Pave Low

I was asked recently on facebook by one of my friends with whom I grew up, "MK, what's Pave Low? I've seen you mention it before but I don't know what it is." I'm not even sure now how I answered his question, but I've thought a lot lately about it. I don't know why I've thought so much about it except that perhaps it is because so many of the people I speak with on a regularly basis on facebook are Pave Low.

So what is Pave Low? Pave Low is a helicopter that Randy flew during probably the majority of his flying career in the air force. It was a helicopter used for infiltration/exfiltration of special forces, with missions being flown primarily under the cover of darkness. Randy was a flight engineer. Pave Low helicopters were first flown during the Vietnam Conflict and were retired in combat in Iraq last year. They will never be flown again. To experience the deactivation and reunion last year, which Randy and I were both able to attend, was almost surreal.

But Pave Low is so much more than just a helicopter...Pave Low is family. Randy shares a bond with his Pave brethren that I cannot even begin to describe. The wives share a sisterhood that is not duplicated...at least not on any level I've been a witness to. It is a family where the officer / enlisted lines are often blurred...never forgotten who is who, but also never forgotten that it took all 6 of them to carry out a mission...TOGETHER. Like every family, it is one that has experienced joy...and loss.

Recently I became reconnected with someone I had worked with while active duty...we knew who each other was but did not 'run' in the same circles. I had lost track of her shortly after she left the Air Force...which was shortly after her husband was tragically killed during a training mission on a Pave Low. Randy and I didn't begin dating until after this had happened so I was not connected to this woman through Pave Low. However, as everyone in the family is so fond of saying...and believing...Once Pave Low, Always Pave Low. I have thoroughly enjoyed being reacquainted with her...and sharing that bond of sisterhood even though we weren't 'Pave' at the same time. The same holds true for the former spouse of a pilot who left before I even entered active duty...she's become a great source of support on my bad days with the girls! She's a single mom of 3 teenagers and I tell myself constantly, 'if she can do it with 3 by herself, I can certainly do it too!' The support of the family, and knowing they are there, and share in a commonality that is too hard to explain to someone not in the community.

I'm not saying that my Pave family replaces my blood family...absolutely not! My two sisters are my two best friends! But it's hard to explain at times to them, it's hard to explain why Randy is the way he is and does things the way he does, to people who don't know first-hand. What is great about Pave Low is that you don't have to explain...they know, they understand, nothing has to be said.

So what is Pave Low? Pave Low is my second-family. Pave Low is a gift. Pave Low helped make my husband who he is today and I'm eternally grateful that I am blessed to be a part of something so magnificent, so wonderful.

And this is their song.

Its all the same, only the names will change
Everyday it seems were wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
Id drive all night just to get back home

Chorus:
I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

Sometimes I sleep, sometimes it's not for days
And the people I meet always go their separate ways
Sometimes you tell the day
By the bottle that you drink
And times when you're all alone all you do is think

Chorus

I walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back
I play for keeps, cause I might not make it back
I've been everywhere, still I'm standing tall
I've seen a million faces and I've rocked them all

I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
I'm wanted dead or alive
I'm a cowboy, I got the night on my side
I'm wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

Another update...so soon??? LOL!

Here I sit, it is 2:39 in the morning and I am wide awake. I've watched enough television to where I'm caught up on my shows on the DVR and now I'm bored with it. Randy is still awake too, flipping through the guide on the TV trying to find something interesting to watch...not sure what he's still doing awake though as he was up before I was this morning! He was a doll to let me sleep in a while this morning. I get up earlier than he does during the week, or at least this week I started to, so he got up with the girls this morning and made sure Peyton was let out. He even shared his coffee with me!!!

So why did I start getting up earlier this week? Because Emily started school! YEAH! We all went the night before class started to her Open House and met her teacher. I signed up to be her room mom as well as for the PTA. The first morning of school I walked her to her classroom...all the while she's telling me 'Mama, I'm not GONNA be a first-grader, I AM a first-grader!' I truly hope she has a fantastic year. It was so difficult moving here during the school year last December, we never really got to meet anyone. With her starting at the beginning of the school year, she won't be the 'new girl' anymore and I hope she makes some wonderful friends. I, on the other hand, am looking forward to meeting more moms!

Grace is enjoying her one-on-one time with mama again, not having to compete for attention...and I'm enjoying not hearing the constant screaming between the two of them over EVERYTHING. Grace and I have started doing workbook pages together, working on her letters and numbers. She loves having 'homework' every day and can't wait for Emily and daddy to get home so she can show them what she's done. The State of Florida's Pre-K program is only one semester long so she won't be starting school until January. We are going to start going back to Free Wednesdays at The Wiregrass, an outdoor mall about 20 minutes from here. It's a bunch of activities that is sponsored by the Tampa Moms Like Me group.

