Some Snowy Pics

Here I am after beginning to shovel through Blizzard #1 this February. We already had about 24" at this point, with another few inches more... and Blizzard #2 coming later.

Here are Mike and I at "ICE" at the Gaylord at National Harbor on New Year's Day. The wreath behind us (as in every single display) was carved from ice. It was 7 degrees inside. Man, wish I could've used these parkas in the blizzards!

Our new homesite. Lot 79. Reagan and Mike are walking up what will be our driveway one day. The driveway basically sits at the right edge of our lot. It almost completely ends just to the right of Mike. The hill to the right is the property of what will be a model home one day. Leave it the Hollars to choose and buy a house/lot in several feet of snow. We basically had to trust the plots at the office to really describe the lots. But we couldn't really wait... the builder actually sold SEVERAL lots during the blizzard. And our second choice was sold almost immediately after we gave it up... we met the people who picked it while at the Design Studio. Hmmm....I wonder what these lots will look like once the thaw hits?! Hope we chose the best one. Ha! That single skinny tree in the middle is funny. It's part of a group of trees/brush in our "front yard". We need to name that tree. It's so obvious. Any ideas? Skinny? Toothpick? Harry? I know these blizzards were a fluke, but if we ever get snow again, we're gonna need a serious snowblower and/or plow for a tractor! The piles in front are just the 4' snowpiles made by plowing the road. Last week when we drove out here to finalize our decision on lots, Mike walked through snow that went up PAST his knees to see the lot. I just said, "I'll trust your opinion." LOL I have yet to go up there to see the actual lot in whole.

This is our lot. The white poles in the back line the left side of the lot. The steps you see are where the house will one day be built. The trees in the back are ours. Five acres total. We came out here after signing the contract to slap the "SOLD" sticker on the lot number. How fun. I trudged through other's footsteps while wearing black loafers to stick that sticker on. One loafer fell off (that was fun). Ugh. You can see me in the photo of the previous entry (It's 2010!) with my back turned. I had to just turn around at the waist since I was standing in previous footsteps and was basically trapped. Note to self: buy some winter boots already!

It's 2010!

Since Facebook exists and has all of my friends on it, I've pretty much allowed this blog to fall by the wayside. However, lately I've found myself wanting to vent and write. We have a lot going on these days, and I just can't type it all in my status updates. :-)

We are all doing well... all six of us. Gracelynn is making great strides in becoming a typical American child. She is still quite the spunky, active lit

tle girl who makes you want to pull your hair out at times, but it's amazing to see how far she has come. I figure God knew what he was doing when he connected her little red thread to us. He must have thought, "Hmmm.... Christy and Mike just don't have enough excitement in their lives. It's too easy."

She and Tommy are fairly good playmates, at times. But like all siblings, that only lasts so long. Ha! Fortunately they are beginning to show their own individual interests that sometimes keeps them busy on their own. Tommy is a Lego-maniac these days. He shows me websites of his favorite Lego sets that he NEEDS NOW constantly. Even those ones that aren't sold in the USA, he's determined to get from Santa at Christmas since Santa can make anything. Who decided that wonderful "fact"? If he isn't building new

Lego vehicles, he's playing Lego Star Wars or Lego Indiana Jones on the PS3 or DS... or scanning the Lego website for games and videos.

Gracelynn loves to draw and make artwork. Unfortunately due to her insistence in using drawing materials in ways that are destructive, she's usually only has access to Color Wonder products. Oh, how I LOVE Color Wonder! She also received a Melissa and Doug wooden castle for her birthday, so she's been playing with that a lot... even making Lego people and food to go along with the wooden characters.

Ben and Reagan are really growing up and making me feel old. Ben is almost a middle schooler, for crying out loud. He's into Spore and creating new worlds of dinosaurs and other creatures. Reagan is my writer. Even her teacher says that thoughts and ideas just pour from her little mind constantly. If she's bored, she'll write stories (books!) She's still in Brownies and soccer, too.

As for Mike and I, we have big news. No, no... not another child. LOL We're out of room! Which lead us to begin looking into the possibility of moving sometime. We honestly thought with the economy and the housing market these days that moving wouldn't happen for awhile. However, we happened to stumble into an amazing situation.

I've always loved this one neighborhood about 15 minutes from our house, still in the same county. It's tucked back in the middle of the woods, down a long dirt road. I first went out there for a Freecycle pickup. A few weeks later, I dragged Mike down that road to show him this neighborhood that I fell in love with. A few months later, I began going to a hairdresser that lived in that neighborhood. And so, I kept going back and back and back. When we bought our Sequoia last year (yes, we did get it), I immediately drove down that ol' dirt road back to that neighborhood to try out the 4WD... even taking my fam

ily back there to show them this beautiful neighborhood tucked in the woods.

