Hello? Anybody home???

WE MOVED!!!!!

Well, on one side it is completely a WAHOOO!!! On the other side moving is absolutely exhausting. Remind me of that next time I think it would be a good idea to move. Or just remind me to not collect so much stuff. Geez.

Actually we moved nearly everything within a few hours last Saturday with the help of some very helpful family members...HOLLA..Joeleen, Dat, Briana, Rick, Julie, Dad , Diane and Alex...thank you all!!! But now we have a bunch of little stuff left over plus all the cleaning at the old place and...the daunting task of unpacking. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment- there is just so much to do...I hate living out of boxes...but there are only so many hours in a day- and at least a couple have to be devoted to resting.

Lily's new bedroom!

Lily has been doing really well though. I think since this place is sooo much nicer and bigger and SHE HAS HER VERY OWN ROOM!!! the transition hasn't been too hard. She has even been sleeping in her room without waking up or getting scared or calling for me or anything!!!! Actually she has quite the cold/cough and is pretty tired anyway...last night she was coughing so hard I came in to lay with her for a little while trying to help her sit up and not cough so much. Finally the cough medicine kicked in and she was fine- out sound asleep.

Poppa says her big girl bed is going to be ready for her this Thursday- so her bed won't be just a mattress on the floor. Then...pretty soon he'll get the other bed together and it will be a bunk bed for the both of them. I know Kendra is excited- Lily is convinced she wants to sleep on the top bunk- but when she see's it I am sure she is going to change her mind. The bunk beds will be so nice since they will still leave lots of floor space for them to play.

Floyd has had a smooth transition as well- only hiding under the bed for one night- now he owns the place. Seriously. He thinks he runs the joint. Whatever.

This weekend- as long as we finish the cleaning on the old apartment Saturday- we hope to do something FUN!! I think with all the craziness of moving lately I've really missed just going and having some fun time- with or without kids. I am just realizing that even though I may not be a kid...all the fun kid stuff we were doing really helped energize me and made me happier (among other things!!!).

So...I am done with all this adult boring stuff...I wanna go have some fun- get crazy silly and dance.

 

Visit with Uncle Johnny

My borther came home from Alaska to visit for a week last Tuesday. We were so glad to see him and have the chance to hang out. We all hope he comes back really soon!

We took a good family picture but I'm waiting on Alex to send it to me...grrr

Laundr-o-mat...is that how you spell it????

My landlord decided to replace the washer and dryer (the 1 washer and dryer for the entire building). I was excited until I saw he had also raised the price. Before- in machines that take only quarters-it would cost $1 to wash and 75c to dry- pretty reasonable but also half impossible to get the laundry done with so many other people vying for the 1 set of machines. Now it costs $2.00 to wash and $1.75 to dry- MORE THAN DOUBLE!!!! And still in quarters!!! Which means with an entire roll of quarters you can only do 2 loads of laundry. PAINFUL. Seriously. So last weekend I took Lily for her first visit to the laundr-o-mat which will have to do until the end of the month when we move into our new place.

I am not a huge fan of laundr-o-mats- mostly because I have to sit around while I am waiting for my laundry to be done rather than doing one of my million and one other chores at the same time- I love multi-tasking!!! Scratch that- without the skill of multi-tasking I would not be able to survive Hurricane Lily (and her best friend/partner in crime Hurricane Kendra). But it was kinda fun with Lily- she was my big helper- and believe it or not the laundry was done in just over an hour- so overall win win- oh yeah- and it was cheaper than doing it at the apartment- so win win win.

It reminded me of a book she likes called Knuffle Bunny- so we talked about that and then we had fun watching the laundry tumble in the dryers. She was super cute helping me "fold"- well, her version of folding was to toss the clothes from bucket to folding table and seeing where they would land. Haha. And she was adorable (as always) sitting on the floor reading a story while she waited. Anyway- on with the pictures...I wish I had taken more..but these are still cute.