I've started working more on the house. This week I managed to get every room in our house cleaned except for the play room, the spare bedroom, laundry room and the master bedroom closet. On Friday I started working on our closet but put finishing it on hold until Monday when Randy goes back to work and Emily goes back to school. We still had boxes in there from the move that had never been unpacked...of clothes!!! I did get all of the hanging clothes organized though so now all Randy has to do is walk in there in the mornings and find his clothes for work all hanging together. My big project this fall will be to clean out the garage but I'm waiting for the temperature to drop at least into the 80s before I tackle that project! It's needs massive organization. I would like to build shelves to put the boxes up on and get a lot of the stuff off the floor. We'll see though. That's not a type of project I've ever tackled before...I don't know how well I'll get along with a power saw! LOL! I've never been great at keeping my house SPOTLESS, primarily because I'm a clutter-bug and don't throw anything away. But my resolution to myself, moving into this house, is to de-clutter it and get rid of things we don't need, don't want, can't wear or just flat out don't like anymore. Did I mention that after the first day in our closet, I have already managed to fill two big black garbage bags with stuff to get rid of??? I haven't even started on our clothes yet!

Our biggest news this week came on Wednesday with a phone call Randy received from his oldest, our son Ryan, who is currently serving in Afghanistan. He called his dad to let him know we are going to be grandparents again!!! Ryan is so excited that he's going to be a dad that he told me he's ready to call a press conference and announce it to the world! Jenny had just returned from her visit here the week before...which, by the way, was WONDERFUL! We had a fabulous time with her here. She was a little shocked by the news, they'd planned to start a family after he returns from his deployment, but nonetheless are ecstatic that they are going to be parents. We're so happy for them too!!! Ryan will return to England in February. Originally, their plans were for Jenny to join him in July after their wedding in California, but with the baby coming late-April, we're not sure what the plans will be now. They got married in December and Jenny has always wanted a big wedding but we'll have to wait and see what they decide to do.

Our son-in-law Efren, Katie's husband, deployed this week to Iraq and will be there for six months. It's unsettling for Randy and me (we don't count 'steps' in our family) to have our son and son-in-law both deployed at the same to the wars in the middle east. While Efren is gone, Katie is continuing to go to school to become a medical assistant...and doing very well, I might add. She plans to join us here in November for Thanksgiving.

We're headed to Disney next month with the girls. We haven't told them yet, going to wait to surprise them. Randy's birthday is also next month and I'm hoping the painting we had commissioned for him will be here by then.

Until next time.

Another update...

I'm sitting here in my new favorite spot...the table outside under the lanai with my laptop. I tired of playing Mafia Wars and Farmville/Farm Town on Facebook and am seriously procrastinating on cleaning up the kitchen so figured I'd update my blog again. I really need to get my butt in gear though...our daughter-in-law will be here tonight from California for 5 days! We haven't met her in person yet, only through conversation via Skype and all of us are looking forward to her visit.

The girls are playing on the floats with their beach towels...pretending to 'lay out' in the sun. I wish they would just jump in the pool and start wearing themselves out so they'll go to bed at night! LOL!

Other than taking care of the housecleaning, I'm also getting ready for a Southern Living At Home Open House I am hosting next Sunday afternoon. I finally decided it was time to see if I can do anything with my business. I don't know of any other consultants in this area, at least on this side of the bay, so there is a lot of potential. I just renewed my contract so I'm going to give it this year to see if I can make a go of it. We'll see what happens.

I went to the doctor yesterday to refill my medication for my ever-present ulcer and walked out of their with an appointment for a colonoscopy on Tuesday...YUCK! UGH! HORRIBLE! Yeah, the good ole prep that has to be done the day before...not too pleasant to endure but if it can help prevent me from suffering from the same illness that took my dad, I'll gladly...ok, maybe not GLADLY...but I'll do it. The doctor said there aren't any concerns, just that I haven't had one in 4 years and he wants me to go ahead and knock it out now. Fun. Fun. Ok, not fun.

A lot of catch-up...

I'm seriously ashamed that I have not updated this thing since February!!! UGH! However, in my own defense, it's been a little busy around here. Like I said in my last post, I ended up on the planning committee for my 20th high school reunion. Never in a million years did I dream it would take up so much of my time. I signed on to plan the dinner and create a Memory DVD...and wound up doing so much more. The DVD was AWESOME! I received more than 1000 pictures from classmates and created 17 different videos...starting with our kindergarten pictures from 1976 and ending with current photos of classmates and their families. I created a special video in memory of a classmate who passed away almost 13 years ago, a memory dedicated to those in our class (8 of 65, although I found out later there were actually 9) who served in the military, 3 videos of current photos, 2 videos of family photos, 1 video of photos that were taken around my hometown...not to mention a video of grade school photos, 2 videos of high school candids, 1 video of senior photographs, 1 video of high school dances, 1 video from our graduation and for the life of me, I cannot remember the last two. I even created a video of photos taken at the reunion dinner after I got back home. The dinner was a great success, everyone seemed to have a wonderful time catching up and I've heard nothing but positive feedback from all the hard work and effort put forth by Lauri Ramsey, Tammy Monier and myself. I ended up helping Lauri create memory books. We made 27 books that were 108 pages each. We 'scrapbooked' them, inserting all the clip art and past-and-present photos of classmates who returned their questionnaires. It was a long and tedious project, one that took us a lot longer to complete than we had anticipated, but thanks to the last-minute help from my younger sister Stephanie, the books were finished the night before we went to Henry.

