halloween happenings

brace yourself for this primarily pictorial review of halloween happenings in our household...

waiting for the parade at school and then our two paradettes
(take note that JASON is actually at an event, at school, during the day and not stuck in an impossible-to-get-away-from job!!)

princess leia
princess rosella
from barbie as the island princess (but you all knew that, right??)

spiderman

cute halloween kid

the whole fam damily

our house decorations and pumpkins (round two)
but the scariest thing i saw this halloween was in the car i parked next to in the meijers parking lot...i think it's a dog...

migraine day

it's another migraine day for me today, and another trigger...

so i'm at the fitness center this morning, gearing up for my long workout day (the 2 hour one) - full regime of weights and an hour on the treadmill.

i gather my record sheet (i track the weight machines and how much weight, reps, etc) and head to the machines and turn on my zen (mp3 player). the battery is so low that it turns right back off...great...an hour on the treadmill and i won't have my 80s playlist to keep me going? i think not. so i leave my clipboard by the weight machines and return to the coat rack to put my zen back in my bag. while there, i notice a woman i had just passed in the hallway examining the fitness class schedule and talking to one of the fitness center helpers :) i listen for a bit as i've been hesitant to do one of the classes...then i decide i'll join the conversation.

i'm usually at the fitness center on tuesdays and thursdays at about 915am. there are two classes offered at 930 - fun & fitness and bootcamp. now which of those two do you suppose is better suited for me?? so my first day at the fitness center i inquire about the fun & fitness class, labeled on the descriptions for beginners. i am told that class is in the senior center. um, no. the 'new girl' had just been told the same thing...and is now faced with the same prospect i have faced for the last two months - bootcamp or treadmill? seems like a no brainer.

the fitness center helper talks to the bootcamp leader and says she'll be out to talk to us about the class. she is very kind and helpful and tells us that she'll show us the 'low impact' versions of what the bootcampers do..but that this is a very high intensity class and the people that come really like it that way.

"new girl" and i opt to give it a go...i put my clipboard away, gather my belongings and head to the studio for class.

omg.

i felt like i kept up pretty well, really. the 'regulars' were very entertaining with their whooping, etc. 'new girl' left half way through class. i stayed til the end, doing some adjusted stuff and some of the high impact, too. at the very end, while laying on my back holding a huge pilates ball between my ankles...it hit.

and it's still going...many, many milligrams of my ibuprofen...even my migraine meds, and two naps today have not put it aside. back to the internet for more research. sure enough, yet another migraine trigger.

from one website i found:

"We think migraine sufferers have a heightened neurological system," says Newman. "They're more apt to develop a migraine when anything is out of the ordinary -- when they get up too early, go to bed too late, skip meals, etc." For that reason, Newman suggests that people prone to migraines establish not only a schedule of eating and sleeping regularly, but also of exercising on a regular basis.

this paragraph sums up my life, really. now to continue to find ways to treat it...but one thing is for sure, no more bootcamp for me!

decorations

on the drive back from jason's parents' house tonight to our house there is a home that is always a bit 'overboard' on the decorations for holidays - christmas is by far a 'griswold-type' display, with easter and halloween close behind. since it was dark we were pointing out the decorations to the kids.

as we continue driving (past the airport, aka large field) we encounter tonight's KQOTD:

Porter: WOW! Look at THAT big decoration!
Lilly: Porter that's the town and they have their lights on cause it's dark.
Porter: Oh.

bandits AGAIN

drove into the driveway this morning after dropping off the kids at the in-laws so jason and i could spend some qt with hazardous chemicals and paint...

jason looks at the front porch and says "where's our pumpkins?"

you guessed it...last night...bandits made off with all but one of our pumpkins.

happy halloween to you, too, you #$%$#@#$*&^%^!

ikea

i made my first trip to an IKEA store last weekend. i skipped all the way through the parking lot, thoroughly amusing the employee gathering carts, and reminding my friend tara that there are occassions when one might think i've been temporarily released from my special white jacket...

we only had about an hour and a half to spend in the store before they closed and it was not nearly enough, though somehow in that time i managed to spend hundreds of dollars...hmmm.