I love her face reflected in the glass on this one

Garage Sale expert in training

Saturday was the West Seattle Garage Sale-over 200 garage sales in west seattle on one day...too much fun! Briana and I spent most of the day power garage sale-ing- I was looking for all kinds of random stuff to go in our new apartment- by the way- WE'RE MOVING...in 11 Days!!!

Anyway...we got some great stuff and some really great deals but the best part of the day was after we picked Lily up from hanging out with Auntie Joeleen. I told her the day before that she would get $5 to spend on whatever she wanted and we were lucky enough to find a couple sales that had some good kid's stuff (read:toys) for her to choose from. She loved it!

Lily speaks Spanish...

Tomorrow being "Cinco de Mayo", Lily's class is going to have a little Spanish lesson as well as a yummy taco lunch and a pinata on the playground. I was asking her about what Spanish words she already knew...

Mommy: What Spanish words do you remember Lily? Hola...adios....cabeza...

Lily: I don't speak Spanish Mommy. I only know how to say "Clifford" in Spanish.

Mommy: Ok, how do you say "Clifford" in Spanish?

Lily: Clifford.*


*giggling, of course, silly girl.

Auntie Joeleen and Uncle Dat time

Lily has been lucky enough to get to do lots of fun stuff lately with "one" of her favorite aunties (and uncles)...A couple weeks ago they went to Northwest Trek and before that the Seattle Aquarium. What a lucky duck!

Ever since NW Trek she has been fascinated by Bison and Owls. We checked out a book about Bison from the library and she loves her little owl stuffed animal.

She dressed in her cute little party dress for the aquarium- pigtail braids too- love it!

She pointed at this picture last night and told me she saw "Dory" at the aquarium (from Finding Nemo)

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Last night- or early this morning Lily crawled in bed with me- no idea why cause I was pretty much dead asleep. I woke up a little later feeling like a sardine and told her I'd rub her back if she went back to her own bed. She did and I think I immediately fell back asleep. A couple minutes later I felt something tickle my nose- I quickly flicked my eyes open and Lily was sitting up- right there- literally nose to nose with me- I yelped and nearly jumped out of my skin before I realized it was her. Apparently I didn't rub her back long enough. Goodness did she scare the bejeezes out of me though.

Miscellaneous

I miss "Famous Lily Quotes" I don't know if she's just growing out of this phase or I'm not listening as closely...but I just haven't come up with much from her lately...weird wise...well that isn't true, she's totally weird sometimes...anyway...

What the heck have we been up to lately???

I'd say nearly all of my free time latey has gone to either A) Looking for an apartment to rent online or B)driving all around town looking for an apartment to rent. This epic search for the perfect place to live is dragging on way longer than I ever imagined- though I am not giving up hope...yet. I tried lowering my standards...but then I was disgusted and almost threw up. Really.

Lily has been doing pretty well....adjusting slowly, but still adjusting to a more (for lack of a better word) "rigid" approach to discipline. I've been trying to give her lots of praise for her efforts in shaping up her bad attitude- and we definitely have struggles...but I think we are starting to find the balance.

I'm sure Martin will be embarassed.... me talking about him on here...but I just have to *gush* just a little on the way the two of them have been getting along.

When it was just the two of us (me and Lily) I took a very lax approach to parenting mostly because it was just the two of us and I didn't feel like fighting and also mommy guilt for you know....uh everything us single moms feel bad about. Anyway with Martin around it has been...like I said...an adjustment for her- for all of us. She can't get her way all the time anymore and she has to share me...but...

Martin is amazing...awesome...extraordinary... he doesn't take attitude from her and puts her in her place- regularly- and we team up on that for sure...and in the beginning I thought she would end up hating him for it. Now I am sure it is just the opposite... she adores him... wrote his name out in letters on the fridge, wanted to show him what she can do bouncing on the bed and her painted fingernails... cried when she was afraid he didn't like her anymore.

The other day I was folding laundry in the bedroom...eavesdropping I guess...a little on them in the living room. Martin was watching a discovery channel show called River Monsters. He called  her over to show her some giant nasty creature of the Amazon River- for no other reason than just to show her- to amaze and probably disgust her.