The girls and I left on the 29th of June to make the long drive to IL. We spent the first night in Murfreesboro, outside of Nashville, and I have to say, they were real troopers! We spent the first few nights in IL at Tom and Stephanie's with the boys, where I got to see Seth play a baseball game but unfortunately left before he hit a triple with 2 RBIs! Steph and Leann took turns taking care of the girls for a couple of nights while Randy and I drove to Henry for the reunion. The girls and I had picked up some fireworks in TN - you know, the GOOD kind - that Tom enjoyed setting off the night of the 3rd of July where they were having an early 4th celebration listening to the tunes of DJ Cupcake, aka Seth Gajdorus (my nephew), at some friends of theirs. That night was my reunion dinner and I was truly pleased at the turnout of classmates. I'll try to get some photos posted on here, they are also on my facebook page, as well as the final video I produced. On the 4th, Tom and Steph drove to Henry with their 3 boys and our 2 girls and spent the night with us. Mom and pops also drove down for the day. We had a great time seeing old friends, running into people we hadn't seen since leaving Henry 20 years ago. Of course the carnival was a blast for the kids, and as always, Henry put on a magnificent fireworks display.

We returned to mom and pops' house on the 5th where Leann, Rusty, Julie, and their kids Jeremy and Paige, joined us for a cookout. The kids had a great time on the water slide, the parents had fun just relaxing and catching up. On Monday night all the kids returned to mom's house...we had 7 kids for 2 days and nights with a full moon...NEVER again! LOL! None of the kids were bad, they were just hyped up with being together and of course, the effects of the moon! We ventured out on Tuesday and took them all to see Up! What a great movie! Although what wasn't great was the phone call I received during the movie from Randy (he had flown home that day) telling me he walked into our house which felt like an oven. We'd been having problems off and on with the a/c since Memorial Day weekend and had numerous service calls to try to fix it...apparently it wasn't fixed. So, I had to try long distance to get a service tech back out there to find out what the problem was and get it fixed. (To make a long story short...it ended up not getting fixed until after I returned home, but I'll tell that part of the story later.)

On Thursday, mom and I took the girls into Chicago to the LUSH store. That night I hooked up with Stephanie and her family and went to see NASCAR qualifying at the Chicagoland Speedway, then later went to Julie's parents' house and hung out for a while with Rusty, Julie, Leann, Jules' parents and some friends. The next day was quiet at mom's house and then I went for dinner with my dear friend Kerrie while mom and pops took the girls to an outdoor production of The Wizard of Oz. While I was at dinner with Kerrie, I also got to meet NASCAR driver Robbie Gordon...and picked up a free hat and t-shirt for Randy. Saturday we were supposed to meet up with my aunt and cousin and family but plans fell through so mom and pops took the girls back home (and later to pops' favorite store, Barnes and Noble) while I met up with Tom and Stephanie, Seth, Toni and Aric Ende, Cory and Jenny Ende, and Matt and his boys for some FUN tailgating at the track before the Sprint Cup night race. I managed to find Randy a Bill Elliot t-shirt, Jeff Gordon t-shirts for the girls, and see Joey Logano up close at the #20 Home Depot trailer. Tom's parents even came by to say hi. But that's where the fun for me ended...and no, it wasn't the Beer Pong because I only played one game! I got a splitting headache and ended up leaving the race before it was even half over. It would have been more fun if Randy had been able to be there anyway.

So I went back to mom and pops, yes - completely sober - and decided to just get a good night sleep before heading out with the girls on Sunday morning. Well, those plans changed around 4:30 am when Grace woke me up and promptly threw up all over the place. So much for leaving. She was sick most of the day until pops was an angel and went to Stephanie's for some anti-nausea medicine. By early-afternoon it looked like we were home free...until early-evening when Emily got sick. Bring on the medicine! Fortunately she didn't experience the bug as badly as Grace did because she got the meds early on. So we set off Monday morning for Tennessee where we spent the night with my mother-in-law, Judy. Tommy, my BIL, came over for dinner and hung out a while too. Judy loaded me up with stuff she's been cleaning out of her house and the girls and I left there Tuesday morning, with a brief stop in Warner Robins to have lunch with Paula and Kinley, Angela, Shelby and Gavin, and Katie and Liliana. We made it home that night...and I crashed...in a hot house.

