Amazing!

Our Trip to Wisconsin

I took the boys to Racine and Kenosha this past week to visit an old friend from Ann Arbor. Melissa and her son Gavin flew from Salem OR and we couldn't let them be so close without having a reunion. The boys had a blast! Here's a few clips of the events........

Skate Town.

The Jelly Belly Factory Tour

Gazing at the Mirror Ball at Skate Town.

"Home Boy" meets "Cooker Man"

"Frosty" but overall....not too cold!

Error

I just knew it seemed like more than that. For the official record, I forgot to mention our minny move to Grand Rapids in the summer of 08 for Mick's internship. That adds 2 more moves totaling 9 in the last 6 years. Nice!

We like to MOVE IT MOVE IT!!!!!

So here it is....2010! WOW! The family remains in Grand Rapids, content for now. At least for the next few weeks until we move again. I want to back track for a bit and shadow the past, say 6 years. How many times does the average person move in 6 years? Lets just say we are no where near average! So back in 2004 I made an exciting move out west, followed by Mick a few months later, how could he resist? (ME not Arizona silly!) So that's move #1, a big one or far one which ever? It was exciting to move back then. We settled into a cute little apartment on the north side of Phoenix. Along came Ky and we "needed" to have a house (and a dog....what were we thinking?) So move #2, our first house together as a family. Then the housing market went out of control and we realized, "hey we can make some money and buy a bigger nicer pad." That brings us to move #3 to the West side of Phoenix, nice place, not bad for a couple young kids with a baby, a dog (what were we thinking!!!) and a cat. A year later a law school admission letter came in the mail and welcomed move #4 back to Michigan (what was I thinking? Back to Michigan??? Thanks U of M) Three years later, the housing market is.....well, lets not talk about the housing market! Mick is done with school and we need to move to Grand Rapids for Mick's new job (Yes Mickey is getting a job! I know, I know, that was a lot to let out all at once, sorry) BUT we own this house (we could never rent again you know?) that we can't sell and need to move out of. What do we do? We let if foreclose!!!! NO NO NO we don't let it foreclose like the rest of the damn country, we rent it out. Simple right? No! The "perfect tenents" we found need to move in in June and we (I) am contracted until the end of summer ( or so I thought) So we happily took on move number..... hold on what number are we on? Oh yes, #5 about 10 miles down the road, a sublease until Aug. 1st so I can finish up my contract and Mick can study for the BAR. Then, my contract gets cancelled and I find myself commuting 2hours to work everyday to Grand Rapids!!!!!! UHG!!!!! The summer is coming to an end and we are near closing on our new home in Hudsonville (sub of Grand Rapids) and we find out there is a problem, an undisclosed easement in the back yard, something my husband could not live with. Now, this is where it got interesting, we have NO HOME and we need to be out of the sublease!!!! So we'll call this move #5.5, we buy a camper and go camping! Yes I said we moved into a campground for 2 weeks! Hey, it had WiFi! Over that 2 weeks we browsed the Internet endlessly and found a great house on some acreage for a great price. We place the offer, they except. But its a short sale and it could take months. I now endlessly search the Internet for another short term rental home and I'm in luck! A cute California contemporary house on the river. What a great place for the rest of the summer. That would be move #6. Now! So here I am blogging to you from that very house. Our lease was for 3 months and now month to month, perfect contract terms for not knowing when we can close on the new property. The house we are waiting on....big issues. The seller went bankrupt, home fell into foreclosure, we continue to wait! UGH! Our landlord tells me 3 days after Christmas that she will be renting our home out to a "needy family member" HELLO LADY I think we are as needie for a house as they come!!!!!!! So tomorrow we are on our way to check out an apartment. Yes folks that was no typo.....I said APARTMENT!!!! This will bring us to move #7 and then after the redemption period of the sellers bankruptcy I hope the bank will still agree on our purchase price and invite us to a very anticipated move #8 (that should have been move #5) DID YOU GET ALL THAT? I hope this year is NOT like last!

Showin' some love in 2009, Happy 2010!!!!

Our Second Child

Ugh!..... Sums up Nolan in the last few months of his life. He is a handful! Scratch that....Five handfuls! He has always been an extremely independent child, completely opposite of his brother. I have always dreamed of having a child like that . One who could cater a little more to his needs, entertain himself and so on. I am sorry for this and wish I could take all those dreams back1 Nolan is SSOOOO independent it is hard to deal with on a day to day basis! If you do something for him, anything, pick up toy, put his cup down, move his shoes, drive my car, yes I said drive MY car, the child will undue or try to undue whatever it is that you did and redo it himself. This makes for some major meltdowns when you do something he cant undue, ie flush the toilet or drive the car! Its hard to deal with a 2 year old who wants to pour a gallon of milk and or drive the car, some things he just cant! Try telling him!!!!UGH!

