A note to my Blog

Dear Blog,

I miss you.

It's been quite a while since I've paid you any attention, hasn't it? Let's see...about 3 1/2 months, actually. And there's so much to tell you, too! I'm so excited to share all the juicy details of Life these last few months, but I can't just yet.

I know. I'm sad, too. One of these days we should stay up all night, just you and me, catching up. We'll download pictures together, reminisce together and generally get all caught up. I don't know if the 'stay up all night' thing would really be a good idea, but who knows? Maybe it would...on a day when I can just let the kids watch movies until 2:00 in the afternoon and fend for themselves in the food category while I sleep in.

Why have I been so distant? Why can't I just stay and visit now? Hmm...let's see... I think I can help you understand this in the easiest way: A LIST!!!!

Priority Things To Do Either Right Now, Yesterday, Or A Week Ago:

have baby

feed baby

change baby's diapers

help get everything together so Hubby can start Nursing School

Christmas

more feedings

more diapers

referee a few fights...an hour

help get ready for NYE company

enjoy NYE company

recover from NYE company

get Hubby ready to move three hours away to start Nursing School

cheer and breathe a sigh of relief that he's IN!!!!!

change phone provider to save cashola

look for a job in a city three hours away

find desk

go through paperwork

renew life insurance policies for older 3 kids

get policies for younger 2

feed baby

change...well, you know the drill

start exercising

search online for good prices for cloth diapers

get overwhelmed at the options

decide which cloth avenue to go down

search more for cloth diapers

find em

find more

message and meet strangers to make purchases

start on the Cloth Diaper Adventure

do taxes

start exercising again

get paperwork to finish taxes

be a Mom

be a Wife (long distance)

celebrate an anniversary without a Hubby

finish taxes

You see...that's just a little of what's been on my plate lately. And for most of the time, I've also had a squirmy one on my lap. So my plate AND my lap are full. So are my jeans, for that matter--thus the exercise. My heart is full, too, of love and longing to have ALL of my sweet family reunited. ...and Lee reunited with his Mega Blocks which are in storage.

But very often during my day, my brain is full of you. Fun things to share with you. Cute pictures to post, adventures, emotions, successes...just EVERYTHING!

Miss you.

See you soon.

I promise.

Dyann

Proud of the Shiplap

It's never too late to learn something new.

One of the families that Hubby was close to in high school had a dentist dad who added a wing to his house and built a cabin on their lake-side property in the woods. Ever since then, he's had a dormant bug for wanting to have the knowledge & skills to be able to do that. More specifically, we've talked numerous times about our family building our house. Live in an rv or job shack on our property until we get the garage built (with living quarters upstairs), then move into that while the rest of the house is completed. He dreams of being up in the trusses, calling out measurements to Abby so she can mark & cut the plywood that he, Alex and Lee are sheeting our roof with. (Age-appropriately, of course.)

I'm totally on board.

Alas, Life has delayed our plans by at least 10 years. Ah well.

However, I had my first taste of interactive house-building last weekend. Because we'll be here in the in-laws' basement longer than planned, and because we'll be joined by someone small & cute within a matter of weeks, Mom-in-law has decided that this is a great opportunity to replace the downstairs shower with a bathtub.

Hubby has been in home construction for the last 13 years, so he's got the tools & know-how. I've learned some of the lingo & rules & stuff from him talking about his day at work, but don't have any hands-on experience, except for wall-painting.

Until now.

Yes, that is me, 34 weeks pregnant, drilling holes through treated 2x4s and into the existing concrete. Afterward, I hammered anchor bolts in there and tightened them so the walls don't go anywhere! Yay me!

I also learned the correct way to mark stud positioning (besides just finding my husband), and wield a nail gun. Okay, that part was a little scary, 'cause not only is it heavy, it can cause serious damage if it misfires or someone is being stupid with it. I have a very healthy respect (fear) for nail guns.

Over the last 13 years, I've gotten used to listening to Riah's technical speak and letting some of it run by because I don't always understand how words like gable, popout, facia and witch's tit correlate. (I only wish I were kidding about the last one.) However, I've gotten better, and by asking a few questions and glossing over the details I can get the general idea. Friday evening he surprised me with something really random, though:

"See how (somethingsomething) post (somethingsomething) stud (somethingsomething) shiplap?"

"I'm sorry. Did you just say that, "...the post and stud are proud of the shiplap?"

*looks at me like I'm asking if he just said that the sun was yellow*

"Yeah."

"Honey, that's not English."

'Stud' and 'post' are words that I can understand. How they can be proud of something called shiplap was beyond what my "supeerior eentelect" could piece together. (Extra points if you can nail the movie quote (pun quite intended.).) So here how it goes:

See how the thick post on the right and the 2x4 studs just to the left are sticking out a little past the surface of the horizontal pieces?

It would seem that the tongue-and-groove horizontal pieces are called shiplap, and because they're recessed a bit,

the post and stud are proud of the shiplap! Who knew?

Well, I do.

Now.

And it seems you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Happy 3rd Birthday Cora!!!

Happy Birthday Little One!

Well, I can't really say that anymore, can I? You used to be a little one, though.

But you've gotten much, much bigger than you were...sometimes a little too big.

Despite the crazy ride that you've led us on, you really are a sweet, sweet princess.

Well, a princess with a twist.