And then the flu bug hit me. Randy was awesome and stayed home the next day, I think it was almost lunchtime by the time I got up. And when I got up I immediately grabbed my phone and started raising 90-kinds of Hades about our a/c...the contractor, the home-warranty company, the contractor again...UGH! Back and forth it went for a couple of days...which also included numerous phone calls with my BIL Tom (who's an HVAC guru). The original company who had done all the work since Memorial Day finally backed out and said they couldn't do any more...so back to the Home Warranty company I went to get a new contractor. Now mind you, this is 8 o'clock on a Friday night. It's not easy finding a contractor in this area who works weekends...at least not one who's affiliated with our home-warranty company. My bi***ing paid off though because they finally got someone out here Saturday morning who spent all of 2 minutes looking at our unit to tell us the compressor locked up and the whole unit needed to be replaced. Ok, no worries, we have a home warranty, right? Monday morning I received a call from them and was told the total cost would be about $3000, of which we would have to pay almost $1600...fees for things that weren't covered like the new line set, disposal of the unit, a new concrete slab, etc., etc. This is where it gets fun...NOT! Our compressor/condensor/outside unit was a 10 SEER, R-22 unit. Our air handler/inside unit is a 13 SEER, R-22 unit. R-22 units are not going to be made anymore after the end of this year and parts for them won't be made anymore after a couple of years. So, we had to make the difficult and painfully expensive decision to just upgrade our unit so that #1 - the compressor and air handler would match (the same SEER) and #2 - they would no longer be R-22 but instead R410A freon, the safer freon according to the EPA. Going with a higher SEER would also decrease our energy usage, something I'm all for after having 2 months of electric bills over $400! So the next week we had the new units put in...but I'm still waiting on them to come back and patch the hole in the ceiling where they first put their foot through and second, had a leak that soaked through the hole.

Enough about that! Randy asked me if I would finally get us moved in this house now that the reunion is over and vacation has ended. I spent a few days while he was in Atlanta de-cluttering the house, am currently working on re-arranging the girls rooms to put them in one room with the other room a play room, I fixed our dryer that had been inop for about 8 months, and re-hung the hall closet door. I finally got all of the boxes out of the dining room that were on the floor but now need to clear out the boxes that are on the table. My goal this fall when the temperature drops is to get our garage cleaned out. Katie came with Liliana at the end of July and spent several days with us, then Leann came last weekend, and Ryan's fiancee Jenny will be here Saturday night. We're having friends over for dinner Friday night.

The girls absolutely love having the pool and it's really beautiful with the new tile and surface we had installed in March. They swim almost every day and now that I'm not working on the reunion, I'm in it almost every day with them. Emily goes back to school the 25th of this month, I'm waiting to find out about Grace. My mom will be here for a day or so in November, she has a conference she goes to every fall that's being held in Tampa this year for oncology nursing. Katie and Lily will be here for Thanksgiving and Tom and Stephanie are hoping to come down for a long weekend in December. I have a few more friends who want to come down...Laura, Brian and Jenny...hopefully they'll be able to make it too. We won't be going to IL next summer as our vacation plans will take us to California for Ryan and Jenny's wedding, which the girls are in.

Ryan is currently en route to Afghanistan for 6 months and by the end of this month, Efren should be en route to Iraq for 6 months. Please keep them both in your thoughts and prayers.

Until next time...and I'll try not to make it as long before my next post...

My high school reunion...

I'm not sure how it happened, but I ended up being on the 'committee' that is organizing my 20th high school reunion. At first it was just supposed to be 'helping out' here and there - after all, how much can I really do being in Florida and the reunion is in Illinois? Well, apparently A LOT! I've had the joy of reconnecting with SO MANY PEOPLE from my class! Up until about 2-1/2 years ago, the only person I've kept in touch with since I graduated was my dear best friend Laura. We've known each other since kindergarten. In the past couple of months though I've come in contact with about 25 more. That's pretty good since there were only 65 in our graduating class! So anyway, with Tammy Stroup Monier and Lauri Ramsey, I'm helping plan our reunion. For the past several nights I've been trying to get manila envelopes and invitation envelopes addressed...talk about hand cramps! Next up is to print out our little 'newsletter' to include with the invites telling about what's going on during our time together and about our family picnic and print the RSVP cards but I'm waiting on some more detail before I do that. Lauri had the wonderful idea about creating a memory book so she developed a questionnaire that will go in the manila envelope as well. She'll take that data when they are sent back and create a digital version for me to take to Kinko's and have published. I'm really excited about it! I'm actually really looking forward to going back to Henry. I haven't been there since Laura's wedding in '94. Henry always has a big 4th of July celebration with a carnival in town, the large parade and a huge fireworks display over the river. So, we thought we'd take advantage of that and hold our reunion that same weekend. I'm excited to take Randy and the girls back so they can see what a 'real' small town looks like!

Emily at the fair...

The kindergarten classes at Maniscalco Elementary School performed at the Florida State Fair, 3 of them yesterday and 3 of them today. This is the 15th year of them performing various songs wearing costumes from the Little House on the Prairie-era. They were absolutely adorable! And yes, before you even say it, the Florida state fair is in February, and yes, it was COLD! Look at Emily shivering while she was singing! Still, it was precious watching them and also listening to Grace sing along, after all, she's been practicing the songs with Emily and I for the past 2 months! (If the music player kicks on, just click the play/pause button to stop it.)