anyway, my primary shopping goal was to outfit my office/scrap room. for years i have used jason's old desk as my scrapping surface. his desk being a solid wood door resting on two file cabinets. it worked beautifully at my house in grand haven, however the new scrap room is a bit smaller and the dark wood door, combined with the dark wood paneling in the room, made it stiffle my creativity.

so, off to IKEA i went, with kate and tara to scope out desk options (i had previously done some research online, so i had some idea of what i wanted so as to not be completely overwhelmed by the greatness of the IKEA showroom).

i bought this light for the girls bedroom (have to find a new ceiling plate to cover the hole left by the giant ugly ceiling fan that this replaced).

i also bought a big roll of paper for the kids to use to paint and color on. i bought some really cool hooks that i'll put in the kid bathroom instead of towel bars, whenever we get to THAT room.

and then pretty much everything else i bought was for my scrap room. got the tables/desk, rail system and chair. LOVE IT. and now my creativity is flowing again.

10 days

since i last worked out. molly was sick last week, and being the thoughtful mother that i am, i decided not to infect all the other snot-nosed kids at the 'drop-in babysitting' to make them even more snot-nosier, so i wasn't able to work out. sometimes i think it would be nice for the community center to be open 24 hours so that i wouldn't be so 'bound' to their timetable...cause i COULD go work out at 10pm any night of the week, but NO, they're not open...and then i remember sometimes when i'm in the detroit area and i drive by a bally fitness that IS open 24 hours and i think about how obsessive and ridiculous it is that there are actually people there voluntarily sweating at all hours.

anyway, i digress. so it had been 10 days since i worked out. i usually don't work out on the weekends because i treat it more like family time and time to get stuff done around the house...which is slowly progressing into our home. well, i made it back yesterday, and both molly and i felt the impact of not having been there in so long...

first, she screamed like a banshee at the mere thought of my leaving her in the babysitting center. she usually cries for a bit, but yesterday, i stood outside the room 'hidden' for a good 5 minutes while she screamed, convinced that Ms. Nikki was going to come out to get me to calm her down and say sorry, but 10 days is too long and she's forgotten how this works and now you can't leave her. much to my delight, however, she calmed down enough that i could sneak down the hall to the fitness center. when i returned to get her later, ms. nikki pointed out that today was such a great day that molly managed to actually SMILE at someone. wahoo, she's making progress.

as usual, i started with the weight machines to gear up for an hour on the treadmill. it really takes a lot more for me to do the 30 minutes on the ellipticals so, i opted for the treadmill to ease myself back in. needless to say, i could definitely tell that it had been what seemed like forever since i was there, but it was good to be back. i did 3.6 miles on the treadmill, and decided maybe i'll start gearing up for a 5K run/race...though i imagine that most 5k runners complete their run in less than an hour, which is what it takes me to go that far on the treadmill...so, i might have to pick up the pace a bit!

what was not good, however, was that i spent a lot of time listening to the tvs instead of my mp3 player - listening to fox news talk about the california wildfires. (i don't normally watch fox news cause i think they're more 'sensationalized' than actual news, which did prove to be the case, however, i don't get to pick what channels are on, and it was the only tv that was covering the fires...and i chose that over rachel ray, who makes me nauseous.) anyway, several people have called or emailed to ask how my brother is doing, and my only news is that i heard from my dad that he is evacuated and safe with very few belongings...any prayers you can send his way that may protect his apartment and storage unit would be greatly appreciated.

forever

KQOTD
on the way to preschool this morning...

Porter: I'm a big boy now, right Momma? Cause I been a kid forever.

pumpkin patch

after watching newspaper ads for the last few weeks, and doing an internet search, we found a pumpkin patch today that would have enough activities to keep us occupied for awhile, and boy, oh, boy, we found the right one!

we took a hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins, fed ducks and other assorted aviaries, saw lots of baby animals, bought some donuts and other outdoor decorations (we drove two cars so i could fill up the back of jason's trailblazer with all my finds - well, not exotic finds - just the usual bale of straw, corn stalks, gourds and pumpkins for everyone!), played on the playground and went through a 3-d straw bale maze (we opted against the 13 acre corn maze this year!)

notice molly and jason's festive apparel....jason had his orange crocs on too, which caught the attention of the family farm workers the moment we arrived. jason's also excited that at this time of year he can buy orange colored rubbermaid totes. go figure.

anyway, it was a fun adventure!