Well, we went out there, just for a drive... just to see if any homes were on the market. Nothing was at the time, but what a shock.... we saw this amazing sign at the entrance! NEW HOMES were being built there!!! So, it didn't take long for me to start researching this.... checking out the models, checking out the prices, contacting the sales agent, etc. We went out to talk to the sales agent, totally expecting the house we needed (enou

gh bedrooms, etc.) to be way out of our price range. In order for this move to be worth our while, we needed at least 5 bedrooms, a bigger kitchen, and more space. After talking to the agent for awhile, I began getting completely giddy inside. Mike and I drove separately that day, so I couldn't even talk with him until we arrived home. I about exploded when I found out that Mike was as excited as I was.

And so... the adventure begins. After days and weeks of total stress and tears, trying to talk to real estate agents and loan officers and building sales agents and parents and children, we finally agreed it was worthwhile to take the plunge.

We have now officially signed the contract on a new home.

It will sit on the lot of our choice, on 5.1 acres. (The lot-choosing alone was stressful enough... and we still aren't positive we made the right choice. Ha... too late now, gotta be satisfied now!) Our kids will finally each have their own, decent-sized bedroom, and our kitchen will never run out of storage space. Our pantry will finally hold all of the food necessary to keep on hand for a family of four growing kids. We even added a third garage to store all of our bikes, lawn mowers, moonbounce, sports equipment and more.

The house is a little unique in that the stairs are tucked back in the side of the house (not in the middle of the house), there is an attached third garage at a d

ifferent angle than the other two, an attic/loft rec room and extra bath and extra den/bedroom on the third level, plus a Jack-and-Jill suite in the back of the house. The boys will share a bath, but the girls will essentially each have their own bathrooms. Ahhh.... preparing for those teen years. Yet, the square footage isn't insane and the house looks like a modest-size home (not those "McMansions" people gawk over). Basically it's as if the builder knew our needs and made a house to give us just enough extra space to fit our needs, yet not going bonkers on price or size!

We are obviously not finishing the basement just yet, and the

kids are actually excited about having space once again to rollerskate without getting cold in the garage and without getting yelled at on the hardwood!

Now comes the fun in picking out all the goodies. Unfortunately most of those goodies means $$$. Bummer. So, we did pick the exterior colors... Pebblestone Clay (tan) w/ Spanish Moss (dark green) door/shutters and Almond trim/garage door and a stone watertable and speckled black shingles. I wanted very natural colors to go well with the woodsy neighborhood and this scheme fit the bill.

I don't know the exact amount, but I'm guessing about 1 acre i

s sodded/seeded and the rest is wooded. It's a really WEIRD shaped lot, but oh well... it's woods! Chances are if you run in a straight line into the woods, you'll probably stay in our property for a little while... but that's not necessarily a sure thing. There are definitely some weird little angles in there, too. Ha! I guess my dad is more like me than I thought. The fact that the lot isn't a straight line shape (aka... triangle or rectangle) is bugging him. He keeps saying "why?" I'm the sort of weirdo that would walk into a room and totally obsess over the fact that they didn't put the desks/tables/altar/windows/furniture in a perfectly symmetrical arrangement in the room... even if that meant that I didn't watc

h the performance, or listen to the professor or pastor while I tried to internally reason why they wouldn't make the room symmetrical. Things like that just BUG me. I even squint from my hallway to eyeball my living room furniture daily to make sure the middle of the sofa lines up perfectly with the middle of the coffee table, the middle of the rug and the middle of the TV armoire. I guess Dad is like that too. Is that OCD... or just the sign of a mathematical mind? I like to think the latter. Ha! Oh well... it's woods... who cares where the lines are?

Well... off to clean a little. Gotta house to sell soon... anyone need a four bedroom cute little house in Northern VA?

2009!

Well, it's about time I get back to blogging! Whoops... the last few months sort of passed me by. It's embarrassing to say, but Facebook has wiped out almost all of my Internet time lately. Ugh... frying my brain cells, as the newest study has indicated. LOL. And we've sort of been under the weather this year....