Sonny

We got a dog!!! We found him today and brought him home tonight. We started off the day going to PetSmart and Petco, went to see what type of dogs were there from rescues. We were uncuccessful since the only rescue there was for greyhounds. So while we were at Petco I got on their computer and searched Petfinder. I found a 1-year-old male at the Pasco County Humane Society so I called about him. The man I spoke with answered my questions but then told me that he had received a call a short while earlier from a woman with a 1-year-old Labrador Retriever / Golden Retriever mix. I told him we were definitely interested in him and got directions. We drove out there, probably a 40 minute drive, and the woman hadn't arrived yet (this was around 2:45) so we took the girls for some lunch. I called Ed back at the Humane Society and the woman still hadn't shown up so he told me he'd call me if she did and we headed back home to pick up some groceries. Around 4 o'clock I got a call that the woman had called and would be there in about an hour. So we unpacked our groceries and waited...and a little over an hour later got the call that Sonny had been taken in. Sonny's previous family was moving and could not take him with them. So we made the drive back out to Pasco County...which took about 45 minutes...and as soon as we walked out to the kennels I saw the most beautiful dog and my first thought was 'I hope that's him because that's the dog we've been looking for!'

We'd been told that he was timid when he first gets to know people...well, I'm not sure where that came from because he's not that way at all! When he came out of the kennel, he went right to the girls and let them pet him all over. Randy was given the leash and he started to walk with him like he's been part of our family the whole time. We filled out the adoption paperwork and walked him out to the Durango. We moved Emily's seat to the very back and I climbed in the middle with Sonny and Grace. Sonny immediately jumped in the front seat...and was properly seated before Randy had even had a chance to get in! Grace and Emily started laughing so heartily...it made my heart warm! THAT, hearing their sincere laughter, made everything worth it!!! I absolutely LOVE hearing them both laugh.

Sonny eventually returned to the back seat with me...and promptly laid down with his head on Grace's lap. She just very naturally draped her arm around his neck and started petting him. Of course Emily was jealous, having to be in the very back, but we made that up to her by letting her walk him in Petco. He was great in the store, not really pulling much on his leash or trying to go to all the other dogs.

Sonny is a year old - at least that's what we were told but I think he's certainly on the plus side of one year. He's already 50 pounds and more retriever than lab. He's absolutely beautiful and we look forward to many, many years of him in our family!

As soon as I find my card adaptor I will upload pics of him from my phone!

Grace...

I had to run up to the grocery store tonight to pick up some blueberries and french fries. The french fries were for supper tonight, the blueberries for making muffins with Emily in the morning. Anyway, Emily went with me and Grace stayed home with daddy. Later in the evening Randy told me about a conversation he had with Grace that went something like this...

"Daddy, I can fight like a boy," said Grace with her arms up by her shoulders in a boxing stance."

"You can?" asked daddy while Grace tried taking a few jabs at daddy. He put his hand on her head, keeping her an arm's distance away and let her swing until her little heart's content.

"Yeah daddy, see?"

"Well bug (a shortened version of our nickname for her, Bugaboo), daddy doesn't want you fighting at all. Mommy and daddy don't want you hitting anyone."

"But daddy, if someone gets up in my face," she replied with the flat side of her hand right in front of her face, "I'm gonna knock the shit out of him!"

"Bug," said daddy, trying as hard as possible to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing in front of her, "what did you say?"

"If someone gets in my face, I'm gonna knock the shit out of him!"

Of course Randy addressed the inappropriate language, still trying to keep from laughing! The funny thing was, less than an hour later after Emily and I came home, Emily got in her face and Grace calmly grabbed the plastic caddy she was playing with and hit Em in the chin with it.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my 7-year anniversary! To say I've reached a milestone would be an understatement. I married the love of my life on Tuesday, January 29, 2002, at the courthouse in Shalimar, Florida. Randy was in the middle of 'Chiefs Week' on Hurlburt Field, a mandatory requirement after making Chief Master Sergeant. We wanted to get married before he deployed to Afghanistan and since I was leaving the following weekend for a pain management course in San Antonio, Texas, that was the only time we could do it. We didn't tell anyone except Keri MacDonald and Mike Mahowald, who went with us. Randy left during the middle of a golf tournament, met us at the courthouse, and returned two holes later, never telling anyone why he'd left. The next day I drove to Tennessee to pick up his mom for the Chief's Induction ceremony at the end of the week, we never told her. We did tell my mom though and she sent a gorgeous arrangement of fresh-cut flowers. It wasn't until after I returned from Texas (Randy had already deployed) that everyone we worked with started figuring things out - after all, my name had changed!

It's been 7 wonderful years, of which I have so much to be thankful for. Baby, you've given me two wonderful, beautiful daughters. You are my soulmate, my sounding board, my voice of reason, the go-to for everything! I rarely do anything without your input. You've taught me how to see more than one side to every situation and we make a pretty good team when it comes to figuring things out. You've been there for me when my illness has made me an extremely difficult person to be with, you've called me on the carpet when I've been wrong, you see the person I try to be when many others only see the person I am perceived to be. I cannot imagine my life without you. You are my everything.

So Happy Anniversary baby! Here's to many, many more!

I love you!

We're getting settled in...

I know it's been a while since I've updated here...but I think I've had an excuse!! ;) We're getting settled in, although it's still slow going. Emily is adjusting well to her school and was even selected for Student of the Week last week! Most mornings we don't make it to the bus in time so I end up taking her and then Grace and I are there every afternoon when she gets off the bus. Then we walk back home, have our afternoon snack and do homework. Yep, that's right, Emily has homework almost EVERY day! Sometimes it's elaborate, sometimes it's as easy as counting and writing by 5s from 0 to 20. I'd been told when I got here that Georgia schools are more advanced than Florida's but I think whoever told me that was mistaken. Emily is already reading! She struggles with math, like her dad, but seems to have a very creative streak in her (also like her dad)!

