Where we are going

The road home
Originally uploaded by James Jordan

It's official, Eric is done with primary we are heading out to advance....we know details...but lots to work out yet.

We're going...........



Wait, you didn't want to know HOW we're going did you? Silly me, who cares about our drive with young ones, to no specific address. It will be an adventure, and I'm sure we'll all have memories of some sort.

Okay, no more yanking your chain. This is where we're going:










maybe the coast guard will take him....if we're lucky.

Little ears are listening

This afternoon I made phone calls, the property manager, pest control, those type of fun calls. As I got off the phone with the property manager, CJ was right there with her endless list of questions that I think every 3yr old has. Who was that? Who? Why?...etc. She had over heard too much, so I took a deep breath to explain to her how I could about us moving.

"We are going to move to a new house soon. We'll pack up all our toys, clothes and stuff and drive for a long time and live in a new house."
Why?
"Because Daddy's job here is almost done, and then he'll have to go where his new job is."

She was quiet. I braced myself. She gave me a big hug, then took off running. She came out of her toy room with her suitcase full of toys, went to her bedroom and packed clothes. Then her toothpaste and hair clips (note, no brushes of any sort).
I'm ready to go. Where's Daddy's suitcase? and what about Laurelei?
"Don't worry, we'll all go and we'll all pack suitcases"

That is it. She is ready to go now and is talking about taking her juice to the hotel, which apparently she plans on staying during our long car ride. Her acceptance and faith is something to marvel at and to strive for. She is content and eager, as long as we are all together, that is all that matters to her, and should matter to each of us. We are so blessed to have girls that go with the flow and love a new adventure.

doing well

Knock on wood, we haven't been to the clinic or er or any form of the doctor in over a week. Sunday, CJ dropped a bowling ball on her shoeless big toe, but managed to not do serious damage. I think it rolled down her leg breaking the fall a bit. No matter what, that hurts though.

As you can see, my little one is feeling better and up to her usual tricks. She loves this scarf and walks around like royalty when she has it on.

CJ busy at her kitchen cooking something yummy up. Both girls love the kitchen and typically play well together at it.

Sunday CJ began big kid Sunday School. As we pulled into the church parking lot she told us that she "loves church". We have found a good fit and will be sad to leave it soon. Laurelei attends SPLASH Sunday school for the little ones twice a month. When not at SPLASH, she is busy with the church steps and practicing her new skills. She insists on walking down the steps and will not accept your help, and amazingly, does pretty well.

Eric is counting down his flights, 9 to go. We are looking forward to a trip to Dade City once he is done and we know where and when we are going to our new place.

What a difference

When CJ got dressed this morning she chose to wear Laurelei's pants. This is the difference in 2yrs when she used to actually wear them as pants. They are on backwards, but they did snap shut. So why am I buying her 4T clothes if she is happy with 12mos ones?
Laurelei is feeling better, but still fighting a cold. Actually all three of us have a cold. We are doing well with all of our sharing skills! The girls love to play together and we have found one activity that they both enjoy and no one gets hurt (very often) while playing. When we are at speech and they are separated for 30 minutes, when CJ comes out the two of them act as if it has been days since they saw each other. It is really cute and wonderful that they have such a close bond.
Here is my first batch of homemade applesauce. For those of you who know how much I cook, or really cook using a recipe and from scratch this may be impressive to you. To anyone who has made applesauce, you know that it really is up my alley. Cut up apples. Boil down, mash. Add cinnamon and nutmeg. Done. Oh put in a store bought container that once had applesauce in it to complete the reduce, reuse, recycle and renew circle.

Our Weekend

What a trooper! She even helped hold the mask in place.

Birthday Girl

This picture is for Great G'pa Peterson...just like you!

Party at the park, it was fun to share a party with friends. CJ helped put her candles on.

Happy Birthday CJ!

Let me begin with a birthday wish! CJ turns 3 today! She has really grown up in every way possible this past year. She is such a joy to be with and is always thinking of others. One of our many blessings! I will post pictures later. Tonight we are having a family party and on Sunday we are having one at the park.

I spoke too soon in my last post. We do not visit the doctor once a week, but once a week for everyone! Eric has managed to stay out of the doctor's office, but he has good motivation to. The big news here is that Laurelei has croup and probably RSV again. This time she is on a nebulizer, along with steroids to help her breath. I have had a dickens' of a time finding the one medication..without driving an hour to a pharmacy, so I came home made some phone calls, and we are about to head out and get the last one, the one she needs for tonight. We caught it early this time, but the doctor has cautioned us that both croup and RSV could linger for a couple of weeks again. I hope she sleeps better tonight, she is hoarse from the coughing, and she really does sound like she's barking when she does cough.

I'll post pictures later, I hope you all have a good weekend.