KQOTD
Porter: You guys go into the bathroom. I don't want to see you kiss.

KQOTD

so i saw this on another blog and thought, hey, i could totally add that to my blog...

KQOTD - kid quote of the day

so here's today's
KQOTD:
Porter: "I didn't get my pajamas on. Know why?"
Jason: "No, I don't know why."
P: "Well, I know why."

migraines

well, it's been a 'migraine day' for me.

i am a migraine sufferer. i have been for as long as i can remember. i have several triggers, but i finally pinned down another one today.

frequently when i see a play or movie, i end up with a low grade migraine. usually sleeping that night with a dose of ibuprofen solves my problem, but recently that hasn't been the case, and today, for example, after watching what was one of the best productions of 'godspell' that i've seen, i had a migraine that started a little before intermission and carried me well over into this morning. thank goodness with jason's new job he could go in a little late to help me with meds to 'break the cycle' of the headache so that i could care for the kids today. i was, unfortunately, unable to help the girls with their 'picture day hair' (they love having it curled) as i was thoroughly, completely and utterly unable to get out of bed this morning.

so i finally did some internet research to find out WHY i keep getting headaches when seeing shows...and i found the answer - sensory overload...too much stimulation. in a house with 4 kids ages 7 and under, it's sitting quietly in a theater that gives me a migraine. go figure.

4 hours of exercise in one day...

....never again.

I've been very committed to making it to the community center to work out a couple times a week. Sometimes it's just treadmill, sometimes it weight training and the treadmill.

Well, it had been a few days (almost a week!) since I was able to make it - for a variety of reasons (maybe an excuse or two!) and so I went yesterday morning. Yesterday was Wednesday - my dance class day. I don't usually go to workout on Wednesdays for that very reason.

Because it had been so long, I wanted to be sure to get in my weight training and treadmill time - a full 2 hour workout. Then I had a 'few hours' off before dance class time, which by the time I got there, I was beat...so just imagine me after.

I will NOT be working out on Wednesdays (other than dance class)!

dreams and timeshares

nearly 10 years ago, jason and i were planning our wedding and honeymoon. we spent a lot of time deciding every little detail and trying to plan a 'dream vacation' based on the notion that your honeymoon really is a once in a lifetime kind of adventure. we considered europe, but didn't want to feel obligated to DO stuff. we considered hawaii, but there was no way we could afford it. so we decided on a cruise, which was fabulous from my perspective. we said that we'd go to hawaii for our 10th anniversary, a goal we set, not knowing what the future would hold.

and here we are, with our 10th anniversary looming. we've bought 3 houses in that time (and now can recently say sold two of them!) we've had 4 kids. we've just recently (well, within the last two years) paid off our wedding (even though both sets of our parents paid for a bulk of it!) and honeymoon and oodles of credit card debt. and that goal of making it to hawaii has just been hanging there....seemingly out of reach as our lives, and the expenditures that go with it, have been priority.

but last night....i booked our trip to hawaii (well, our lodging anyway!) and i'm beside myself with excitement that a goal we set for our lives 10 years ago is going to happen.

and it's because of a timeshare. silly, but true. when i was growing up, my parents owned a timeshare with the Marriott Vacation Club. their 'home' resort is in florida, but we traveled all over...hilton head, various resorts around orlando, california. given my parents' work schedules, we could always squeeze in that spring break trip to somewhere 'exotic' - which was just about anywhere but big rapids as far as i was concerned! growing up with that experience made me place quite a bit of value on it - particularly since we have been able to travel with our family and my parents in recent years on these timeshare condo trips.

in march 07 jason and i took the plunge and bought one ourselves - on an every-other-year plan, knowing that with jason's work schedule that we might not be able to guarantee an 'exotic' week-long vacation every year (seeing how we would only get about 25% of our rite aid vacation requests approved, and could only ask a few months in advance at best, we were taking a risk!) we bought into an excellent family resort - Horizons by Marriott. with our purchase, we got a bonus week, which we are using to take jason's parents and our family down to orlando and disney world around christmas this year. and, by luck, we ended up with another week through an exchange (with a small fee associated)...and this is the week we had 'designated' for hawaii.

