Tooth Brushing Party

Night Swimming

The cousins at Lake George...

(I really meant to write an RTT this week. But Thursday was the last
day I worked until vacation so I was busy getting ready to take time
off. Maybe I'll get to it in the next few days.)

That'll Do Pig

Seeger's piggy bank didn't make it past the move. Poor piggy.

Seeger's devastated. I see a trip to Michael's in our future.

Three Days

I have three days to complete list before going in vacation. Yikes.

Best & Worst

Seeger's worst - having to eat all his pasta before getting a brownie
Jake's worst - when the wine spilled because he was worried about his
sister's carpet
Kathryn's worst -not seeing Jake all day
Cherry's worst - her legs and feet hurting
Mike's worst - making an extra trip to town because he didn't have a
key but e drove all the way to the storage unit before finding it
Natalie's worst - was super tired this morning
Nick's worst - the thing that happened at basketball camp
Seeger's best - brownie!!
Jake's best - moving everything wasn't as hard as he thought it would be
Kathryn's best - brownies
Cherry's best - sleeping in
Mike's best - finally having a dryer and winning Matt Kearney tickets
Natalie's best - Friday and yummy dinner with the family
Nick's best - getting two tootsie rolls

Best and Worst

Nick's worst - tomorrow is the last day of basketball camp
Seeger's worst - Folds was trying to get him so he pushed him off and
then Folds tried to get him again
Jake's worst - the heat
Kathryn's worst - eating a Burger King Whopper
Cherry's worst - had to drive all the way to Bloomington
Mike's worst - the dryer isn't working and it's going to cost to
switch to LP
Natalie's worst - stupid people at work
Nick's best - making it to the quarterfinals in Hot Shot
Seeger's best - found his Bakugan
Jake's best - seeing the new house
Kathryn's best - drinking an iced coffee that was home made
Cherry's best - spending the morning with her sisters at Lake Hamilton
and then coming to spend time with her family in Bloomington
Mike's best - breaking in the new dining room
Natalie's best - family dinner with lots of family

Random Thoughts

Yay - after three weeks, I'm back for RTT. Woo hoo!

1. Nicklas spent a few hours with me at work this afternoon. His basketball camp ended at noon and he had tae kwon do at 3:30 so rather than have the Polack come in to town to pick him him at noon and bring him back in to town three hours later, I thought it would be easier to keep him with me.

2. That's right, we have to think about trips "in to town" from now on. It's about a 20 minute drive from our house to anywhere in Bloomington and with construction on nearly every major thoroughfare, we have to add another 10-15 minutes. I will miss the convenience of making a three minute drive to the grocery store but I definitely love the beautiful three acres of land that we have so it's all alright, already.

3. Anyway.... when Nicklas was with me this afternoon, he started a blog. It's something he'd been thinking about for a few weeks so he took the plunge. He says it will be about sports (no surprise) with a little of his life mixed in. I cautioned him about the importance of keeping it updated. He promises he will.

The address is http://nicklask.blogspot.com/. I really enjoyed reading his first post (except for those grammatical errors! I can't stand those!) and I never really knew "the moment" he fell in love with sports. Go Nicklas, go!

4. It's been a rough week at work. I really want to be caught up on everything by the time we leave for vacation on the 29th but I'm not sure it's going to happen.

What, you say? We just came back from vacation?

I hear ya but my last week off of work didn't feel fun and vacationy. This next one involves a trip to Florida and a Caribbean cruise. That should do the trick.

5. If you're not my facebook friend then you probably don't know that the crazy cardinal that keeps banging his head on our windows is DRIVING ME CRAZY. People have offered several suggestions for handling him but I'm not shooting a BB gun at him. Come one, I can't risk hurting my precious windows (windows are expensive!) plus I'd probably miss anyway.

Not that I would try. Probably not anyway.

6. My older brother got a BB gun one year for Christmas and I was looking at it the day after present opening (when it was inside and still under the tree). I accidentally shot it and a BB hit our brick fireplace and ricocheted off and ended up somewhere I never found. Luckily no one was around to witness (or get hurt) but it sure scared the bejeezus out of me.

Also, one time my brother was shot in the arm by gun. Accidentally of course. GUNS = BAD.

7. I had this feeling that I already blogged about ricocheting BB once but I just checked and I guess not. My mom is probably shaking her head at me right now because I don't think she's ever heard that story.

8. I think when you've been blogging as long as I have - I'm coming up on three years - then you forget what stories you've shared and not shared. Good thing there is the search option for my blog. I find myself using it more and more.

9. Tonight I'm preparing Chinese for dinner and tomorrow is Italian. Jake, Kathryn, and my mom are visiting so I'm excited to cook in my own kitchen.

