And with the arrival of football season comes another season of fantasy football. I am playing again this year in a league that Ernie runs on Yahoo. My team’s statistics will be shown at left. Being the competitor that I am, I am hoping to win the league championship so that I can finally win a fantasy trophy for my fantasy trophy case. It kills me that I have yet to win such a prize.
As I write this post, it is rivalry week in our league. I am playing Ernie, we have another husband/wife matchup, a best friend matchup, a roommates matchup, and then the matchup pitting Ernie’s dad against Ernie’s friend. They don’t really have a rivalry, but we’ve declared one for them in order to keep with the theme. My team looks on pace to win handily, but I’m not counting my chickens yet. Keep checking back to see how I do.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Potty Training Update
We have had a mixed bag of successes and accidents with potty training lately. It seems that we have a few days in a row with no accidents. And then Sophia decides to forget everything and make multiple messes in a day. We can’t figure out what to do to help her.
But, I am happy to report that we have had WAY more successes than accidents lately. Sophia has enjoyed quite a few movies with popcorn lately, which has become the reward for pooping in the potty. Finally! We have even had a few trips out of the house when Sophia has worn underwear and stayed dry for the entire outing. She has become quite brave with public restrooms – even holding herself up on the seat yesterday. Sophia has even started wearing underwear for quiet time and has stayed dry so far.
It seems that she has finally put it all together (pee, poop, public restrooms, naps) but I am still cautiously optimistic. We found out though that the possibility of going to preschool is a good incentive. We thought that she had figured it out a couple of weeks ago, and even looked into starting her in preschool. It turned out that the class was full, so we put her on the waiting list. And then Sophia started having accidents again. We told her that she wouldn’t be able to go to preschool if she was still having accidents, and she has been clean and dry since then. It looks like there might be a spot available in the preschool class soon. We are keeping our fingers crossed – not only for the opportunity, but also for the reinforcement for her potty training efforts. We’ll keep you posted, of course!
But, I am happy to report that we have had WAY more successes than accidents lately. Sophia has enjoyed quite a few movies with popcorn lately, which has become the reward for pooping in the potty. Finally! We have even had a few trips out of the house when Sophia has worn underwear and stayed dry for the entire outing. She has become quite brave with public restrooms – even holding herself up on the seat yesterday. Sophia has even started wearing underwear for quiet time and has stayed dry so far.
It seems that she has finally put it all together (pee, poop, public restrooms, naps) but I am still cautiously optimistic. We found out though that the possibility of going to preschool is a good incentive. We thought that she had figured it out a couple of weeks ago, and even looked into starting her in preschool. It turned out that the class was full, so we put her on the waiting list. And then Sophia started having accidents again. We told her that she wouldn’t be able to go to preschool if she was still having accidents, and she has been clean and dry since then. It looks like there might be a spot available in the preschool class soon. We are keeping our fingers crossed – not only for the opportunity, but also for the reinforcement for her potty training efforts. We’ll keep you posted, of course!
We Did the Puyallup
The county fair in Whatcom county (where we moved from) and in Lewis County (where we moved to) both happened the week we moved. We were a little too busy to attend either fair. So we decided on a whim to go to the Puyallup last weekend. Literally, the day it opened I read about it in the paper at work, called Ernie and asked what he thought. He got online and found a good deal for a family pack at Fred Meyer. So I stopped at Freddy’s on my way home from work and we headed out to The Fair the very next day.We invited Ernie’s parents to join us and they gladly accepted. After getting Kaitlyn fed, we immediately found corn dogs for lunch. I love fair corn dogs! I have since I was a little kid. We wandered through the commercial exhibits, and saw some animals.
But the real excitement was the rides of course! Sophia and I rode the carousel, and the tiger roller coaster. Then we wandered over to the other kid rides, which were for kids only. After deciding she was terrified of riding the blue roller coaster by herself, Sophia settled on the much tamer helicopter ride. Well that ride gave her some confidence – maybe a little too much confidence – and she decided to ride the blue roller coaster after all. Big mistake! It was too scary for her without a buddy, and she cried through the whole thing. She wasn’t the only one – another little girl lost her mind on the roller coaster also. Once she calmed down she decided to try the big bear spinning ride. She loved it! She was able to make it spin all by herself, and she spun it so much we couldn’t get a good picture.