i've been searching for months through our exchange system waiting for hawaii. waiting. searching. hoping. i had come to the conclusion that people who buy hawaiian resort timeshares don't exchange them to go elsewhere and so i should look into hotels for our 10th anniversary trip. yeah right. remember why we didn't go for our honeymoon? the same problem was now staring me in the face again - there was simply no way we could afford to go without 'free' lodging.

and then last night. there was a week available. not on the island that was our first choice. and not necessarily our first choice of week to go but we've made it work, and for our 10th anniversary trip (in september as opposed to july) we'll be staying here....all thanks to our timeshare!

since we bought our 'unit', we have 3 weeks of vacation planned...one we've already taken, and two to go. those three weeks are already pretty much valued at what we bought the timeshare for in the first place, and we get to go to hawaii for our 10th anniversary, which to me, is almost priceless. yes, we'll still have maintenance fees, but that's like buying 2 nights at one of these condos and getting 5 free.

financial experts will tell you to never buy a timeshare because it's not an 'investment' - our timeshare's monetary value will not grow. it has, however, already proven itself to be an incredible decision we made to ensure regular family vacations to exotic locales that are affordable. that, to me, is a true investment.

nuff said

relay for LIFE

we spent the better part of our Saturday at the Relay for Life festivities in Big Rapids with my Dad
we had lots of fun...there was lots of food, lots of face painting, lots of walking and lots of balloon animals (and helicopters! because, for some reason, porter's helicopters kept crashing and the kind students in the michigan college of optometry tent - where we camped out for the day - took pity on him and kept making him a new one!)

dancing feet

well, after my audition rejection (which came 'officially' via email yesterday), I decided I wasn't going to just sit and mope...

so, after a wonderful dance studio experience with the girls on Monday (MUCH improved over the first dance studio - let's just say I paid quite a bit of "stupid tax" for that one) I decided I would join an adult beginning dance class...and not just one, but two! So on Wednesday nights for almost 2 hours, I will be learning to tap dance and taking a jazz dance class!

the tap class has just 5 people in it, all of which are new to tap - 3 teenagers and 2 adults...I had a great time, despite the fact that I didn't have my tap shoes yet and got a splinter in my big toe on one 'shuffle' step. I was happy with how quickly I could pick up what I was suppose to be doing, but like my hands, my right foot is much better than my left!

then came the jazz class. I stretched and moved muscles I didn't know I had. We spent the first 20 minutes or so, maybe more, stretching. holy moly. i hurt. and then came the dancing, which i loved and was a great workout. there are 4 adults in that class and a dozen or so teenagers and i was very happy that i could keep up with them, and even got some of the moves down better than some of them, and the teacher even had to tell THEM to stop whining! made me feel good.

in addition to the dancing i've been working hard to make it to the community center (where we just started a family membership) to workout on the days i take porter to pre-school (which is right next door). we get 'free' babysitting with our membership, so i'm able to take molly to the play room and then hit the gym. i went last week for some time on the treadmill and elliptical machine (which kicked my butt) and then went back yesterday for my weight training machine orientation and more treadmill time. it was easier this week and my fitness orientation girl (shari) was a delight and will be keeping tabs on me, so no excuse not to show up! i'm really sore today with all this increased activity, but feeling great at the same time.

after working out, i get to take molly to her swim class, which is an absolute blast, cause that kid has been a water baby since she was born. the instructor says that at the end of class we put them in lifejackets and go down the waterslide! i'm sure she'll love it.

well, i gave it the old college try...

unfortunately, all the other people giving it that college try were IN college or YOUNGER - and at least 75 pounds lighter...

i auditioned for the part of Lucy in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"...

ah well. I'm sick, old, and apparently do not have what they were looking for.

i hate wallpaper

HOURS of peeling off the top later...then steaming....then scraping...then cleaning up the millions of little sticky pieces that are now getting stuck to the slate tile....

and still left to go...half the wall, then using chemicals to remove the remainder of the adhesive...then applying spackle...then priming...then i might actually be able to PAINT.

ugh.

what a way to start our stay in midland!

in today's paper - a HALF-PAGE sized picture...