10. Things about the house that I'm not excited about... the ice machine on the refridgerator works WAAA-AAY too well. The ice comes pouring out and before you have a chance to stop it, it's all over the beautiful wood floor. Also, the standing shower door is on backwards. When you're showing, everyone on the outside is fuzzy but when you're on the outside looking in, the showeree is pretty visible, naked and all. Good thing it's just the Polack and I using that shower.

10.5 Don't think I'm complaining about those two things. They aren't complaints - I promise! I LOVE my new house. Let's call them observations, shall we?

Roger that.

Best & Worst

Seeger's worst - having to move all the boxes in the basement because
his feet were cold
Mike's worst - not getting as much done today as he hoped
Natalie's worst - having a big work project that she doesn't want to
start
Nick's worst - Noah's 3-on-3 team beat his at basketball camp
Seeger's best - butt kicking
Mike's best - family lunch AND dinner
Nick's best - scoring three out of four of the points for his
basketball team
Natalie's best - only two more days of work before the weekend plus
family lunch date at the library

Best & Worst from yesterday...
Natalie's worst - dealing with stupid stuff at work
Mike's worst - all the snags that happened when hooking up the range
and microwave
Seeger's worst - got bored riding the scooter
Nick's worst - waiting until 9:00 for dinner
Uncle Bill's worst - having to drill that second set of holes for the
microwave
Natalie's best - finally having a range and microwave
Mike's best - having Bill help with installation and having family
dinner
Nick's best - having Uncle Bill over for dinner AND basketball camp
Seeger's best - having Squerkle's in DK Jungle
Uncle Bill's best - coming over to have dinner with his favorite
family member's

I ran the mini marathon once

I'm Back!

So sorry to be MIA for so long. I know you expected it, right? But you probably really, really missed me. I'm sure that's the case.

Anyway, it's been a crazy, fun filled, patriotic, emotional, awesome, frustrating, exciting, sweaty few weeks. Let's recap, shall we?

CRAZY....
So we all knew the craziness was going to happen. The Polack and I had to move all of our stuff out of our apartment by June 30. We ended up renting a second storage unit because our first one was too full. The second one was the next county over because it saved me $100. I'm a girl who likes a deal, yo. Luckily, a few friends came to help. One helper was Chad, a friend who grew up with the Polack. He brought two of his four kids. Seeger and Joy loved walking Freddy.


I think Freddy liked the walking but I'm not so sure he enjoyed getting picked up so much.


Alex and Nicklas played some ball and wrestled in the house. Nicklas is awesome with little kids!



FUN-FILLED and PATRIOTIC...
After we had everything packed up and moved out, we headed to the Lake for the Fourth of July weekend. Our plan was to stay there until we received word that the house was ready. More on that later. We arrived at the Lake on Thursday evening, about the same time as my Aunt Kathy and Uncle John. They grabbed some wings on the way to their cottage and shared some with us. They're the best! I had some mixed emotions about the weekend. Of course, I was excited to see so many family members, my brothers, my dad and Laurie, Kathy, John, their daughter Emily, my Uncle Jim and Aunt Lorna, my cousins Ryan, Bri, Aaron, and his fiance, my cousin Andy. I knew it was going to be a nice weekend but it's weird being at the house without my grandma or most those family members who stay in other places on the Lake. I don't really like not seeing everyone all the time. That's my issue though and I know things change so I guess a better learn to deal with it better. Despite my downer feelings, I really did enjoy seeing everyone. Doesn't this pontoon just look like it needs to be uncovered?


We took it to the Retreat Friday night for dinner.


I also did some sailing. The Polack and I went out on it and I took both the boys. I'm slowly gaining confidence in sailing it though the light winds made it pretty easy. One time, we even got stuck just as we were coming to shore. There was NO WIND and I couldn't get the boat to shore. We were pretty close so we had to have Nicklas swim out to get us. (No judging! He was already in the water.)



On Saturday, we went to my Uncle Jim's house. This is a different Uncle Jim, one from the North side, not the Gallogly side of the family. He lives about 45 minutes away from the Lake and he was having family over for a pool party. It's always nice going there because there because the pool is awesome and there's always lots of yummy food. It was great seeing my other cousins. The bonus of the North family is that my cousins have kids so Nicklas and Seeger have other kids to play with. (I have a really big family!)


We headed back to the Lake in time for the Lake George boat parade. Remember that from last year? Anyway, we got there in time but the weather didn't cooperate so it never happened. A storm just missed us though so the fireworks still happened. Jake and Kathryn came for the weekend and my dad and Laurie and their granddaughter and her boyfriend came too. After the fireworks, we used the fire pit and made Smores. Yummo.


It was a pretty hot weekend, especially Sunday. We spent a lot of time in the water. Here are the boys with Bri who is expecting. YAY! Baby RyBri will be arriving in December.


