Operation Relocation

Moving day has come and gone, and our relocation is officially complete. It doesn't quite feel that way yet because of how much unpacking and organizing I still have to do. We have so many things, I'm a bit sick of looking at it all! I thought I would take a break from it all to blog about everything so here ya go! :) There are things I like about the new house - the size is nice, and there are some things I definitely don't - like that our air conditioner keeps tripping the breaker, so the heat is miserable; there is a fenced yard but it is pretty pitiful, no trees, scattered patches of grass, no privacy... But beggars can't be choosers - we are just glad to be together again! But really, I do feel very lucky to have found a decent place to live when we did. After looking for months and only finding apartments and houses that were too small and/or gross, it was beginning to look hopeless.

As for adjusting to my new surroundings, I haven't left the house much because I have had so much to do here, but so far it drives me nuts that I am forced to shop at City Market (pretty much the only grocery store in town) they are a bit more expensive, the layout doesn't make any sense, and it's been congested every time I have gone so I have decided that I'm going to do my shopping when Kasey is home so I don't have to take the girls. Also, last weekend we went downtown for some ice cream and we were going to go to Sanfords for some lunch, only to find that they had closed it down. It was the only main stream sit down restaurant here... And, we don't really like the greasy spoon or restaurant/bar types, and there are quite a few of those. But maybe we will have to give a few of them a try before I discount all of them. What are ya gonna do? Make lemonade that's what! Haha :) I will just have to use this as an opportunity to fine tune my already awesome cooking skills! ;0)

School starts August 25th and I am still looking for a preschool for Adiee. I may just work with her myself, while Isla is napping and Mikenna is at school. But that isn't ideal because I don't want her to miss out on the field trips and I feel that socializing on her last year of preschool before kindergarten is pretty important. If that's what I end up doing I will have to see about putting her in a few activities through the rec center if they offer them to solve the socializing aspect of this dilema. It will definitely be a transition... I already miss my mom and everyone else, and the amenities and conveniences of a town of at least Casper's size.

A few of our Moving Day pictures...

Kasey has always really liked Chris... What do you think, should I be suspicious? haha :)
The girls making good use of the noodles... :)

It was a little much for miss Isla... She pulled that pillow and blanket across the lawn and napped for quite a while :) Isn't she the sweetest??

Goodbye tire swing...

At the new house...As if we didn't have enough to do, Isla dumped the remaining potting soil while eating dinner. Thanks Isla. Kasey was home so he helped me. I cleaned up the peeved baby while he cleaned up the table, chair, and floor. Halfway through, he said that he thought he got the harder job but in all fairness he was the one who wanted to switch and that's why I accepted so quickly! Haha!! ;)

Finally!!

I have some GREAT news!! :) I don't have to be a single mom and Kasey doesn't have to be a bachelor anymore (when you have a wife as awesome as me, being a bachelor isn't any fun! ;) haha!) I'm so excited to be married again!! Haha! Kasey has found a place that doesn't belong in the 'Heck No!' category in houses... I haven't seen the inside and I'm not too thrilled with the poor excuse of a yard, but like I said before - I DON'T CARE!! It's 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and in good condition, so it sounds fine to me!! Kasey is on-call again this weekend...go figure! But I'm going to go down this weekend and see him and the new house... I'm feeling good and optimistic, more like myself again!! Finally!! :)

Oh, and packing is exhausting when you're doing it solo! :)

