Moving Day

The last few days I've been listening to the all too familiar rrrriiiipppp of packing tape, and crumpling of paper. This is what's left of our stuff:

Living room

Grace's room

Tristan's room

David's room

It doesn't matter how many times we do it, it's still hard to see all of our stuff getting packed up in boxes. This time I guess it's even a little harder because we will not be seeing half of it for 3 years. It was harder than I thought it would be to try to make decisions on what goes with us and what stays behind. David said "All I need are my clothes, and I'll be good." Then he gets there and says he wants the grill and all of it's paraphernalia to go (yay! I didn't know how I was going to survive without grilled food for 3 years!), but he also wants snorkeling gear, some camping gear, fishing gear... But all he needs is clothes. :) I have to give him grief, after all, all I needed were clothes and my scrapbooking supplies - which only takes up a 40 sq ft storage room (nearly from floor to ceiling on one wall)... That would be why he chose a 4 bedroom apartment! But I had to take all of my kitchen gadgets and cookware - what kind of wife and mother would I be if I didn't cook gourmet meals for my family? And I can't do that with just a set of knives, you know.

I am excited about our new adventure though. Now that the stress of sorting our belongings is over, I feel like I can focus on the getting there portion of our move. This has been a rather stressful time for me and the kids with David gone (my choice to do it alone, I know darling), and I've shown way too little patience toward the kids (something I work on daily), but it was important to me to finish out the year at school, both for my job and the kids' classes. Just one more week to go!

Tonight it's off to our hotel, and a restful night's sleep - after all, I can't clean after the kids go to bed tonight!

Graceful Grace

I was finally able to get into Grace's ballet class to snap a few pictures. Normally her class is a closed door affair, which I totally understand - less distraction for the kids, but I haven't been able to get any pictures of her at this studio!

I just love it when I get lucky and get great pics like this one!

Grace's class

It was also picture day for the studio, but the photographer was nice enough to allow me to take a few of my own pics. Guess he wasn't to concerned about me stealing his profits!

They also had pictures taken in their recital costumes.

I didn't get Grace a costume because the recital is the weekend after we leave, but they had an extra set of costumes for her to borrow.

This is their penguin costume.

I've heard Mary Poppins music playing, but I don't remember which song they're dong their tap routine to.

I really hope she continues with her dance. She really seems to enjoy it. She tends to complain and say that she doesn't want to go (it's Monday after school so it's already been a long day), but when we get there she always has a good time, so I don't put too much stock in what she says after a long day of school... I was also impressed with the fact that the one number I saw them do, she started dancing when the music started, and didn't wait to see what the teacher was doing. Tells me she's paying attention in class and knows her routine - another proud mama moment.

Let's Celebrate!

It's a month early, but we decided to celebrate Tristan's 4th birthday anyway. Since we're moving just before his actual birthday, and he may not have time to meet and make many new friends before then, David and I decided that it would be nice to have a party with all of his friends from school before we left.

As I was making the cake and getting the house cleaned, I really began to question my sanity... after all, I have movers coming in 3 days, and I'm nowhere near being ready for them! Oh well, I want Tristan to be able to have a bunch of friends over for his birthday like his sister has had for her birthday for the last 2-3 years. What we won't do for our kids, right?

Lightning McQueen

(or as Tristan says it "wightning da queen")

No party is complete these days without a bouncy house.

Which made it easy for me since I didn't have to plan for any games!

It was an absolutely beautiful day!

I grilled hot dogs and made mac 'n cheese - what more could a kid want?

Time for presents!

Seems motorcycles were the "in" thing this year - he got 4 of them!

(I think his daddy is gonna be jealous)

Cake time

The little girl next to him is one of his "girlfriends", Grace

He has two... I asked him the other day how many girlfriends he had, and he said, "Two." Then I asked him what their names were, and he said, "Grace and Ashlynn." He started school with both of them in August and sees them 6 days a week. He dances with them when his teacher plays music, and every time I peek in, it seems he's doing something with them (especially on the days the boys aren't there). But I'm okay with that - they're both really sweet girls.

We still have to work on one big breath to blow out the candles.

My boy who loves frosting actually ate the cake this time too!

Even though David wasn't here, I was really glad he agreed to have a party for Tristan, because he had a really good time, and I think the other kids did too. It was fun to have a special day all about him, because he just doesn't get that very much, especially since Grace has had so many "firsts" this year.

Finally!

So, being a first-time parent, I had no idea how long it would take for a loose tooth to actually come out... I blogged about a loose tooth in my Soon to Be Toothless blog back on March 1. Well, the tooth has finally made its way out of her head...

After ballet she said it was "almost out", so I took a look to see for myself and sure enough, it was really loose, and the way she was wiggling and turning it was making my stomach turn.