My heart filled to brimming...I realized that as much as single moms do for their kids (and I am in no way down-playing that) nothing can replace the positive MALE influence that men have on their kids. It is something special...something I want Lily to have more of.

Those of you who know me, know the struggles I have been through with Lily's Dad- who at the moment (thank goodness) is completly MIA. He was never a good influence- never what a daughter truly needs in a Dad.

I am so thankful that Martin is here with us...filling in an empty space that I didn't even know existed. And for everything else he does too...

After dinner last night I told Lily no more TV (OMG!) and she sulked for a minute until I reminded her that we were going to paint her finger and toe nails as soon as I was done unloading the dishwasher. She decided to wait right there (next to me) until I was done. So cute. But seriously, how old does she look in this picture???

Oh wait...she did say something funny last night as I was blow drying her painted nails:

Lily: Don't give me goosebumps Mommy. Goosebumps make me jay-red.
Mommy: What does jay-red mean?
Lily: It means tired.

So now we're just making up words. Nice.

Of course it rained at the fair....

We did the Puyallup Spring Fair this weekend...we got soaked but made the best of it I think- with relatively few complaints- until the very end when we were all a little tired. I'll post the link to the web album but I just had to put this "series" of photos up. Poor Lily. But it was just too much fun and hard to resist...

Here we are on the "Bear Ride". I should have taken a picture of the outside- they were very cute and seemed fairly non threatening to the girls. We decided this would be the ride we went on all together- to use up the last of our tickets. I wanted the Ferris Wheel- but Lily was terrified of how high it went. So we get in and they are excited- neither of them realize that this bear is nothing more than a glorified "tea-cup"- Martin is excited because with how strong he is- he knows he can really make it spin- really.

The ride is about to start...I think they were reconsidering...too late!

OMG OMG OMG get me outta here!

I'm the worst. She'll probably have a fear of rides for the rest of her life. Martin spun the sh*t out of that thing- Lily at first seemed ok then as it kept going and going got scared then started screaming- "Make it stop!"

Finally the ride came to a stop and she couldn't get off fast enough...but she did it- and she went on the canoe ride and rode the pony all by herself too. So she did really well--ahh but that face- priceless.

Of course we did other fun stuff that didn't involve torturing them- games and food and animals- but I'm sure that ride is all she'll remember.

Click here for more pics. Hope this works....

Where does the time go?

Can you believe in June I'll have been in Seattle for 3 years!!??!!!??

Lily was only 20 months when we first got here- she was so tiny...and had so little hair! Now we've got the big 5 on the horizon!

I can't believe how much has changed. Lily has grown at least a foot and never ceases to amaze me with the words that come out of her mouth,"Perhaps Floyd will eat my dinner Mommy!".  I see how different I am after all we've been through. I never would have guessed this is where I would get to in my life but I am happy. Happy with where I am at and where I am going. Hopeful for a promising future...

I want to move soon...be healthy...stay challenged...get crafty...live fully...relax.

Stay tuned for cute pics!!!!

Easter Weekend

We dyed Easter Eggs this weekend with the help of Auntie Briana and had an Easter Egg hunt (and Easter dinner) over at Poppa and Gramma Di's house. The girls seemed to get along much better this weekend- I think we had way fewer meltdowns/arguments than normal- not sure if they are getting more used to each other or if we're doind a better job of knowing what will or won't cause a problem. Probably a little of both.

We both know now that no one can have the pink bowl because it will be traumatic- regardless of if the way the bowls are distributed is fair or not (coin toss anyone???). Really though I think we are all adjusting and adjusting well if I may say so. We always have fun together- there is no doubt about that.

Paint, glitter, crayons, dye...what more can you ask for in an art project???

Lily and her ever goofy face...

Egg hunt anticipation...planning her "route" I'm sure...

OMG platic eggs everywhere

...and way too much candy. Can we say Sugar high??

Hope all of you had as much fun as we did. Happy Easter!