Kaitlyn was such a trooper at the fair, not minding being in her carseat all day. It was hot and sunny and she had to spend most of the day looking at the sun shade of the stroller. I did remember to bring some of her toys that hang from the carseat handle, so she at least had something to do. We had a great time. I only wish we’d been able to stay long enough for me to get hungry for an elephant ear. I thought about getting one anyway, but knew I’d just end up feeling crummy and decided it wasn’t worth it. But it was a close call.
Ernie has Become a SAHD (kind of)
On September 1st I returned to work in the Tacoma office. I returned to a new cubicle (with a window!), a new position, and a new manager. A lot of changes happening all at once – but all are good changes. I am excited for the new challenges that my new position brings. I really do enjoy my job. I know that I am very blessed to be able to say that and mean it, and I try really hard not to take it for granted.
While I have returned to work, Ernie has started substitute teaching. With so many teacher lay-offs in our area, teaching jobs were hard to come by. So Ernie has signed up to substitute teach. Since it is still early in the school year, there haven’t been many opportunities to sub, so Ernie has been taking care of the girls. Most days Ernie enjoys being a Stay-At-Home-Dad.
On days when Ernie subs, his mom takes care of the girls. Eventually, Patty will take care of the girls full-time. But for now, she continues working whenever Ernie can be home. It is an awesome situation for everyone, and a situation that we are very grateful for!
While I have returned to work, Ernie has started substitute teaching. With so many teacher lay-offs in our area, teaching jobs were hard to come by. So Ernie has signed up to substitute teach. Since it is still early in the school year, there haven’t been many opportunities to sub, so Ernie has been taking care of the girls. Most days Ernie enjoys being a Stay-At-Home-Dad.
On days when Ernie subs, his mom takes care of the girls. Eventually, Patty will take care of the girls full-time. But for now, she continues working whenever Ernie can be home. It is an awesome situation for everyone, and a situation that we are very grateful for!
Camping at Riffe Lake
So the day that I met the movers to unload our stuff into our storage unit, I also went grocery shopping for our camping trip. Because on Friday, just two days after moving day, we headed out for a camping trip. Crazy? Probably. But so worth it because we had a blast. We went to Riffe Lake for the weekend and camped with my sister and her four kids. My sister and I felt like we spent most of our time cooking and cleaning up meals. But we had plenty of time to rest and relax as well. We hoped to play some card games, but it was too windy and our cards wouldn’t stay put. Ernie of course enjoyed his pyromaniac time tending the fire. And my sister’s boys got in on the fire fun as well. Heck, even Sophia enjoyed the campfire, but was very careful to stay safe (of course!).
Kaitlyn enjoyed her first camping trip. Ernie thought I was nuts to take a newborn camping. But I know from our experiences with Sophia that it’s much easier to take an immobile baby camping than one that is on the move. My niece and nephews were happy to spend time holding Katy so we actually had an easy time. It was great to spend time with my sister and her kids without distractions such as computer games and television. We spent a lot of time just hanging out spending quality time together. We made some great memories, and we’re already making plans for another camping trip next year.
Moving Day
I realized on moving day that the reason I had such a hard time getting started with packing was that I didn’t want to move. I resist change. (Who doesn’t?) But I really didn’t want to leave the house that we thought would be our last house before our kids moved us to the old folks’ home. I didn’t want to leave the amazing friends we have grown to love in our nearly seven years in Whatcom County.
We had a mad scramble to finish packing before the big move. We were lucky enough to have Ernie’s parents come up on Monday to help us pack on Monday and Tuesday. Then they took the girls home with them so that we could have an easier time with the move on Wednesday. When they left we still had plenty to do, and we were up until very late. And even though we still weren’t quite done, Ernie demanded that we go to sleep. We were both very tired and getting stressed and started snapping at each other.
I woke up early and started packing up the last of our things. Ernie woke up with the alarm clock and started helping out. And we worked super-fast to be finished by 9:30am when the movers would arrive. And then we waited….and waited…and waited…until noon when they finally showed up! I guess there was a miscommunication between the gal who helped us set up our move and the dispatch gal. Oh well. Too bad that all of our stuff was packed up and we were a bit bored!