When I saw her do this, I figured with one good, quick tug it would come right out. So, I grabbed a napkin and did just that. I tugged, good and hard, and nothing. Nothing but screams and tears that is. Talk about feeling like a horrible mother... So, I left it alone and told her she needed to just keep wiggling it and trying to get it out. I really wasn't that excited about pulling it for her - that's a daddy's job - so when she said she wanted to do it herself, I was fine with that. There's something about that ripping sound and sensation that I really don't like.

Well, she was being entirely too gentle with it, so I took her back in my arms, laid her back and RRRRIIIIPPPP, got it out of there! No, not really - I couldn't stand to cause her that kind of pain. What I did do was inspect it carefully and just went little by little, thread by thread, with little breaks when she got too panicked a look on her face. It wasn't until the very last portion that I had to give it another good tug to get it out. Just as she was getting ready to give a good wail, it came free.

Her panicked look quickly dissolved into a look of incredible joy as she was officially a member of the "Lost Tooth Club"! I've never seen anyone so happy over losing a tooth! It was a sight to see - bloody gums and all, smiling ear to ear. I did make her go brush her teeth before we took pictures though. The cool thing was that David was available on his computer and we were able to call him and show him what had just transpired. Then it was off to Dairy Queen for a little treat.

Examining her tooth

Putting it in her tooth pillow for the Tooth Fairy to find

Making sure it's in there

She agreed to put it on her shelf instead of under her pillow so the tooth wouldn't fall out and get lost (as it did when the pillow fell off the bed). She thinks the Tooth Fairy will bring her $1 since it is her first lost tooth. I'm thinking that inflation has been hard on the Tooth Fairy!

Happy Mother's Day

We've had a great weekend! Saturday I took the kids to the Cove to do a little splashin' around - something we all needed - a little break from mommy being a tyrant! Then it was home to put the finishing touches on the cake and off to a birthday party.

Today has been an even better day - the kids were super excited that it was Mother's Day and gave me the gifts that they had made me after we got home from church. Grace had even gathered some of her things and put them in her treasure box to give to me. She is such a sweet kid!! These pictures aren't the best (I didn't think about where I was sitting when I sat down), but Grace snapped a few while I was opening my gifts.

I also awoke to an incredibly sweet e-mail from my husband. I am thankful that he thinks so much of me and still loves me completely, despite my faults. I am also thankful that he's able to tell me how he feels and encourages me when I need it the most - even when he doesn't know he's doing it.

I hope each of you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Busy Friday

Today we had a crazy busy day at school! We started the morning with the Walk-a-Thon which raises money for the Student Council.

Grace's class

Tristan's class

Taking a well deserved break

(all told, Grace walked 8 laps, which amounts to about 2 miles)

I had to throw in at least one that had a beautiful view in it!


That afternoon we had a fire drill, and then Grace's class went out and released their butterflies.

Saying a prayer for their safety and thanking God for them.

Mrs. Gord coaxing them out - that blur in the lower center of the picture is actually one of the butterflies.

They let all but one go. The last one had fallen to the bottom of the net while it was in the process of making it's chrysalis, and never quite completed it. Everyone thought that it was dead, but miraculously it hatched from it's partially made chrysalis, but it had a malformed wing. The children agreed that God gave them that butterfly to take care of, so they would leave it in the net and care for it until the end of school. Oh the way God has come through for this class! They may have had to deal with the loss of their teacher, but they have had many examples of God's love for us and His creation.

Then, after school I came home to give a cake decorating lesson - at least that's what my friend Courtney called it... For me it was a chance to visit with a beautiful lady before she and her family venture off to Colorado (I tried to talk them into Korea, but they didn't go for it), and an opportunity to share my knowledge (little as it is) about something I really enjoy doing.

We made up this lovely princess for her little girl who is turning 5. This is becoming my "signature cake" I guess, since I've made it three times for three different princesses.

Wish I could take credit for the bow, but that was all Courtney - she's a natural if she'd just give it a shot!

Thanks Courtney for a wonderful afternoon - I'm sure going to miss you!

Hot off the Press

Well, it's official - I'm a published author!

And it's a collector's edition at that! There's only one copy in print.

Months ago, I started checking into getting our blog printed. I tried several different websites that pulled all of your information from your blog into a book format, but I couldn't edit it, and I wasn't happy with their formats - The pictures were in one set part of the page, and the text didn't always jive with the pictures. So, I ended up cutting and pasting each blog into a MS Word document and was able to move the pictures around and get the layout that I was looking for. I uploaded it to lulu.com and voila - here it is!

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. The pictures turned out pretty good, and with a couple of very minor editing issues, it's exactly what I wanted. I hope the family will enjoy looking through it over the years. And if you find yourself with an uncontrollable urge to get your own copy (ha, ha!), I think you can do a search for it on lulu.com.

I guess I'd better get busy on the 2009 book! I just know all of you will be waiting with baited breath to get your hands on a copy of the next fantastic saga of the Samuelson family!