Daily News/KEVIN BENEDICT

Lillian Baker, 7, foreground, and Katie Gleason, 9, participate in a ballet class at JW School of Dance on Wednesday evening. Jackie Wontorcik, who owns the school but rents the space, said her new landlord hired workers to buff off the porch paint that previously coated the maple floor and to put on four coats of "gymnasium polyurethane." The floor was finished in August, Wontorcik said. "It brought tears to my eyes," she said. "If you were a dancer you would just know."

first daya school

one second grader, one kindergartener (who could barely contain herself) and a Spiderman-obsessed pre-schooler (spiderman backpack, lunch box, folders and t-shirt!)

and let us not forget little molly....

and here's everybody ready to go...

two houses

it's official, we are the "proud" owners of two houses!

Let the moving in and unpacking begin!

finished

Well, it was nearly 3am, but I finished Harry Potter, just about 30 hours after I started it. Jason asked if Molly was still wearing the same diaper from Monday, but in reality, I just did a lot of late-night (and early morning!) reading. I mean really, when it's midnight and you only have 200 more pages to go, why not just keep reading?!!??

I would say it's another job well-done by JK Rowling, but I am so sad that this was the last book. I know I can re-read them...and continue to watch the movies with some regularity, but knowing the 'end' is kind of sad.

Ah well...back to packing.

more hope

Well, the people who saw the house today are young, getting married soon, and are in the early stages of their home buying...BUT, they didn't have anything negative to say about the house (and it's been a LONG time since that was the case!) and they were here for about 45 minutes.

Makes me feel more hopeful at least.

I'm reading the 7th Harry Potter book...started it last night and I'm almost 1/2 way through. So there's that.

And while I'm at it, I'll mention that I love TiVo - with Jason gone, I have programmed several "Season Passes" of shows I know he would have no desire to watch, and when I'm up late and can't sleep, I can just hit play...I'm in love with A&E's Intervention (and watching all the PTA moms who have become raging alcoholics) and Flip This House (to remind myself that with $20,000 - $40,000 I could transform any house from a pig sty to a thing a beauty...not that we're buying a pig sty, but it's nice to see what a house CAN be!)

one week!

Well, moving is dominating our lives, of course. It's difficult for me to get much packing done with all the kids running around, especially on a day like yesterday, when it was also raining - couldn't just send them outside for awhile!

In addition, we had TWO showings yesterday, and another scheduled for today! Odd....haven't had showings in awhile, and then all of a sudden...and we didn't do anything to spur these, as we're pretty much done dropping our price (you know, being down $50,000 from where you started - when you're not talking about a million dollar property here, is already bottom dollar!)

Saying my prayers to St. Joseph as often as I can...hoping that a buyer comes soon to make this house their home.

But, on the 'hopeful' side - I read several blogs, one of which is Rosie O'Donnell's. She has an "ask ro" section, where you can submit questions/comments. She gets thousands a day, and usually responds to 25 or so on her blog. I've submitted about 1/2 a dozen or so...usually the same, but on Monday I submitted something different, and got a response!

offers, inspections, appraisals, oh my!

Well, we signed the final deal today...inspections this week...mortgage company is working on the appraisals, and we're tentatively scheduled to close on our new house in Midland just TWO weeks from tomorrow!!!

No, we haven't sold our Grand Haven house yet. But we will have a new home in a few weeks. And we'll finally be back to living all together after nearly 8 months apart.

Stay tuned for before and after pictures of our new house - and pray that the temperature (suppose to hit 97 degrees tomorrow!) isn't that high when we're moving!!

Frustrated...

every day the house sits on the market
every time it's 'not the right house'
every hour i spend cleaning and picking up for buyers who don't care
every time we lower the price
every time i talk to my realtor about what we're suppose to change/upgrade/fix
every day i'm home without jason
every day i'm living off the hospitality of my in-laws to be with jason
every day i don't have a 'home' anymore

Playing ketchup

So here's some recent picts of the kidlets and their goings on....

The girls are all dressed up for their dance recital (long as always, but they did an excellent job!)

I did their hair in a 'spider web' and they both loved it and felt so fancy! We will miss our dance studio when we move, as we love the staff there! I can't imagine any other studio being as organized as this one, but we'll see what Midland has to offer!