And yes, you read that right, we hired movers. Totally worth every penny! Three guys showed up with a semi trailer (we didn’t fill it – we don’t have THAT much stuff!). It really was wonderful to sit back and relax and watch other people work so hard to move us. We had a little drama with one of the movers. Apparently it was his third day on the job and he decided part-way through the move that he wanted to quit. Mind you, the crew we hired came up from Olympia, so he was three hours from home and wanted to quit. He thought he could just hang out in the truck and wait for the other two guys to finish up. He was told that if he was no longer an employee, he was not allowed to be on the truck. He was basically stranded in Ferndale if he really wanted to quit. After a break and a cigarette, he decided he might as well finish the job. Whew! The crew finished up about 5pm and then we packed up our cars and headed out.
I met up with the movers at our storage unit on Thursday morning to unload the truck. I was there with Ernie’s dad’s SUV to load up some stuff that we wanted to have at their house that didn’t make it in our cars.
Since then we’ve settled in at Ernie’s parents’ house. We are so grateful for their hospitality. It has been a bit of an adjustment – sharing space, figuring out who cooks when, who does laundry when, etc. We enjoy spending time with Ernie’s parents and hope they don’t mind us too much. Sophia loves living at Nana & Papa’s house. Kaitlyn doesn’t notice the difference – except when Sophia wakes her up (they share a room now). We brought Milo with us and he has settled in as well. He has made friends with one cat (Thomas), enemies with another (Tigger) and the third is indifferent (Tucker).
We had a mad scramble to finish packing before the big move. We were lucky enough to have Ernie’s parents come up on Monday to help us pack on Monday and Tuesday. Then they took the girls home with them so that we could have an easier time with the move on Wednesday. When they left we still had plenty to do, and we were up until very late. And even though we still weren’t quite done, Ernie demanded that we go to sleep. We were both very tired and getting stressed and started snapping at each other.
I woke up early and started packing up the last of our things. Ernie woke up with the alarm clock and started helping out. And we worked super-fast to be finished by 9:30am when the movers would arrive. And then we waited….and waited…and waited…until noon when they finally showed up! I guess there was a miscommunication between the gal who helped us set up our move and the dispatch gal. Oh well. Too bad that all of our stuff was packed up and we were a bit bored!
And yes, you read that right, we hired movers. Totally worth every penny! Three guys showed up with a semi trailer (we didn’t fill it – we don’t have THAT much stuff!). It really was wonderful to sit back and relax and watch other people work so hard to move us. We had a little drama with one of the movers. Apparently it was his third day on the job and he decided part-way through the move that he wanted to quit. Mind you, the crew we hired came up from Olympia, so he was three hours from home and wanted to quit. He thought he could just hang out in the truck and wait for the other two guys to finish up. He was told that if he was no longer an employee, he was not allowed to be on the truck. He was basically stranded in Ferndale if he really wanted to quit. After a break and a cigarette, he decided he might as well finish the job. Whew! The crew finished up about 5pm and then we packed up our cars and headed out.
I met up with the movers at our storage unit on Thursday morning to unload the truck. I was there with Ernie’s dad’s SUV to load up some stuff that we wanted to have at their house that didn’t make it in our cars.
Since then we’ve settled in at Ernie’s parents’ house. We are so grateful for their hospitality. It has been a bit of an adjustment – sharing space, figuring out who cooks when, who does laundry when, etc. We enjoy spending time with Ernie’s parents and hope they don’t mind us too much. Sophia loves living at Nana & Papa’s house. Kaitlyn doesn’t notice the difference – except when Sophia wakes her up (they share a room now). We brought Milo with us and he has settled in as well. He has made friends with one cat (Thomas), enemies with another (Tigger) and the third is indifferent (Tucker).
Monday, September 14, 2009
Overwhelmed!
I know that it has been more than a month since my last post, and for that I apologize. But seriously, we've had A LOT going on in the last month. I have so much to post about I'm overwhelmed at the thought of catching up. I hope to get you some more news this weekend, but no promises. In the meantime, here is a sneak peak at what's to come...
Moving
Camping
Potty Training Update
Puyallup Fair
and more! Stay tuned!
Moving
Camping
Potty Training Update
Puyallup Fair
and more! Stay tuned!
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