The Beach

Saturday we decided to ditch all the unpacking and head to the beach. We planned on it for earlier in the week, but it just never worked out. Saturday, we decided to just go. We got kind of a late start and it started raining about an hour into our drive, but we still had a pretty good time at the beach, despite the clouds and rain. It was still pretty warm, but not warm enough to put the kids bathing suits on. So Lizzie and I just rolled up our pant legs and waded in the water. Mike and Jacob had shorts on already. Next time hopefully it will be sunny and warm so we can play more in the water. Assuming Jacob will go near the water next time. hehe. Actually, neither of them were real fans of the water. They were okay as long as someone was holding onto them.
Lizzie got a little nervous when Mike would let go of her.
Jacob loved the sand. He especially loved throwing it at everybody. The turkey. Mike had to drag him over to the water.
As you can see, he was not happy about it. I love this one. "Don't let it get me". He did not at all appreciate how the water came at him like it was going to get him. As soon as Mike let go of him he started crying and didn't stop until about 5 minutes before we left.

We gathered quit the collection of sea shells. One of my favorite things to do at the beach. :) Lulu thought they were pretty cool. While she was admiring them Jacob prepared to attack.

Here is my attempt at a happy family picture at the beach. It didn't work out so well.
As you can see, my hair and skin do not do well in humidity. Here's Lulu, still disgruntled about the sand in her hair.
Now to get rid of all the sand in our car.

Hi George!!

We had 3 guys come pack our stuff into the moving truck. One of them was a tall, skinny, younger guy with dark hair that Jacob kept calling, "Daa...", cause he would realize after starting to call him dad, that it wasn't dad. And 2 afr am guys, one of which was the driver who we didn't see a lot of, because he stayed outside most of the time. But the other 2 guys were constantly going in and out. At one point we had both kids outside and they were playing in the back of Mikes new truck. The white guy walks out with a load of boxes and Jacob yells out, "Hi Daa...", then sees this guy... walk out and yells, "Hi George!" Where he came up with that, I will never know. I have no idea what his name really is, but I'm pretty sure it's not George.

Boys and Bugs

Jacob has always loved playing in the dirt and getting dirty. But much to my dismay and despite my efforts to make him afraid, he has become very fascinated with bugs. He is VERY curious about them. He calls them "ew, stinkies"(because whenever I see a bug I yell, "ew, ew, ew", which converts to "ew, stinkies" in Jacobland), but he thinks they are pretty cool. More particularly, he likes to squish them. We currently don't have any play equipment in our back yard, but that doesn't matter to Jacob because it's got lots of dirt and bugs. There are lots of tiny ant piles in the yard that house teeny tiny little ants. At first I freaked out when I found him playing in an ant pile, but then I realized that these ants run and hide in fear (as would I if a giant 3 year old sat on my house). So, fortunately he does not come in covered in ants every day. But he loves to watch them and pick them up and then squish them.

Here he is trying to get a closer look at some bugs.

Whenever he sees a bug in the house he says "ew stinkies, a wipe!" Which translates as, "Mom, there is a bug, I need something to get it with", because he saw me get a spider once with a paper towel, aka, wipe. Today he came up to me and tells me, "ew stinkies". So I go check it out and sure enough, there is a smallish spider climbing on the wall, and just as I am about to go get something to smash it with, SPLAT! He smashes it with his hand and says, "WHAP, got it!" (got that one from his dad). Okay, I guess that works. So I go get a tissue to clean it up with and when I get back to the the scene of crime, there he is rolling the body of the spider between his finger. I about gagged and proceeded to scream in my high pitched, panic voice, "EW!!! PUT IT DOWN, DON'T TOUCH IT! GROSS!!!!". (Part of my efforts to make him afraid, which obviously hasn't been working.)

Later he walks over too me and tries to hand me a dead fly, which resulted in the same panicked reaction from me. Can't wait for him to discover reptiles. Eeesh.

Attack of the Mini Blinds

I've never been a big fan of mini blinds. I don't really like blinds in general. Unless they are the nice wooden ones. Blinds were NOT meant for households with young children. They just don't survive children. They always end up broken or mangled, AND the string thing you open them with is a strangulation hazard. It's like their only defence against children.

We decided that as soon as we could get curtains we would take all the blinds in the house down. Especially the ones in this house. Some of them I am sure the last tenants put in to replace the original ones but got the very cheapest ones possible that were the wrong size, and installed them incorrectly. I noticed right off how flimsy they were. You touch them and they crinkle like tin foil! I knew then that those weren't going to survive my blind destroying children. My second clue they needed to come down was what happened when I tried to raise them. I pulled the string only to have the whole thing come crashing down on my head. WTH! Okay, so I moved cautiously onto the next one. I was leery as I pulled the string. It raised with no problems, so letting my guard down I moved onto the next set. Pulled the string and IT came crashing down on my head! At this point I'm just mad and throw them all on the floor and proceed to kick the crap out of them. Okay not really. I wanted to but didn't want to have to pay for the stupid things. I decided to leave the others alone.

Then a week later, I was in the kitchen making dinner and decided I needed more sunlight. So, not thinking, I walked over to the blinds and tried to pull the string. They were about half way up when, you guessed it, down they came right onto my head. Can you say LAW SUIT!!! Okay, I wouldn't really, but I was mad enough at the time that I wanted to at least threaten!!

I curse you stupid mini blinds! May you all burn in h-e-double hockey sticks. And to the idiot who installed them, may you have mini blinds crashing down on your head where ever you go!!

Odd Ones Out

We've met a few of our neighbors. They are all very, very nice. I hope we get to know them all better. However, I can help but notice that I think we are the only white people in the neighborhood. lol :)

It Depends

There are so many funny commercial on tv. My new favorites are the Depends commercials. Sounds strange I know, but they crack me up. I think this one is the best. I laugh every time I see it.

Hey Brittany, what do you eat for breakfast? Hahahahaha! I couldn't resist. (Sorry, little inside joke.)

Save The Trees

Move yourself! Having someone come in and pack for you is not all it's cracked up to be. Having someone to pack it into the truck was probably the only benefit. Next time I will be doin' it myself. Yes it was nice having someone pack my stuff, but I decided that I would much rather declutter as I pack my stuff rather than try to frantically do it before the movers come so you don't end up with a bunch of garbage at your new place, only to still end up with a bunch of junk at your new place. Also, while it was nice having someone pack for me, it has been a nightmare unpacking. Why, because they rapped everything, EVERYTHING with paper. The remote to the tv, stacks of paper, laundry soap, cleaning supplies, all individually. And my favorite is when I find stuff like this...

Wrapped in 10 layers of paper. I keep finding little bundles like this. If I had packed myself, I would have been able to throw most of this stuff away, and the rest would go into one big box. It's not breakable. Why wrap it.

This is paper from 1 box. 1 BOX!!!!

It's sad that a whole forest had to die for this move. But the kids sure had fun playing in it...and Mike. :) Right now we have 6-45 gal. bags crammed full of paper. And we aren't even half way done. It is taking me FOREVER. I am fairly certain that had I packed myself I would be almost done. It seriously takes forever to unwrap everything. AAAAAAAAAH! So much for our trip to the beach this week. :(