And then comes the Slip n Slide - this DOUBLE one that Maya got for her birthday - we busted it out in June and man oh man! It's a good thing we got the double, cause it gives Molly one side, and everyone else the other! Molly LOVED it! She liked crawling down in the water, sitting underneath the sprinkler parts, and poking her fingers in the little pool at the end!


We bought a pop-up camper from my friend Amy and have had to enjoyable camping trips so far! Porter is happy to give anyone and everyone (including the UPS man) a tour of his "tamper".

Here's Molly on her first birthday - camping at School Section Lake!

And then came Fowl Fourth XXVI - which brought our annual 4th of July photo shoot and some great camping with cousins time - as my brother Andy and his two kids, Jared and Celia, made the trip from California for a few days!Well, that should cover it for now.

No, we haven't sold our house yet.

new header

so, i've used some picts from our recent sears portrait studio session to update my header...hope you like it...

i'm trying out some digital scrapbooking, so i'm using my new skills (aka, what i've managed to learn from online tutorials) to create the header...perhaps it will be stunning in the near future....

sorry, too lazy and too tired to use caps today.

Forever since a post...

Once again, brought to my attention that this brilliant idea of keeping everyone in the Baker Family Loop doesn't work if I don't type.

So here I am...typing.

So much to update everyone on, even though I just spent 5 wonderful days camping with 60 family members (and Porter is STILL saying he didn't want to leave!)

Pictures and updates coming soon.

Promise.

Bandits!

Must to our dismay - our car was hit by 'bandits', as Maya refers to them.

Stored on the floor of the mini-van, not even really in plain sight, was our portable DVD player, used for maintaining sanity during our long drives....


Gone.

Sometime over the weekend. Broken mirror in the car, which I found odd Monday morning. DVD player, power cord, and other screen. Gone. Right from our driveway.

Drying tears and explaining that there are mean people in the world. That was my Tuesday evening.

Ducks and teeth!

Molly has all sorts of things in her mouth these days (she can find the smallest speck of who-the-heck-knows-what on our carpet and put it in her mouth, too!)

The picture is a little blurry, but at least you can SEE those two little teethers on the bottom there! The top ones are still only about 1/2 way in. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to get a picture of teeth??

Cinco de Maya!

As mentioned in my previous post, Maya turned 5! And to celebrate, we had a Cinco de MAYA party - here's some pictures!!

Grandpa celebrates, too!

Maya and her friends Abbey and Tori eating ice cream sundaes.

Maya and her friends get ready to open the pinata!

Maya picked Wild Chef for her birthday dinner - a local hibachi steakhouse. She's using her special chopsticks to eat her fried rice!

And that, is CINCO DE MAYA!!

Forever since a post...

Holy moly my slave driver of a boss pointed out that I haven't posted here in ages...ugh. Little does she know, it's HER fault!

Planning and preparation for the Great Lakes Mega Meet has dominated my life the past month...but in other news :

Lilly is celebrating Cinco de Mayo this week in school with lesson plans by yours truly - I made pinatas with 20 first graders....her teacher said to me "Thanks...I think...I guess that has yet to be determined!" She is so ready for 2nd grade and has lots of friends that she will miss when we move.

Speaking of ready for school, we had a Cinco de MAYA party a few weeks ago to celebrate...well, duh...Maya's 5th birthday! It was a small affair - just a few friends and all the grandparents..she had great time, and I even found the castle pinata she requested. She's thrilled about starting kindergarten in the fall...but is really going to miss her friends from Grandma Jane's.

Porter is still a boy. REALLY a boy - and all that comes with it...I am still amazed at the things he thinks to do that would never enter the mind of the girls. Thank goodness for his days at Grandma Jane's - they maintain my sanity!

Molly - is so on the verge of crawling and cut all FOUR of her top teeth a week or two ago...she has already figured out how to grind them together to make a great squeaking noise....like fingernails on a chalkboard. She's also pretty much graduated to real food!

No real pictures...I'm exhausted today. :) Such is the life of a stay-at-home, basically single mom!

And there's a post for ya...after next week, maybe I'll post daily!

Retreat!!