Grace is doing ok, although her strong-willed personality is certainly coming out! I thought Emily was bad but Grace is proving to be even more so!!! She's got a mouth on her, something neither her daddy nor I are happy about and are trying everything we can to change. She's very stubborn and VERY much routine-oriented. She doesn't like anything out of place, except when it comes to her room which for the life of me, I cannot get her to keep clean! Emily, on the other hand, has learned quickly that with a clean room she gets to keep her TV...quite the incentive for an almost-6-year-old!

Randy is doing well with work. He's been busy on proposals, trying to get new business for the company. He had to go back to Warner Robins the week after we moved down here and a couple weeks ago had to go to Valdosta, GA. Next week he'll be in Charleston, SC for several days.

We had our first houseguest last week. My great friend Tammy came down from Fort Walton Beach for several days and we had a wonderful visit! She definitely lives too far away. Mom didn't make it for New Year's due to blowing out two tires on her car in Indianapolis and being stuck there for a few days waiting on it to be fixed. Leann ended up having to pick her up and take her back home with Stephanie taking her back the following week to pick it up. This spring mom and pops are planning on flying down, Stephanie is planning on bringing the boys (and Tom too if he can get off work!), and Leann is coming in April.

Katie and Liliana will be here on the 11th of February! Efren is trying to get the time off work so he can come too. I MISS, MISS, MISS that little girl! Of course I miss them all but I miss hearing Lily say 'love you nana!' While they are here Randy and I are going to the Daytona 500. It's our anniversary and Valentine's gift to each other. It's actually kind of funny since we've never really done gifts for either occasion for each other! Our anniversary is Thursday, the 29th. I can't believe it's been 7 years, the time does fly.

I'm busy with the house, of course. I'm getting boxes unpacked, one by one, and slowly I'm starting to see the floors. I've actually hung pictures on the two big walls in the living room, created a 'family' wall in the family room, as well as decorated both girls' rooms. My incentive to get done is that Randy has said when I'm finished, we can get a dog! I want one really bad, it's been over 5 years since we had to find Andrew a new and just under 5 since we had to put Mack down. I miss having a furry little animal in our house. We're looking at getting a yellow lab so it won't be a little dog, but I'm excited!!! I've been checking out rescues around here with the help of my older sister Leann and her rescue contacts through her own rescue.

Well, I'd better close and get back to unpacking some more. I just started a pot of fresh green beans with bacon on the stove and am going to fry chicken for supper. At least that's a meal I know the girls will eat! More later on my latest venture...helping plan my 20th high school reunion!!!

What a strange holiday this has turned out to be...

I can't believe Christmas is over! I never again want to move during the holidays and I swear, if one more person makes a comment to me about moving this time a year I ask that I not be held responsible for going postal. WE DID NOT CHOOSE TO MOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR! Yeah, we could have waited until January but really would not have been any better off. We did manage to get our Christmas tree up and quite a bit of holiday decorations. Randy and I even hung lights, garlands and bows out front. Yes, we are still up to our pits in moving boxes but when you have little ones, you can't exactly put Christmas on hold. I told Randy on Christmas eve that #1, no one will ever appreciate what I did since moving here to make it all happen, and #2, if we didn't have kids we probably would not have even had a tree! But we did the whole thing and now I'm ready to take it all down so I can get the rest of our house in order. I'll probably start this week.

My mom is on her way down to spend the week with us, but I'm not sure she's going to make it. She decided to drive because she is bringing Jack with her, her little Shih Tzu who is extremely attached to her. I spoke to her this morning though and found out she had just blown out two tires on her car. Later we found out the rims had been destroyed and the only place to get them is the Volvo dealership...which, of course, is not open on Sundays. So, she and little Jack went to a hotel and will deal with her car in the morning. I think this is a sign from God that she shouldn't be coming for whatever reason and that when her car is fixed she should turn around and go home. As much as I'm looking forward to her visit, I would rather she be safe, go home, and try to come in between the girls' birthdays when pops can come with her.

I did manage to get the spare room unpacked today and even made the bed in there! YEAH!!! So, with Emily's room done (although already trashed by her and Grace) I now have 2 rooms done, 7 to go...not counting the 3 bathrooms. So tomorrow brings more of the same...unpacking, unpacking and unpacking!

What a strange holiday this has turned out to be...

I can't believe it's already over

Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last updated our blog! So much has happened since then that I don't even know where to begin. First of all, let me tell you that Randy, Emily, Grace and I hope all of you the merriest of Christmases and may we never forget the true meaning of Christmas.

Our gift-giving started a couple of days ago after Randy came home from last-minute shopping. He had my gift in the back seat of his truck and needed help removing it so I got it early - an absolutely gorgeous solid oak hope chest. I have always wanted one to help preserve keepsakes and as he usually does, Randy came through and gave me one this year. He bought it at a store in Tampa that sells only Amish hand-made furniture and when I say it's heavy, I mean it is HEAVY! And like I already said, absolutely gorgeous. Thank you, baby!

