It's the Big Yellow Box, That Everyone Knows

I caught Zeke doing this, way back in December of 2006:

I caught Deacon doing this, back in April of 2008:

I caught Finn doing this, last month (May of 2011):

Look At Him Go!

First, let me apologize for it being such a slow month here on ye olde blogge. With my mom visiting, and getting ready for the movers to come (now that we have dates), and currently with me being sick (it's just a head cold, nothing too serious but enough to make me feel crummy) it's just been a crazy month. Also, we haven't really been doing much here. We go to parks and play outside when the weather's nice:

and we play inside when the weather's not nice:

All of that is just to say that besides being busy doing nothing, there really hasn't been much to blog about. I have been boxing up some of our stuff that has boxes (certain plates, coffee pot, etc) and moving all of the stuff that the movers are taking out of the pantry so I can now put the things I don't want the movers to take in there, with a big sign that'll read MOVERS STAY OUT! or something. I'm still working on the actual wording. I tell you what though, I think I'll be pretty happy when the movers have come and gone and there is a lot less stuff for Finn to mess with. It's exhausting trying to keep him out of things - especially since that whole "just distract them with something else" thing doesn't work on him.

And speaking of Finn, he has been doing something exciting that I've finally gotten around to taking a video of to share with you here:

That's right, Finn is walking! He's getting fast too. He started taking steps on his own while my mom was here at the beginning of the month, and slowly but surely he is getting the hang of it. Part of me wished he had waited a little longer because the thought of having to chase 3 walkers around airports makes me tired, but at the same time, I'm happy he's doing it now because he can walk at the airports instead of crawl all over those gross floors. Either way, it's going to be an interesting time.

And before I go, can someone else who uses blogger help me with something? I went to change the boys pictures on my sidebar the other day and they keep posting HUGE and I have NO idea how to resize them (either in blogger or on my computer in general) so that they are their normal size again. I feel like blogger changed some things lately and I don't like it. And to those of you who used to use blogger but switched, where did you go?

We Have Dates

Since I know most of you have been wondering what's going on here and when are we leaving, and all that jazz, I thought I'd let you all know what we know, now that we FINALLY know it. You see, for the longest time we were waiting for the movers to schedule our move. Once the movers scheduled the move, Josh could get tickets for the boys and me to fly to NJ. Once Josh got our tickets, I could then get his tickets from NJ to Alaska, so he could fly back with us.

Seems simple enough, right? Well, from here, the army decided that the only way to get on the mover's list of people who want moving is to use a website they set up. Since it's a military website it doesn't work real well, and it took us 3 tries (1 by me, 2 by Josh) to get us into the system. A week went by and neither one of us heard from them, so Josh called the office up here, only to find out that there are two forms he needs to sign and either fax and/or scan and email back before they'll look at the dates we requested - and NO WHERE on the site did it say this NEEDED to be done. Sigh. But he got it all taken care of and the movers will be here to collect our stuff on the 27th and 28th of this month. (That means blog posts will be shorter and done from my phone since they'll be taking my computer then, just so you're all aware of what's to come here.)

Once those dates were set in stone, oh, quick rabbit trail: they originally wanted to pack us on the 23rd and 24th (Thursday and Friday) then leave my house in boxes for the weekend, and come back on that Monday and Tuesday to load everything on the trucks. Yeah. Thankfully, the guy from the moving company came and did a walk-through and when I asked him if he would be willing to leave the beds together over the weekend and leave out a box for the linens he was shocked that they were planning the move to take 4 days and assured me it could be done in 2, so now they're just coming that Monday and Tuesday. Whew!

Now, once those dates were set in stone, Josh called SATO and got tickets for the boys and me to fly back to New Jersey. We leave the 15th of July and land in Newark on the 16th. Please don't read this as an invitation to start calling and trying to show up on the 16th. (Not that any of you would, of course. Lols.) We'll need at least a day to recover from travelling all night and to get things figured out there. But it is very exciting to finally know when we'll be back on the east coast.

Once our tickets were booked and confirmed and set in stone, I called the airline we're flying on and got Josh's tickets. Can I just say, that God is good? Not only did I manage to get Josh on the same exact flights as us, but I was able to get him seats right next to us! Like, we had seats A, B, C, and D (let's say) on one flight, and Josh is now in seat E. I was so excited that it worked out because I was seriously worried that he'd be in row 6 and we'd be in row 37 and I'd lose my mind. I also, got the cat his "ticket" for the cargo section of the flights so Peavey is all set to make the long flight back to NJ as well.

And since the army is sending Josh to NJ from Alabama (and rightly so, I guess, since he's technically not stationed here anymore) I got Josh a round trip ticket from Newark to Anchorage, and so he'll be back here on the 7th of July. Whoo-hoo! And yes, for those of you doing the math, that means we'll be here for 3 weeks with no stuff - but I have a plan, so it's all good. Two of those weeks, we'll still have no Josh, but he'll be here for the last week to help with shipping my car and doing a final house cleaning and clearing and all that jazz (and restoring my sanity a little after spending 2 weeks in a mostly empty house with 3 balls of non-stop energy).

And now that a post that I had planned on only being a few short sentences of dates has turned into a long-winded story about moving and tickets and nonsense, I'm going to get going. I wonder though, I wonder if they'll keep the stuff I have in diaper boxes in the diaper boxes, just tape them closed, put a number sticker on them and throw them into the crate?

I'm Ba-ack!

Hey everyone! SO sorry for my absence. As I mentioned in my last post, my mom was here visiting (for a week and a half) and so I decided not to blog while she was here. I used her time here as a little bit of a rest time for me. But she left last Wednesday, and now I'm here to write about her visit, because really, we did have a lovely time.

The day after my mom got here we it was Memorial Day so we just hung out and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. The following day, Tuesday, we went to the zoo (which I've already blogged about HERE). Then it started raining. And raining, and raining. It rained for pretty much the rest of her visit. So, we pretty much hung out the rest of the time.

Wednesday we still had lunch at McDs. Friday we went to storytime at the library. Saturday my friend Marci turned 50, so we went to her birthday bash for a bit. Sunday was church. The rest of the time was spent hanging around the house. I sure do know how to show guests a good time. The second Monday she was here it wasn't raining so we went to the playground at the school by us. But the Wednesday she left it was nice again so we went to the park for lunch.

Even though we really didn't do much while Grammy was here, we did have a really nice time. It was nice for me to have someone else around to have adult conversation with, and to have some help with the kids. Not to mention, someone else to read them books over and over and over again. It was nice having someone else to chase the boys around the playground so I could sit and chat with my friends a little. Someone else to help with the dishes and the picking up. Someone to watch "Better Off Ted" with (which, is hilarious, by the way). Too bad Grammy had to leave before we finished it - I should have started watching it earlier in her visit. We are so happy she came to visit, and we can't wait until we're in NJ and closer to family for awhile.