I'm headed to a scrapbook retreat this weekend - and while I'm hosting it, it will still be a retreat! And, this is the first retreat that my mom will be joining me - not as a scrapper, but as our caterer! She'll get a feel for what it is I do on these weekends, and I'll get a weekend to enjoy her cooking!

Just thought I'd share a picture of one of my favorite things - sleeping babies.

And check out those cheeks! Still as squeezable as ever!

And for kicks, here's the whole crew!

It's Spring Break next week, so I'll return from the retreat for a week 'off' - which we'll be spending at my in-law's house in Midland. Jason and I will be taking some time to scope out houses together (he's been screening some already!) and getting ready for Easter celebrations with extended family, too!

In the meantime, our realtor is going to hunt up a buyer with a briefcase of money and no contingencies and conditions on the sale of our house - for our asking price, no less! Here's to wishful thinking and a successful open house while we're gone (say your prayers to St. Joseph on our behalf, please!)

Back to life...back to reality...

Wow - I love vacation.

Orlando was great....we drove all the way to Louisville, KY on the first night (arriving at a Best Western claiming to be have smoke-free lobby at 1am, and after securing our room and climbing back in the car, Jason could smell the smoke on me - yikes!) Anyway - the room had a horizontal place to sleep, so it was fine, and breakfast at the cute Denny's Diner next door was included - so WAHOO!


We traveled on Saturday to Marietta, GA to stay at John and Julie's - and since we made it to Louisville the first night, we arrived in the daylight at our next stop, so the kids had lots of time to play and we had lots of time to visit (and plot how John was going to re-construct his back yard after major septic line work - oye!) John and Julie treated us to a wonderful dinner out that was perfect for our family - a Chinese buffet that even included crab legs - like I suppose you could do better than that!?!?!

Sunday, it was off to Orlando, with our traditional picnic stop at the Florida Welcome Center.

Then on to our final destination - and just miles from our condo we were stopped in traffic waiting for an accident to clear. The last thing we wanted - but we finally arrived, complete to our condo four doors down from my parents (NOT right next door, which we had both requested...and was a possibility until a hours before our arrival they checked someone else into the condo next to my parents - HELLO!) Anyway...

Monday brought us to the Magic Kingdom - a magical day cause we got to spend it with our whole family - Andy and his kids included! It was WONDERFUL to spend time with them, especially at Disney World, where I had promised Jared I would buy him some special Mickey Ice Cream.


Tuesday my grandparents came up from Tampa to visit - always a nice time. Wednesdaybrought the departure of Andy and family and some serious shopping (and custom treat making at Goofy's Candy Co.) at Downtown Disney.

And then came Thursday - where we were CRAZY! Jason and I took Lilly and Maya to the Pirate and Princess Party at the Magic Kingdom - we were there when it started at 7:30PM and didn't get back to our condo until nearly 2AM - but what a PARTY! We collected bead necklaces and candy (including chocolate doubloons) at special "X" marks the spot treasure places. We took the girls on Space Mountain (I think it was harder on me than them!!). We met Minnie, Daisy and Sleeping Beauty with her Prince Philip. We did all our favorite rides and more! And boy were we pooped. As were Grammie and Grandpa, who held down the fort with Porter and Molly.

Friday was a recovery and pool day (oh, and I had a frosty beverage by the pool!)...and then came the packing. I hate packing.

Saturday afternoon we headed home, and decided to drive straight through - 22 hours later, we pulled back into our driveway in Michigan, where at least some of the snow had melted in our absence (which was good, cause we left during a blizzard!)

We're already plotting our next getaway.

Now, it's back to work. Ugh.

Orlando or bust!

Well, tomorrow is the day when I venture into the van with my loving husband and our four children to drive across the country to, as Lilly has previously stated, my "utopia" - Orlando!

Some call us crazy...and maybe they're right...but a road trip with four kids doesn't have to be a horror...a challenge, sure - but doable!!

We'll stop near Louisville tomorrow night, then on to Atlanta for a night with John & Julie, and then we'll coast into Orlando on Sunday for a week. We'll stop at every rest area on the way to do some running around, hit the McDonald's with playplaces for lunch, and, of course, have breakfast at a Waffle House.

More to come when we get there!