Miss Isla

I haven't updated on Isla alone in quite some time, and now it's kind of hard because it's not a matter of what she can do, it's what she can't do that is the question!! :) She is now 22 months. She walks, runs, jumps, dances (complete with booty shakes and twirls! haha!!) and talks ALL the time! I can't even give a list of words because it would be too extensive! Isla gets her point across all the time, she can even tattle on her big sisters, let me know when she wants to eat, drink, or nap, and get my undivided attention (mama, mama, MAMA, and then proceeds to tap me (she will even turn my head to look at her!) until I respond and really listen! Cute, but sometimes annoying! haha) The list goes on... And it's been this way for quite some time! She has such a spitfire personality! :-) She is a total daddy's girl, he gets ALL the kisses he wants, I have to work my tush off to get just one! But when he is gone, I get his loves - probably the only perk to him being gone. I do believe that she will be fairly easy to potty-train, she doesn't like dirty diapers at all! Or dirty anything for that matter. When we move, we plan to take her crib side off and replace it with the toddler rails so that she can get in and out of bed. She is such a loveable little girl and she is getting soooo BIG!

Until next time... ;)

I NEED TO MOVE!

I can't wait to move so that Kasey and I can be together again! I miss him so much, it seems he isn't ever able to come home because he is on-call constantly. I know he misses us too, he hasn't been able to be a part of things he always is... Recitals, Mikenna's party, 4th of July (I bawled my eyes out, I just felt so bad that he was all alone), and the camping trip with his brothers (they changed the location so he could come when he wasn't working, but there was no cell phone reception so he couldn't! Grr!) Everything is just hard right now and the phone calls and e-mails aren't cutting it... The girls and I are so lonely for him it's not even funny. One morning when I was letting the dogs into the backyard, Isla (21 months) heard a lawn mower and she pushed the door open and yelled, "DADDY!" It was so cute, but a little sad. Another morning, right after a weekend that he was home, I was cooking pancakes and Adiee said, "I will go wake daddy up!" while running to our room. And Mikenna is always asking, "When is dad coming home?" :( Not fun!

Hopefully soon something will come up, everything we have seen has been too small or too dumpy - I'm not even that picky anymore. I can always scrub it clean, or even something to get us down there initially. Also, I'm stressing about Mikenna being in school limbo. Fort Caspar Academy is no longer holding her place and we can't register her at her new school until we actually live there - school starts August 25th, still a ways away but that kind of thing always seems to creep up on ya. I also need to check out preschools, I really don't like having such limited choices. Adiee's teacher gave me the names of the two she knows of, and one of their names are 'Project Reach', now that is definitely not my first choice purely because of the name! It sounds to me like an organization for neglected kiddos or something. :(

I don't know... Maybe I'm just being too judgemental... I'm stressed, StReSsEd, STRESSED!! :-/

Party Time!

Planning Mikenna's Birthday is always hard because it's summer, and everyone gets super busy or leaves town - we always are! Well it's that time again this year and time was slipping away yet again, and we are right in the middle of relocating, 4th of July, camping with Kasey's brothers, and Kasey has been working a ton... So we had to just pick a date and hope that some of her friends would be able to make it; that day was July 2nd - the Friday before the 4th... Not a very smart idea but the plan was for Kasey to be able to make it, and it not be too long after her actual birthDAY. I was really wanting to throw the party myself, but time was just running out and we went to a going away party for her friend Brooklynn and she had a blast; Mikenna also leaned over to me when we were there and said, "This is where I want to have my party so I can sit in that princess chair!" Haha :)

We sent out about 20 invites in hopes that we could get a few kiddos to come! :(

Sending the invitations...

Out of all the friends we invited, there were 6 at the party (including Mikenna and Adiee) Disappointing, but it was expected. And to boot, Kasey ended up being on-call so he couldn't come home at all that weekend! :( So I dropped Isla off at Noni's house, that's an expensive store to put a baby down in...haha!

They painted their own tiles which I have to go pick them up and deliver them along with Thank You notes.

After they were done painting, it was time to open presents! She got all sorts of goodies! The buckets were the kids' "treat bags", I didn't know exactly how many were coming so I made extra... and then went home with extra... Yipee! haha :-/

She picked out a Hanna Montana cake and she LOVED being sung to...again!

All in all, she had a great party! Thank you to everyone that came to make Mikenna's 6th birthday extra special! :)