The gift was quite a surprise since we had decided not to do gifts for each other - a new house is quite a large gift! Plus, we bought the new flat screen for our bedroom so I thought that was it. I still wanted him to have something in his stocking though so I got him 3 gift certificates for 1-hour massages. Hopefully they will help relieve some of the tension he's been experiencing from his new job.

The girls had a wonderful morning...but not without drama last night. As is typical with most children, they did not want to go to bed last night and used every excuse they could think of to keep getting out of bed. Grace was so bad about it that I finally put a sign on her door to Santa telling him not to leave her any presents and that the only way I'd take it off her door was if she didn't get out of bed again! Well, it worked...until she came in our room at 3:30!!! Emily did better...until she realized we'd forgotten to put out the reindeer food. Once that was done though, she was out like a light.

The girls were ecstatic when they saw the tree this morning with gifts from Santa. The best gift for Randy and I has been that the two of them have played together VERY well, with no fighting to speak of!

I called my younger sister Stephanie's a little bit ago - the entire family is there today so we were able to speak with almost everyone. It was nice being able to tell them I was sitting outside on our lanai in shorts, enjoying the 76 degree weather. But I have to admit, at times I would like to brave the cold and snow up there just to be able to be with my entire family for the holidays.

We're going to be starting our Christmas dinner soon...a wonderful crab boil with shrimp and lobster tails. Randy is off work until Monday so it will be nice having him home and actually being able to spend time together. Our second shipment of household goods arrived yesterday so I'm thankful to finally have everything under our new roof. More on the 'move from hell' to follow in another blog. In the meantime we're going to try to unpack as much as possible and get the spare bedroom ready for mom's arrival on Monday. Right now it's become a catch-all room but she'll be here late Monday to spend the week. We're all looking forward to her coming down with her Shih Tzu Jack.

I hope everyone enjoys a wonderful Christmas and may we never forget that the true meaning of Christmas is not the presents under the tree but the birth of Christ. May the New Year bring happiness and prosperity!

The Anderson FAMILY has arrived...household goods to follow...

We finally arrived, are now in our new home with the majority of our household goods and the rest to follow on Sunday.

Black Friday...and painting...

For those who know me best, go ahead now and pick your jaws up off the floor because yesterday morning at 3:30 I was in Wal-Mart waiting for the sales to begin. Yes, I know it's hard to believe but due to the fact we are moving I couldn't really do my online shopping that I love so much so I was forced to battle the masses in Wally-world. Why did I pick there, of all places? They had a tv on sale that we wanted for our bedroom...plus I could get everyting else I wanted and needed. So, in the course of 2 short hours I finished the majority of my shopping (actually STARTED and FINISED is more accurate)...as well as purchased the supplies needed to start painting in the house.

Which brings me to my latest project...painting the girls' playroom. I've decided after today, 2 hours of scrubbing till my hands cramped and fingers were sore, not to mention going through 4 Mr. Clean Erasers, Grace is no longer allowed to have colors of any kind...crayons, markers, colored pencils, chalk, you-name-it! All four walls had graffiti, which is why the entire room has to be re-painted. So while Randy is gone to Tennessee - he's not going to Tampa this next week so said he'd take his mom back home this weekend - I've spent the majority of the day scrubbing walls and taping off outlets, switches, windows and doors...but only in the playroom...I still have their room to do! UGH!

As for our holiday, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law, Katie, Efren and Liliana, and our former neighbors and good friends, Lisa and her kids. Randy deep-fried the turkey again, which was absolutely delicious! He even did one for our neighbors! Randy and I spent the night before and most of Thanksgiving day cooking all the food...my grandma's casserole mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole, corn, dressing, dirty rice, seafoam salad and my grandma's wonderful pecan pie. Lisa added to that a delicious apple and a delicious pumpkin pie and our cleaning friend even surprised us by stopping by with a pumpkin pie she had made. Everything was delicious, everyone had a wonderful time and we certainly gave thanks for the blessings God has given us this year. We also said goodbye to Efren, who left early Friday morning for another TDY and won't return until after we've moved.

Well, time for me to close and get painting. Now that the 'hard word' is done and everything is taped and covered, painting should go quickly. We all hope that all of you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. We certainly did...I just really miss not putting up our tree right now!

Time is getting shorter...