So the latest and greatest? OK, Mr. P was potty trained at 26mnths. YEAH! Good job! OK so why does this pose a problem? Well, when we moved Nolan decided if he doesn't get what he wants, he'll just pee! And on some occasions Poop! We are in the grocery store and he wants cookies, mom says no, Nolan says, "I'm gonna pee!" and does! WT%&@* I'm driving and Nolan asks to go to the playground and we are on our way to school, mom explains that we can't, Nolan, "I'm gonna Pee!" Kyan and Nolan are in the playroom and he doesn't get Ky's toy, yes you guessed it "I'm gonna Poop" This was a daily some times twice a day routine for awhile. So you might say just put diapers back on him? NO! for one he'd just take them off and for 2 heck no! He's trained, its all about control. A woman once told me the other day, "Kids have 2 things they can control, what goes in and what comes out" Isn't that the truth! In a way I feel its our fault because of what we did to our kids routine, basically we took their world and turned it upside down.

So things have turned around a bit. Naps are happening more smoothly (they are zzzzzzz as I blog) and a routine is slowly falling back into play. Just in time to probably move again in a couple months. And most importantly the peeing and pooping has become less and less in the pants! Oh except yesterday when the boys raced to the bathroom to play "swords" with their pee (don't ask, my fault, isn't that what all brothers do? Maybe just mine?) Anyway Nolan apparently changed his mind and decided to whip it out and pee all over the bathroom floor, "just because" he said. AAAAHHHH This kid! Oh this second child!

Fall Dayz!

Some great pics down by the river at our current home! The boys love living on the river it allows for some great after dinner fishin'!!!

Hello? Blog?.....are you there?

I'd be lying if I said I knew where to begin. It saddens me greatly that all this time has gone by with only 2 posts over the summer. So much has happened, so much has changed! Our lives have changed greatly! Ill do my best to do an update without writing a novel but it's gonna be tough!
We spent the summer in our rental house with grandma Debbie in Ann Arbor. Thank God this woman retired and volunteered her precious time to watch her crazy grandchildren while Dad studied for the BAR and mom traveled across the state to work! From swings in the trees and squirt guns in the front yard I'm not sure the kids could have had a better summer (with the exception of having their parents around a little more. Summer was rolling on and our up coming move to our new house in Grand Rapids was approaching fast. July had come to an end, Mick took his BAR (results pending) and our closing date on our house was in three days. This my Friends is when all hell brakes loose! As if our summer wasn't crazy enough. So we find out our future home in a "community" has an easement in the backyard. This would prevent us from putting up a fence unless we moved in in 10ft. My husbands thought on this....."Hell NO!" And that was the end of our future home........now we are homeless! Yes, I said homeless! So what do we do? We buy a camper and go camping DUH! Right when I thought our lives were about to slow down. HA! So within a couple weeks we find a house we both agree on again! WOW the last one took us over 4 months to find and agree on. I have to say I was a bit less picky, being homeless has that effect on me. Now, we need a place to rent. A short term lease in our new school district (so Ky wont have to switch schools) and one that will allow our nice small lap dog Doctor J. Hhhmmmm not so easy to find!!! Oh did I mention that our campground has WIFI? This made home shoppin' a breeze (please sense sarcasm there.....thank you!) Low and behold the last day before I was to condemn us to an apartment complex (a rather nice one) Up pops a short term lease! A 3 bedroom home in the Forest Hills School district and dogs are allowed! All topped off with river frontage!!! wooo woooo! Do we really need to come look at it? Well Take it!!!!! So this is where we stand, renting a cute little place on the river waiting for our new home ONCE AGAIN. If I've ever had a good excuse for not blogging....I think that's it!

So things have turned and seem to be going well. Ky loves kindergarten and is planning on having a party next month inviting all the boys in his class. He gonna be 5! Wow 5! He started Soccer this year and Mick is his coach. Not sure if the kids really know whats going on but its fun to watch, with the exception of trying to keep Nolan from running after the ball! Hockey also started this past week. This season he seems a little more reserved and I'm not quite sure why. But Mick thinks its because the amount of kids on the ice has tripled and its a bit more organized than the learn to skate program, more focused on actual hockey fundamentals. I'm sure he will come out of his shell in no time. He better for the price of ice time!!!

Nolan....well I'm going to save that for a post in its self! If anybody needs birth control let me know and Ill package my Pie up and send him your way!

Welcome back Blog!!! Ive missed you dearly and have thought about you daily!!!!