one motivated family!

We are working like monkeys these days trying to get this house on the market. Ya know, it sucks, to be the type personality that just doesn't see the mess until you know someone else is going to look at it. We have our house looking just plain perddy these days! I've got half our stuff boxed up and in storage and I'm actually achieving some organization! This is not like me! I hate that we're just going to get our place looking real top notch and then we'll move out. Oh well. Maybe it won't take 4 yrs to get our next place like we want it. :) This is us painting the master bedroom. Brian's been in charge of new floors and me and the Bit have taken to organizing and painting. This was a big mommy mistake though, you other mothers can laugh at my ignorance and inexperience...I thought it'd be cute to give the Bit a dry roller to 'help out'. Cause you KNOW my girl hates to be the baby who doesn't pitch in like the big people. She insists on pulling her own weight around here. So we let the girl play. Well, dumb me, the next morning I had the now wet roller wrapped up in the room, you guessed it, I had that instinctive mommy gut feeling that she'd been WAY too quiet and went to check on her. She'd pulled the saran wrap off and was painting my grandmothers all wood handmade dressers a lovely shade of antique white. With a big Bit smile though mommy! I couldn't even fuss at the poor kid. I'd let her do it the night before. Ok, lesson learned. Luckily it was wet latex paint that wiped off easliy w/ a wet rag and all was fine. Mental note, careful what you teach these boogers, they catch on quick and you may not want them too!!!

Princess Bit..

It's been a great week this week. We've gotten so much done to get our house ready to sell. Those of you who know us well, know we'd rather sit on our deck eating ice cream w/ friends or snuggle up and watch Smallville together as a family. But this week we are a motivated marriage! The house next door to ours sold less then a month after it listed. We are hopeful to get into a house with a yard for our wild woman this summer. So, my sweet handy hubby's been laying floors and putting up new trim and chair rails while I paint and pack. We're doing good! It's left the Bit a little left out even though she trys so to help. Last night she found the brush attatchment to my vaccume cleaner and 'painted' my bedroom wall along side her mommy. So fun! I'm aware the above pictures have absolutely nothing to do w/ my write up. But hey, I'm a nurse not a journalist (unlike my brilliant journalist published sister Honey!). I just wanted to put these pics in cause she was so cute trying mommy's shoes on after church Sunday. Bri took these while I was asleep. Such a big girl, loves her some shoes and sparklies and "bubblezzz bash!!". When we get the house looking perddy I'll post some pics of the finished product. I told Bri, made him promise me....next house we'll fix up looking nice BEFORE we are moving out of it!!! :)

Thump Thump

One of Abigail's favorite things to do is find when I accidently leave my nursing bag with in reach and play with all mommy's gadgets. She loves my stethascope! We talk about how our bodies work under our skin and she was all about learning about our hearts. Her little eyes just lit up when I put the ear pieces in the right way and let her hear her own heart beat. She listened very intently and looked pretty darn cute doing it. My little nurse! Mommy was so proud!

Those of you who know Brian....

....Know how much this man has wanted to do a salt water fish tank. Since I met the man 8 years ago he's talked about growing a coral reef in his living room. It's a very expensive habit so we've never justified taking it on. But if one can say they have the hobby w/o actually having the hobby Brian has. He's a loyal and active member of the Roanoke Reef Club and has even gone on "Reef Crawls" where locals get together and go house to house to see one another's tank systems. He's read books upon books preparing and learning about the hobby. Dangerously there is a tank store in Daleville 2 minutes from where his job is moving to soon. They know him by name and we visit as a family frequently to look at the reefs and "pishys!" as the Bit calls them. Well Bri found a man in blacksburg selling his system for dirt cheap and he jumped all over it!! Here he is unloading the thing and letting Abigail help him clean it up. We won't actually be even adding water to it for another few months and not til we're in our new house. But that doesn't dampen my sweet hubby's joy. He's built his custom stand, has his lighting and sump tank all ready. He's closer then he's ever been to doing it and as his big ole grin shows it just makes the man happy!!! I'll keep you posted down the road w/ how it will look and feel to have a section of the Carribean in our living room! :)

..Once upon a potty...

Well don't you worry, Estella survived! We have been attempting some potty training in our house and a very special kitty was being sooooo helpful this week. Abigail is very into 'pahheeey' and is no longer a fan of the diaper system so we've been trying some training. No success yet. She's a little young still but I'm supporting her wanting to get started. :) She hasn't been able to pee in the potty yet, but she's all about the waiting while she "sits, and sits, and sits and sits..." just like her instruction manuel (shown above as she goes over the pictures again) states. While waiting on the pee pee Estella walked by and Abigail took advantage of her being close, and the bit being bored snatched her up like a doll to wait it out with us. Stell was a dream kitty letting Abigail hold her very horribly while she strained down all blue in the face trying to go pee pee. She knows what to do on the potty, just can't make her baby body do it just yet. Keep a watch out, we'll keep you posted on her progress. Meanwhile, I'm so buying stock in Resolve Carpet Cleaner!!!!!

New life, new thoughts...

Sorry I've been slacking on the posting. As some of my dear friends pointed out sorry!! No worries just enjoying no worries for a change. This Tuesday we closed on our investment property so this month we only had to pay 1 mortgage, 1 power bill, 1 HOA dues!! Yeah!!! We went out to celebrate Tuesday night and the Bit wasn't as into the whole stress free romantic Italian dinner as we were. Fifteen minutes in we opted for to-go boxes, desert to go, and I chugged my relaxing glass of Sangria to spare the other diners. We took the wild woman to Toys R Us and rewarded her bad behavior with some "melmo" summer clothes. I know, but we were in too good of moods to do anything else w/ her 21 month old-ness!! Good times! It's been a good week of planning some activities for the family for the next year and dreaming of buying a new house and the best news of all I have a brand new baby sweet neice Madeline Anne! Born Saturday night at 8:04 and named......Monday morning!! Poor kid! Welcome little one!! We can't wait to come meet you!!! Hopefully I'll get to visit and post some pictures next week.

been a while, Idol Update..

Ok, I know I'm way behind. But I have to say that I cried like a baby when Brooke got booted this week. ( I know, I'm WAY too attached to these kids). Not that I thought the dear could have won the competition but my goodness she was a sweetie! I hope she gets picked up by some record company and given a chance. On the performances. I thought David Archuleta was adorable again. He did a great job w/ Neil Diamond's 'Coming to America', love that song! Although, I do actually have a critique about him this week. I hope that they can work on his star appeal some in the future. The poor boy looks like he's about to cry w/ nerves everytime he stops singing. He's all professional while singing but I'm worried about his sweetness in the industry. This business will eat him alive if he doesn't act a little more like he know's he's got talent. I love his humble spirit but I worry about him. David Cook did ok. I loved his 'music of the night' from last week. Hello goose bumps!! I love that show and I love that he didn't change the version at all, such a difficult song to do and he ROCKED it!! Syesha is doing well I must say. I like her broadway feel to things. I'm not a fan but she's been holding her own here at the end. Jason Castro's lack of intelligent speech is embarrassing. Vocally he's bored me a lot and I get just annoyed at his grunts and giggles during interviews. I'm ready for him to go. It'll be a good end of the season then booo, bored til next January.