...and my list of things to do keeps getting longer! I spent this weekend driving to middle Tennessee to pick up Randy's mom so she can spend this week with us. I woke up in the wee hours of Saturday morning and decided that as long as I was awake I would go ahead and leave early and drive to Nashville and go to a sale I'd been told about that was going on that day. It was a Kelly's Kids warehouse sale and I had no idea what I was in for! I got there about an hour early and realized later that I should have gone to get in line as soon as I got there. There were people in line since 4:30 AM! For those of you who don't know about Kelly's Kids, there clothes are absolutely adorable but very expensive so when they have a sale where they are selling all tops and bottoms for $9.99 (regularly priced $28 to $42 EACH) and dresses, longalls and dress coats for $14.99 (regularly priced $48 to $65 EACH), a lot of people tend to show up. I talked with some ladies in line who told horror stories of other Kelly's Kids sales they had been to where some people went in and just grabbed entire racks of clothes! A lot of people go and resell the stuff on eBay. By the time the door opened I was hoping to get lucky enough to get an outfit for each of the girls. Well, ten minutes after walking in I was walking out having found a few things for Emily, Grace and even a complete outfit for Liliana. I estimated that I saved approximately 75%! Then it was on to my mother-in-law's where I spent the night before returning with her the next day. Randy had dinner ready for everyone and I crashed early! Today was spent at the doctor's...my last regular appointment with my pain management doctor, my only other appointment with him being next week for trigger point injections. After that we had lunch with Randy and then Judy, Emily, Grace and I decided to brave Wal-Mart and get as much of our Thanksgiving grocery shopping done as we could. We came home and shortly after Katie came by and treated her grandma to a pedicure. When they came back Efren and Liliana were with them and stayed for dinner. Tomorrow is another doctor appointment and then Randy and I have an appointment to get our wills done. He just informed me though that he has a phone conference with his boss at 2...in the middle of our appointment. He's known about this appointment for two weeks and I asked him if he could adjust the time of his phone call but I'm not holding my breath. We've said since we moved here that we would get our wills updated (they haven't been done since right after we got married) and we haven't, now Randy says he wants to wait until after we move...but I know it won't happen anymore than it happened after we moved here. Oh well, I'm still going to get mine done. Everyone will probably be here again tomorrow night for dinner. Wednesday Randy is making gumbo and then we'll start cooking everything we can ahead of time for Thursday.

Sometime this week I want to start on the painting that has to be done. We're not painting the whole house, don't feel we should have to after having lived here 4 years, but both of the girls' rooms need to be done and their bathroom in order to cover up the evidence from them coloring on the walls in each of those rooms! I still need to pull out all of the holiday decorations in the crawl space upstairs and move them into the garage (we're moving them in the u-haul so we have them immediately when we get down there). Randy still needs to empty the shed and bring everything up to the garage as well. He did tell me today that in addition to not working all of this week, he's not going to Tampa next week but instead work out of the Tampa office so he'll be here to help get done what needs to be finished before the move. The week we are moving he'll be going down on Monday though...I'll be here when the packers come Wednesday and Thursday...he'll be there for the closing on Friday...and I'll clear us out of here on Saturday and head down with the girls.

So instead of staying on here blogging, I'd better get off and see what I can get done tonight. There are always boxes to go through and clean out! Hey, I just realized that since Randy isn't going to Tampa next week, maybe he'll take his mom back on Saturday. That's going to be a quick turnaround trip though...there and back same day, about 12 hours drive time. There's just too much still to do to be away two days again.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Now the fun begins...

So now the fun begins. We close on our house in 4 short weeks and I have a lot to do to get ready to move. We are fortunate in that Randy's company is hiring a moving company to come in, pack us up, load up the truck and move it to the new house as well as unload our things and put furniture back together (i.e. the beds and anything else they have to take apart to move). So at least I don't have to do that! I spent today scheduling them...they'll pack on 10 Dec and load up the truck 11 Dec...contacting both girls' schools to let them know we're leaving and to find out what to do to transfer Emily to a new school down there...contacting doctors' offices to request copies of medical records...notifying our property manager that we finally have a date and are leaving...cancelling any appointments I already had sceduled after the 5th of December...whew! It's been quite a day and the battery on my cell phone died from too much use!!! Randy and I hope to be able to get the painting done before household goods are packed, one of several projects to do on the weekends when Randy is home. Both of the girls' rooms need to be re-painted, everything else just needs to be touched up from where we hung pictures on the wall, chairs scraped the wall, etc. The problem is though that there are only 2 weekends when we can really do it together - this weekend, and we're not ready yet, or the weekend before we move. The two weekends in between are going to be spent with me on the road to Tennessee. Randy's mom is coming for the week of Thanksgiving and I need to go pick her up and take her home. Randy would do it but with him travelling back and forth to Tampa every week, the last thing he wants to do is spend more time in the truck travelling. So, I offered to do it. It'll be great having her here, our last holiday in this house. Once we move to Tampa it'll be more difficult to see her for weekend trips like we have since living here.

Well it's late and I need to finish a couple more things before I catch a few hours sleep. It seems as if the work to get ready for a move never ends and sleep suffers as a result. But hey, is anyone ever REALLY ready when it comes time to move???

WE DID IT!

Yep, it's official, our offer was accepted this evening!!!

Housing offer, round 2

Our offer was rejected though we're not surprised since we asked for a lot and offered a low price. The current owners did accept our request that they pay closing costs though so that much is good. They countered with a higher price as well as a change in closing date (one week later which is not a problem) and the use of a different company for the 1-year home warranty (which is also not a problem). Our realtor has suggested that we take the difference between what we offered and they counter-offered and split it and re-counter with that. I've put a call into our mortgage guy to have him run the numbers but am still waiting on him to call me back. I have also called Randy but he has two big-wigs from corporate in town so is in meetings all day. So I sit and wait...

Pics of our *hopefully* new house...