Here are Kathryn, Jake, and Daddy-Ryan.


After dinner on Sunday, we took a ride on the pontoon. Evening pontoon rides are usually called booze cruises. My brother Michael was able to join us. We had lots of wine which is much nicer than the rides where everyone except me drinks Scotch. Here is Seeger driving the boat with Uncle John.


Here are pretty ladies Kathy and Emily.


After the booze cruise, we parked but stayed on the boat and hung out. My cousin Andy brought us chocolate and peanut butter ice cream and we all talked for a few hours. (If you have a Meijer, you have to get some of their chocolate peanut butter ice cream. It's AWESOME and the go-to treat at the Lake. Oh, except I was talking to Uncle Bill last week and he told me that sometimes he gets TOO MUCH peanut butter in his chocolate ice cream spoonfuls and I was like, due, there's no such thing as TOO MUCH peanut butter in my chocolate ice cream.) Anywho, it was a great evening.



Isn't Lake George beautiful in the evening?


On Monday, we hung out and felt the dread of the end to the holiday weekend. People were preparing to pack up and leave. My family was planning to stay another night but once everyone left, it felt a bit depressing. Is this what my grandma felt after everyone left her to go back to their regular lives?

We decided to leave for the evening and go see a movie. The Polack had promised me that if I read Water for Elephants, he would take me to see the movie. Luckily it was playing at the second run theater in Fort Wayne so we planned to go. We let the boys see Diary of Wimpy Kid. It was the first time we watched one movie and had them watch another at the same time. I was a little nervous but they did well. Except when the movie was over, Nicklas came out of the theater and complained that his ear was hurting. Because he had awoken a few nights prior with the same complaint, I thought it was best to go to Urgent Care to check it out. Urgent Care at 9:30 at night on the Fourth of July. Woo hoo was that fun. We hung out waiting. And waiting. And waiting. We watched part of the Fort Wayne fireworks from the window. And we waited and waited. Finally at midnight, with Seeger asleep on a bench, a doctor looked in both of Nick's ears and declared that he had a double ear infection. Three presciptions, a trip to the all night Walgreen's, and the drive back to the Lake and we finally made it to bed around 1:45.

EMOTIONAL...
We got up early on Tuesday to pack up all our belongings that weren't in storage. We met my dad and Laurie for breakfast and then headed to Bloomington. We were scheduled to do our final walk through on the house. We though this meant that we could move in once we went through everything. Sure, there were a few things they needed to fix but others had told us they would come back and do them once we were moved in. Silly us for thinking that way. One the way back to Bloomington, I got a text that there was a fire at work. The HPER building had flames shooting up from the fieldhouse. The Polack and I had a moment of panic. We had stored some recently purchased art work in my office because we didn't want it to go in our storage unit. Luckily, my half of the building was okay. Here's a picture that a friend sent me.



We arrive in Bloomington and do a walk through. It went pretty well - just a few things here and there that we asked them to take care of. Apparently though, we still needed the county to do their walk through. That was scheduled for Thursday. Gee great. Then the builder would ask for the final draw of payment. We couldn't move in until the payment was received. Gee, that's wonderful. So we're in Bloomington, it's Tuesday, and I have the rest of the week off. We weren't sure what to do, where to go. We had planned on moving in the house but we realized that wasn't going to happen this week. We decided to head to Lafayette and after a quick call to the Polack's parents, we had a place to stay for the rest of the week. We tried to make things fun for the kids though the stress of being homeless and dependant on family for places to live was a little bit of bummer. I thought about a hotel but we really didn't want to spend the money. (I like a good deal can also mean that I'm cheap.)

Wednesday evening, we went to dinner with our friends Marty and Lindsey. We enjoyed playing games with them. On Thursday, we took Nicklas and Seeger to Tropicanoe Cove. Nicklas also invited his friend, Jack. Those two had a lot of fun catching up. Nicklas hasn't found someone equal to Jack in Bloomington yet so I'm glad they got to spend the day together. Here's Seeger at the Cove. He's tall enough to do the adult rides. Too bad he's too scared for them.



AWESOME...
That evening, I went to see my friend Christy. She actually beat me in Quirkle and Blokus. I'm not sure what's up with that. On Friday, we packed everything up and headed to the Polack's brothers house. Matt and his wife, Melissa, were having a cousin's get together which included family from Michigan. We always have fun when the cousins get together. Here's a photo of Nicklas from that day. He is wearing his new IU shirt from Aunt Kathy and Uncle John. It's an awesome shirt, I wish it fit me!