2009 hasn't gotten off to a great start just yet. Christmas was good, and we were able to celebrate with family at our home. It was nice and relaxing... but shortly after the New Year, we were hit with illnesses. It started the first week of January with recurrent corneal erosion in Christy's right eye... on a SUNDAY morning, when no eye doctor is in the office. Tissue began to tear away from the cornea. After 5 eye-doctor appointments in two weeks, I thought I was back to normal. Till 7 weeks later, when it reoccurred! Ugh. It's a very painful process, but fortunately within days the eye mostly heals. The biggest problem with corneal abrasions is that your eye never fully heals, and the new tissue doesn't attach properly. So, it's always susceptible to this problem in the future, especially with the extreme dry-eye problem that I have. What a future I have ahead of me... corneal erosions for life? ACK! My problem began in 2003 with a corneal abrasion from a piece of wood. NEVER try basketweaving on your own without goggles!!! Don't laugh... I kid you not. And thus, I've never touched basketweaving since.

After the first eye incident, I went in for tendonitis in my shoulder. My shoulder had for nearly a year been aching at night and in the morning. The pain started becoming worse around the holidays, to the point of throbbing all day too. So, a good course of prednisone stopped that. Whew... by this point, I was really feeling old.

Then we had a few good, healthy weeks. (except for a hobbling knee injury from hula-hooping on the Wii Fit... again, I kid you not!) And then WHAM! Ben got sick (stomach bug), quickly followed by Gracelynn (who... by the way... threw up all night without telling us... she's a pro at getting to the toilet, flushing and forgetting... never fussed!!), then Reagan got it (and needed ER assistance to stop the dry-heaving), then Mommy (me!), quickly followed by Tommy... and then, our poor caretaker, Mike. Yes, in 6 days, it hit every one of us!!! What a miserably horrible horrible week that was!

So... to say the least, by this point, I had already missed a few weeks of work. After the stomach bug, we all began to recuperate by Friday/Saturday of that week. Until... Sunday morning. Mommy woke up at 4:30 to feel "RIP". Yep, the second occurrence of corneal erosion this year. Ugh. Fortunately this time I didn't have to scream in agony for 24 hours again while awaiting an eye doctor appointment. We did call the doctor on call (who by the way, must not be used to eye emergencies at 5am on Sunday mornings!) After basically hearing that I was to endure the pain till Monday, take some painkillers and keep my eye closed all day... Mike asked if I could use my contacts to cover the wound. She said yes. Talk about immense relief. I went from screaming to calm in about 5 minutes. Daily contacts make terrific bandaids! (This is the way the doctor's office treats the problem, too.) By the time I got to the doctor on Monday, the wound had "healed". Whew!

Reagan had another brief reoccurence of some stomach thing, and I've had a few migraines throughout... but I really think that maybe we are on the mend (KNOCK WOOD). Mike and I had our physicals this week. He's in the clear... my blood results still aren't back, but I'm not expecting any major problems. Could it be that we may be good-to-go for awhile? Shouldn't say that... Influenza A and Influenza B are hitting the schools with a vengeance lately. Can my kids stay well??? Now I see why people homeschool! (Only teasing.) Fortunately my preschool class has been fairly well... almost no absences! Woo hoo!

Ugh. Our doctors are buying new convertibles with the bills we're racking up!

Mommy hosted a Pampered Chef in there somewhere too... and is now super-stocked on PC products... woo hoo! Daddy celebrated his 29th birthday again... and has yet to buy his birthday gift (Mommy was out of ideas this year!) Reagan had her 8th birthday and a small party. We learned of our good friends being chosen for an adoption! (YAY Karen and Neil). Their arrival should make his appearance any day now. Oh... I'm sure I've missed out on a lot more, but those are the things I can remember right now. LOL We're also in the midst of planning a Disney vacation in November, too. If anyone has any advice on what NOT to miss, please email me!

Here are some photos of the last few months, in reverse order since the Mac isn't allowing me to click and drag photos to new spots and I don't have the time to fuss with this. LOL

Perhaps our new car? A Toyota Sequoia... our next adventure in another month or so. This is Reagan at the DC Auto Show, testing out the Sequoia. Can I just say that I love the term "Adoption Credit" these days?

Ben, without BRACES! He has a retainer, which he wears most of the time, but his cheeks aren't as puffy anymore. When he's out playing basketball at Upwards, he takes it out. I can seem the gleaming straight white teeth from the bleachers! YAY! All that work with braces and headgear and expanders worked!!! :-) Reagan is supposed to start her orthodontic work this summer...

Happy 8th Birthday Reagan. We are down to "small parties" nowadays with the older kids. We just had a kick-back easy craft and movie day. I'm guessing the "small parties" will be phased out in another year or two.