What a week

Monday morning began with this fit:

Why is she screaming? Maybe she sensed that I woke up crabby, or maybe because Daddy put on his flight suit and went to work. She has gotten better as the week has gone on, but he has been doing later flights, and tonight she fought a good fight, but went to bed before he got home. I'm sure tomorrow will be another fit filled good-bye.

Doesn't it break your heart?

We seem to be in a cycle of visiting the doctor at least once a week. This week it was CJ, complaining of headaches and not feeling well. Not strep, but trying to figure out what is causing the headaches..today she was much better, so I hope it was just a bug passing through. She is SO VERY excited about her birthday and turning 3, even volunteering to help wrap her gifts. She weighed in at almost 35lbs and was 40.5" tall. She also took in her first visit to the dentist. She did well, yes there were tears, no she wouldn't allow them to do x-rays, with 10 teeth on top and bottom she seems to be on track. She did get her teeth cleaned, another picture that could break your heart --but I didn't get one, I was busy holding her still. We'll head back in 6months. Considering how a few weeks ago would cry at her sister's doctor appointments, I think she has grown up a lot and did a wonderful job.

Wonderful Day

I do not always appreciate or enjoy my days with the girls as I should. I know it sounds horrible, and I know I won't be winning any mother of the year awards this year...took care of that Jan. 1st. However, today we had a really nice,-- no wonderful time. Florida has been in the grips of winter...17 degrees at night, is cold and even the day time temps have been in the 40s with wind. Today it was 39 when we left the house, sunny and little breeze. We went to the zoo.

CJ was a great big sister, pushing and making sure Laurelei got to see everything. She also likes to show people "her cute baby" After this move, CJ told me she was a monkey.

Snow or Sand, it is hard to walk in a snowsuit. At least today I managed to put on the 12month one, yesterday I grabbed the 0/3month one and didn't realize it until after I took it off her. Ooops. Like I said, no awards this year.

It warmed up while we were there, at first some of the animals wouldn't come out. It was 54 when we left this afternoon.

The orangutans were cold

Check out this display...at first I thought it was for the hen...then thought it was maybe a warning to the kids to back off.
We met up with friends from music class, had a picnic lunch, and the girls fell asleep on the way home. The zoo was not busy, and it is so fun to take life in at a child's pace. It helps me appreciate them even more.

Sharing a laugh

okay, so I have gotten some of those, best of 2007 emails and this one made me laugh out loud and had to figure out how to explain to CJ what was so funny. Hope you get a laugh, this is just one of those emails floating around -thanks Robin:

SMART ASS ANSWER #6
It was mealtime during a flight on Hooters Airline.
"Would you like dinner?" the flight attendant asked John, seated in front.
"What are my choices?" Mark asked.
"Yes or no," she replied.


SMART ASS ANSWER #5
A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets.
As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket and he opened his trench
coat and flashed her. Without missing a beat, she said, "Sir, I need to see your ticket
not your stub."

SMART ASS ANSWER #4
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store but she couldn't find one big enough for her family.
She asked a stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?"
The stock boy replied, "No ma'am, they're dead."

SMART ASS ANSWER #3
The cop got out of his car and the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window.
"I've been waiting for you all day," the cop said.
The kid replied, "Yeah, well I got here as fast as I could."
When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.

SMART ASS ANSWER #2
A truck driver was driving along on the freeway. A sign comes up that
reads, " Low Bridge Ahead." Before he knows it, the bridge is right ahead of him and he gets stuck under the bridge.
Cars are backed up for miles. Finally, a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and walks to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and says, "Got stuck, huh?"
The truck driver says, "No, I was delivering this bridge
and ran out of gas."

BEST SMART ASS ANSWER OF THE YEAR

A college teacher reminds her class of tomorrow's final exam. "Now class, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow.
I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your immediate family, but that's it, no other excuses whatsoever!"
A smart-ass guy in the back of the room raised his hand and asked, "What would you say if tomorrow I said I was suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?" The entire class is reduced to laughter and snickering. When silence is restored, the teacher smiles knowingly at the student, shakes her head and sweetly says

"Well, I guess you'd have to write the exam with your other hand!!!"

From my mom:

For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named
after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and
successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased the
coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get
burned doing that, right?

That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make
you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stella's for the past year:

7TH PLACE:

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000
by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were
understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

6TH PLACE:

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel
of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.

5TH PLACE:

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was
leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to
the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dogfood, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish.

Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay
Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

Keep scratching. Oh yes...there are more..

4TH PLACE:

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered 4th...
Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even
though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle
might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog
with a pellet gun.

Grrrrr ... Scratch, scratch.

3RD PLACE:

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped
on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor--Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend
30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are only
two more Stella's to go...

2ND PLACE:

Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000...oh, yeah, plus dental expenses.
Go figure.

1ST PLACE: (May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos, please!)

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was
Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, OK, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a
result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home .

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