The cousin's get together was fun. We did a lot of catching up, a lot of eating, some drinking, some flippy cup (not to be confused with tippy cup), we hung out by the river, the kids got to swim, there were rides in the Ranger and somehow we ended up doing some food challenges Saturday evening. It started with Emily doing the cinnamon dragon and digressed from there - six saltines in sixty second (Sarah won), a piece of bread in 45 seconds (Sarah again!), more cinnamon (Tony was the closest), and chubby bunny (Matt made it to 11!). On Sunday, we packed up and everyone headed in to Lafayette to check out Jethro's BBQ. (It wasn't as good as South Street.) We visited with the aunts and uncles from the Turner side who were staying at the in-laws for their own family weekend get together.

Here are the little cousins, toward the end of the weekend. They all look exhausted to me.



FRUSTRATING...
So it's Sunday night and we know that the county inspection has happened. Two things needed to be fixed, plus the things that we found in our final walk through. It's all supposed to happen on Tuesday. Once it does, our builder says they will request the final draw. I have to go back to work on Monday so we head to Spencer, to stay with my Uncle Bill, while leaving Seeger with his cousins. He is going to spend the week with them, going to Day Camp at camp Tecumseh, while the rest of us hope that we can move in to the new house SOON, ALREADY!

We stay at Uncle Bill's Sunday night, Monday night, and on Tuesday at noon, we're told the house has the final approval. Yay! The builder contacts the the bank. They banks says they need a certificate of occupancy. Boo! The builder works to contact the County to get the correct paperwork. On Wednesday, we still haven't heard anything. I contact the bank. I call the builder. Get your act together, people! I find out that the bank is waiting on proof that we paid property taxes in May. Of course I don't find this out until after 4pm which means I have to wait until the next day to go to the Courthouse to get proof of payment. On Thursday morning, exactly two weeks of being homeless, I get up early and head to the Courthouse. I knew they opened at 7:30, except the doors are locked. I wait and wait for them to open the doors and finally at 8:00 they do and they tell me that all the county offices have moved. Spectacular. I head over to the the Showers building and ask someone at an information desk where I go to get proof I've paid my property taxes. He directs me to the Auditor's Office, who directs me to the Recorder's Office, who directs me to the Treasurer's Office. Finally with proof that I need, I head to work to email everything to the bank. I wait for two hours and no word. I call the builder and have them get on the bank. Turns out they're waiting for something from the title company. If they don't get by noon, they'll call. I offer to call them myself. Hell, I'll drive whatever it is from the title company to Warren, Ohio where the bank headquarters are. No, no, it will come by email, that's not necessary, they say. (I think they begin to fear that a crazy lady is going to come knocking on their door.) We go to lunch with Marty and Lindsey who are passing through Lafayette on their way from playing games down South. It was a nice distraction from watching the clock. Finally at 2:28pm we get the word. The house is ready! We can move in! We now own 100% of the mortgage!

EXCITING...
It was quite a relief for us. The Polack and my brother Jon spend the next three days moving. I help when I'm not working. My mom came and brought food and organized things a bit. We spent all weekend working with a quick break for a friend's wedding. Our garage is full of all our belongings and we're slowly making progress. On Sunday, I got the kitchen orgainzed and everything put away. Nicklas and I worked on his room. Last night, Seeger and I worked on his room. Both boys have lots of books and toys that they no longer want so it took a while to go through everything. Correction. Seeger didn't really want to give up any of his toys. We went through boxes and boxes of toys. Of those 9 or 10 boxes, he got rid of one box full of things. It's okay though because he's been without most for over a year so I'll let him keep everything. He deserves it. Both boys' rooms look really good right now but I still have some more of their stuff to go through. My plan is to do that tonight. Hopefully most will be put in the charity pile (which is getting pretty big). I also want to get the dining room and family room in order. The Polack is working hard to get the garage cleared out of the bigger items and putting the boxes in the correct rooms. He's been taking pictures of the garage each day and posting them on facebook so that everyone can see the slow progression of emptying the garage. We are thrilled with the house and getting more and more anxious to get settled in. Jake and Kathryn and probably my mom are coming on Thursday and I want to get most rooms in order so we can relax a little.

SWEATY...
Would we do it again? Absolutely! I will post pictures when things are in better order than now. Until then, here are photos of the boys from the wedding on Saturday. It was outdoors so we were sweaty and hot but so was everyone else so it was okay. The wedding was very kid friendly. There was playground equipment and a hide out with a fireman's pole. They had a sno cone machine and cotten candy, plus a chocolate fountain. Both my boys danced the night away, especially Nicklas. We got to hang out with our Lafayette Jeff friends, always a good time.





Life is good!

Feels Like 102

Yowzaa it's hot outside. We're in Fort Wayne for a pool party with the
North family and we're getting ready to head back to the Lake for the
annual boat parade and fireworks. Rumor has it that we're doing a
final walk-thru on the house Tuesday. It's not scheduled yet though so
I'm not holding my breath.