some Where Over the Rainbow" as though they are Judy Garland reincarnated? 

We are still going strong in gymnastics as well. Although sometimes I think I'd rather stick needles in my eyeballs than take you to another class. 9 classes out of 10 you like to run around the gym like a chicken with its head cut off. Your teacher must think you are a crazed lunatic or else she's seen kids worse and if she has, god help her. Climbing on anything and everything. Running as fast as you can down the vault mat. But you love it. More than anything, it's the one thing that suits you to a tee. 

Your imagination is hilarious! Already today you've been locked in a tower by a witch no less than three times. Gracie has shrunk to the size of your thumb and you carry her around in your hand, and you've tried and tried to teach Uncle Brian how to do a somersault but he just doesn't get it. Thankfully, you haven't tried to give me any toilet paper gifts. 

So happy 35 months Little Bit. I know that this past month has been hard on you but you've breezed through it with flying colors. I also know how happy you are to have your dog back after he spent a week in the kennel. I, on the other hand, am not so happy about that one. Good god, does that dog drool all over my new floors!!!!

 Love Mama

There's No Place Like Home

And home would be much nicer if we had phone and cable!! Verizon is currently 0 for 2 on showing up without even calling. At this rate, I figure that I won't be  paying a phone bill for at least 3 months because when I finally talk to someone there will be some butt kicked. The Direct TV guy on the other hand, did have the courtesy to call me yesterday to say that he wouldn't be able to make it and even agreed to come out today on his day off. And of course we came and went and we don't have any TV. We have to have someone to fish a cable through the wall. I'M DYING!!! I had to watch Lost on a Freaking Iphone screen for god sake! 

So God must have taken pity on me. He put a wireless Internet signal in the air. I can barely pick up and it's slower than slow but at least it's something! We are slowly adjusting to the new digs. A few days ago Little Bit asked me when we were "going home," which of course broke my heart all over again. Oscar the Boxer is here too. Last week he stayed in the doggy hotel while we moved. And we cringe every time we hear his nails on the hardwood floors. But houses were made to be lived in (and dogs, in my opinion, were made to live outside but I keep losing that argument). 

Oh and I guess I should explain why Sophie B is wearing a Dorothy costume in the middle of February. It was her Valentine's Day present. And since she wants a Wizard of Oz birthday party, I thought I would try to take some photos over her while I had the giant heart shaped lollipop to bribe her. In this particular picture, she's acting out the scene with the Lollipop Guild where they "wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land." 

Closing the door

Despite the craziness that has been our life for the past few months with selling our house and buying a new one. Despite the fact that we could have closed on our new house yesterday but my tax accountant husband wants to wait a week to see if this stimulus passes which will give us a HUGE tax credit. And despite the fact that I'm tired and worn out from packing, cleaning, unloading, carrying boxes, and having no home, I cried my heart out when I shut the door on our old house on Sunday.

I could feel it coming on. As I emptied each room, vacuumed and closed the door, I found myself opening the door back up for one more peek. I stood in Little Bit's room and remembered how it was hot pink when we moved in. I tried to etch in my mind where her crib was in her tiny little room. I looked in our bedroom that was so small you had to turn sideways to walk beside on side of the bed. Then I stood in our empty kitchen and I cried and cried and cried. I'm talking sobs. 

We lived in it for almost four years to the day. From August of 1996 to February of 2005 when we bought it, I had moved 11 times. I called it our shoe because it was so small. It was our first house. Our first home as a family. Where I almost set in on fire by melting a plastic lid in the oven. Where Oscar the Boxer shredded an entire package of toilet paper and it looked like it had snowed 6 inches. Where I lived when my Papaw Lonzo died. Where we brought Sophia to when we left the hospital. Where we almost froze to death when the electric went off during a blizzard. Where it took us hours to get home if there was a wreck on the main road. Where Santa and the Easter Bunny first came. Where the Steelers won the last 2 super bowls. And on, and on and on.

Now I'm sitting it this brand new house. It feels foreign and big and quiet because no memories have been made here yet. In fact, it feels empty. And despite being filled with a million boxes and furniture, it feels emptier than the house that we left 8 miles down the road.

Off Line

So our phone is getting turned off tomorrow and won't be turned back on until late next week. I FIGURED that we would be in our new house by Monday, however, Wells Fargo is the worst banking institution on the planet. So more than likely, we'll be living in a van down by the river come Monday because we have to be out of this house on Sunday! 

Hopefully, the next time I post it will be live from our new house! Or a van down by the river if they have wireless  Internet on the river  bank.

Click your heels three times...

and say "there's no place like home." 

And you thought Dorothy left her shoes in Oz. Little Bit loves the Wizard of Oz just about as much as she loves Dora.  Girlfriend has a birthday coming up in March and when I asked her what kind of party she wanted, she immediately said "Biz-ard of OZ!" And she says that she's going to be Dorothy, and daddy is going to be the Scarecrow. And I'm suppose to be someone else. I hate to break it to her but that ain't gonna happen. But as I was looking online today for Wizard of Oz party stuff, I came across these little numbers. Exhibit A: the Cowardly Lion. Also available in Plus Size. Good to know. 

And I told my friend Stephanie (Gracie's mommy) that she should wear Exhibit B to the party. 

 

Gawd, can you imagine! Talk about making a bunch of three year old cry at a party! 

Moving Day

I wonder if the new First Family sang this one as they moved into the big house? Well I have been! I've loved our little house but I'm beyond excited to have a bedroom that I can put night stands on each side of the bed! I'll post more about the move later because right now  I'm off to watch the Steelers (while sitting on the floor) bring down the Steel Curtain. Joel and Curry, thank you SOOOOOO much for helping us out today.