We took the kids with my parents to Baltimore's Port Discovery one day at the end of December. The kids had a ball! The adults were exhausted!

All eight of us (minus me taking the photo) at our Christmas Dinner. Mike's parents were in town that weekend. We were able to use our new placemats and had a lovely fried-turkey meal by Ukrops. Yummy!

Our traditional "top o' the stairs" photo as the kids anxiously await our okay to go dive into the Christmas gifts. We have to stop having kids... can't fit anymore across that top stair! They are sporting their new Christmas PJs. :)

This was Christmas Eve, after our church's service and the last reading of a Christmas book in our 24-day reading countdown. (I think it was Franklin's Christmas by the looks of the book on the table.) The kids get to open just one present on Christmas Eve... their new PJs for Christmas photos! :)

It's Christmastime!

Woo hoo! It's finally December, so now I can be outwardly Christmas-y and not hide the fact that I've been listening to Christmas music for 2 weeks now! (much to the chagrin of my loving husband who is a staunch believer in no Christmas till after Thanksgiving!)

We are ALMOST done decorating. Somehow this year, it didn't happen all in one day. It took about a week. That's what happens when you work part-time, have 4 kids in the house, and go away for Thanksgiving. But we're getting there. The only thing left is to hang the ornaments on the back-room tree. I'm so frustrated too, because I cannot find the tree skirt that I hand-made before we were married. It's not quite my style anymore, but I'm so proud of my cross-stitching, sewing and quilting skills in it. It's truly amazing that the thing is still in one piece after 13 years... crafty as I am, sewing is NOT my forte. It may be that a red throw blanket becomes the tree skirt this year. Ugh.

I had heard that my too-much-like-me, decorative and crafty friend Christy (yes, same name) had 9 Christmas trees last year... so guess who went out and bought 6 more this year! :-) I figure if she can do it, than I'm perfectly allowed to do it too. Hee hee. I now have 11 trees in this house... ooops... I mean 13. Now, before you think I'm totally nuts, 5 of those trees are the 4' tall skinny kind that are tucked out of the way and are lighted only, and 6 of those are 18" tall and sit on tables/dressers. Those ones are decked out in plastic bulbs or other simple decorations (unbreakable). So, really, we only have two big trees. All fake, yes. Sorry. Enough allergies in this family to warrant avoiding real trees. Besides the fake ones shed enough... I couldn't imagine the mess I'd make with a real one!

As for the outdoors, however... we aren't as lavish. I refuse to climb a 20 foot ladder to install lights at the roof. Kudos to those that do. After Mike's broken arm last year and my adversity to cold weather, we're just not going to do it. Mike and I are also not crazy about the blow-up decorations (although we love to see them in others' yards so please keep blowing them up!). So, we have two spotlights, a couple of lighted trees, a garland over the door, and wreaths on the windows. That's enough for me. Easy enough to take down quickly with snow on the ground. LOL

Here is Gracelynn hanging her very first Christmas tree ornament! I'd love to be able to read her mind. She just seems to go with the flow. No questions, no puzzled expressions. She must be wondering what just happened to our house, which is now jam-packed with funny trees and lights. She must look at these pictures and books of Santa Claus, and think "Who is that funny-looking man and why should we be good for him?" She must wonder what all these packaged goodies are. We now have 5 secret pal/santas among the 4 kids and are secretly dropping off packages of toys at people's houses. She's probably wondering, "What is that for? Why can't I keep that toy?" Not to mention that the poor girl's birthday is this Sunday. She's already celebrated her birthday twice with gifts and cake... once with Gran/Granddad and once with Nana/PapPap/Aunt Tracy/Uncle Tim. Oh just wait till the Chuck E Cheese party on Saturday and her birthday dinner on Sunday. That little girl is going to think that these birthdays are supposed to last a month! She's going to go into gift-withdrawal come January. Yikes!

Fortunately she seems to be catching on about Jesus. She knows her special grace prayers and knows that Jesus is always with us. She loves carrying her new Bible (from Child dedication day) to church each Sunday, even if she never has to open it. She loves going to church and seems to recall the stories better than I'd expect. So, at least the Nativity and the real reason for the season isn't lost on her. Granted, she's just almost-four, so I'm sure she doesn't truly understand Jesus. But at least she'll understand why Christmas is so important to us.

