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!