We started the Advent Calendar and the Surprise-Christmas-Book opening last night. We have a string of mittens on our wall with the gifts for the advent calendar. I'm hoping the kids realize that now we won't be receiving quite as nice gifts in each mitten. 25 days x 4 kids... can't do the $1.00 toy per kid per day anymore! But I did throw in a few nice surprises... things I would've just bought anyway. Yesterday, on Day One, they got a note about getting Charlie Brown's Christmas DVD. So, after opening the mitten, they all settled in for a bowl of popcorn and a movie before bed. You would've thought that a DVD would be exciting. Tommy was in tears. He kept asking to open ANOTHER mitten. He wanted the candy. LOL Well, considering how cheap 4 candy canes are... he won't be disappointed often. What book did we read? The Legend of the Poinsettia. Oh, how I love Tomie dePaola. My kids probably weren't as excited, but I just ADORE his sweet little illustrations. (Witch or not... Strega Nona must be in the top 5 books I love.) I keep buying more and more Christmas books... I think if I were to wrap them all, we'd have a book-a-day for about two months. LOL At least there are surprises each year when it's time to open them!

So, do we like Christmas? I do believe so. And what a month this is going to be... our babysitter is going to LOVE us. LOL

Sore Throats and Rashes

This last week, we've had a few sickies here. Grace began on Monday complaining of a sore throat and of a mild tummyache. On Wednesday morning she began having a red rash over her bottom. I thought she was having an allergic reaction to something she ate or drank.

She had strep. The rash was a reaction to the strep. Since Tommy was in the office too, I went ahead and had them check him. Ever seen a child break a strep-culture-swab in half? I did! The doctor also checked him out. The first thing she did was listen to his heart. He looked at her like she was nuts and said, "My heart's not broken." LOL

Sure enough. That test was positive, too. He had NO symptoms at all. I'm glad mother's instinct kicked in to do a test "just in case". Besides, I was about to head over to drop Tommy off at preschool. So glad I did the test. He may have infected more kids.

So, Grace and Tommy and I were home from school on Thursday. I'm not sure if anyone out there has ever had a child with a terrible rash reaction to strep before. I looked it up on the web (a very reliable source, you know?) The articles I found referred to the rash as scarlatina (scarlet fever). The rash itself had me freaking out for a day or two. If you can imagine a bad sunburn with small blisters, this looked just like that... but in the area that your underwear would normally cover! After a day or two of the bright red, blistery rash, it began to peel and look all shriveled. Now, 5 days later, I can report that *most* of the peeling is done and *most* of the skin looks healthy and normal. Poor little girl. Fortunately the only time she really complained was when she was undressing or using the bathroom.

The things we learn each day, huh? I'd heard of fever, sore throat, headache, and even nausea with strep before... but never the blistery rash. So one day when your child is diagnosed with strep THROAT and breaks out in a blistery, peeling rash. They are (believe it or not) related.

Fortunately all looks well with both kids now. Also, (knock on wood) no other family member has caught it from Grace or Tommy yet. Maybe it's over. Here's hoping. I've missed too many days of work with Election Day and illnesses... it's time to get back and make some money. LOL

Oooooohhhhhhmmmmmmm.....

Reagan's soccer team would do this before a game. One night I found these kiddos practicing...

Here are some wintry shots... taken inside, of course.

Economic Woes?

Ok, we are feeling the pinch. As is most everyone I know. Grocery bills, high energy costs, etc. But we live in a "wealthy" county... or so the Census tells us. I personally don't know a lot of wealthy people here, but I know they exist. I've seen their homes and cars and airplanes and car stickers of their children's elite academies. To add to that, I just saw today a new sign. Posted to a telephone pole was a sign that read, "We hang Christmas lights" with a phone number. Now, really. In these times when everyone is trying to watch what they spend and stick-to-a-budget, are there people out there able to afford to hire someone to hang their Christmas lights? Mike and I refuse to step foot onto a 20' ladder in cold weather continuously along our house in order to hang lights. Why? Because you then have to do it all over again in January. LOL I applaud everyone else who does... I just know I'd end up with frostbite and a broken arm. However, we are definitely Christmas-decoration-loving people. So, I hang the wreaths on the windows, prop up a few lighted trees in our foyer, decorate the bannister, put out a spotlight, and hope they look festive. :0)

I'm not knocking the concept of doing this business, though. I think it's quite innovative, and I applaud those who found a niche that wasn't being addressed. In this county, I'm sure they'll find many a person to pay for someone else to hang Christmas lights. I know in our neighborhood alone, I think about 90% of the homes decorate with lights at Christmas (if not more). Someone will be willing to pay others to win that first-prize ribbon! LOL I think we'll just continue our tradition of "low lights" ... and set a timer to save on electricity to boot. :-)