From the very beginning you've been willing to try new things.

Some haven't been your favorite,

...but others you loved from the start.

You aren't afraid of adventure,

...and you know where to come for comfort when you need it.

You've always been loved, and always will be.

I've been noting things lately that you say, because you're just so funny. Today some of my favorites were:

"Mom pat."

"Honey, I'm not fat, I have a baby in my belly."

"No, Mom pat."

"Sweetie, I have a big belly because there's a baby brother in there."

thinks for a moment

"No, Mom belly pat."

"Evvybuddy tention!"

When Dad copied one of your cute antics:

"Dad! Topy me!"

"Don't copy you?"

"Don't topy me!"

After Lee 'helped' you color your picture:

"No! I mad you daw peypah!"

And when I took a picture of your 'mad pace,' you said, "Mom pictah me happy tung."

You make me laugh, Sweetie. You are by far the best surprise I've ever had.

Weapon of Mass Destruction

I don't often watch Phineas and Ferb, but my children like it. Even Cora, who asks for "Pinnis Pehrb." (Pronounce it like Ferb, but without the clear 'r' sound. Hard to type.) When I do watch--or overhear--it, I like it. I like that it's clean, there are no questionable scenes, no teenage themes, no scary monsters, buxom lycra-clad heroines or bad guys. Well, except for this guy:

But honestly, I love him. Professor Doofenshmirz and Perry the Platypus are the best part of the show! Without them, it would be really lame. I love that every single episode he comes up with some sort of invention that does something terrible, and always ends in '-inator.'

--Metal Destructinator (turns metal into broccoli)

--Evil Perry the Platypusinator (creates evil clones of Perry the Platypus)

--Nannyinator (creates an army of babies because who's going to counterattack a bunch of babies?)

So funny!

Oddly, all this -inator talk reminds me of something that you wouldn't usually associate with destruction:

Yes, my own personal Destructinator. (Note the zero pieces of tomorrow's lunch that have NOT been nibbled.)

It began rather innocently, with her climbing out of her crib, unlocking the door, opening it and coming downstairs when she was supposed to be napping. We added those white childproofing door knob covers and they helped for a bit. I was very surprised at her solution:

I only wish I was kidding.

Soon her barely-2yo 'skills' progressed to removing the twisty tie from the hamster cage (even after I threw in a couple of half knots with all the twists) and after a while we had to lock the parakeet in her cage. Like with a padlock. And a key kept way up high. I really wish I was kidding.

She looks angelic, doesn't she? Just missing a halo. Right. Let me remind you of this fun encounter.

Don't even THINK of leaving an avocado on the counter to ripen.

When we moved into our bachelor friend's house, the fun really started. My favorite, of course, was hearing Alex outside yell, "Cora, No! Moooommm! Cora's on the roof!" Yeah. Nice. Did not take the time to grab my camera for that. (Did take an awful shot with my phone 'cause I'm an awesome mom like that.)

Other fun things were having her experiment with a b.r.a.n.d. n.e.w. tube of toothpaste

and bring the landlord's "toda" into the bathroom so she could have a drink.

(My all-time favorite.)

So I'm thinking that I either need to have Homeland Security keep an eye on her or borrow her. 'Cause she could do something crazy to some bad guy somewhere.

Professor Doofenshmirtz, you have met your match.

Coming out of the Closet

I haven't been really consistent about my blog posts lately, and there are a few reasons:

--moving

--no internet

--moving

--looking for housing in a different city

--having such a bad attitude that I'd better just keep my trap shut so nothing horrid comes out

--taking lots of pictures, but losing my camera usb cable

They're all decent reasons, but in reality it all boils down to this one:

Yup. Surprise! (For the 2 followers I have who aren't family or friends I've seen lately.)

This pic was taken the last weekend of July. The girl on the left is my very own chicklegirl, who was sweet enough to swing over on her 'day off' because my Riah & his siblings were participating in a sprint triathlon close enough for her to visit. I sure love her!

So for all of you who are wondering, "Why on earth didn't I know? Or did I know but just forgot?" the answer is, "because Dyann is a little odd."

A couple of years ago I got a weird hair and mentioned to the Hubby, "I think the next time I get pregnant I don't want to tell anyone. I'll just let them figure it out."

I know. Who does that? Who keeps a pregnancy secret from everyone in the world except the hubby & the landlord? Well, I guess I do. This time. Hubby's mom found out when we moved to her neighborhood in June, and his siblings, dad & stepmom found out the end of July...when I was about 5 months along.

The ladies at church were asking around 2.5 months. Geez! That's what comes from having zero torso, I guess. My favorite conversation came from a woman my mother's age who watched me grow with Lee & Cora. She put her arm around me and said something lovingly prying. I responded that we're not announcing it yet. Her honest, fabulous answer was, "Honey, you did tonight." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I love her.

Details: currently about 29 weeks along (6.5 months or so), due November 23rd. My ovaries, however, have not read the book about fertility and timing and such, so I'm calling it 'just before Thanksgiving.' Getting very large, but do not know for certain the gender. Want a girl, think it's a boy, will be happy with whatever we get.

So while the reasons above are perfectly valid, the main underlying one is the fatigue & nausea (1st trimester), low energy (2nd trimester) and reduced mobility (3rd trimester) that comes from growing another super cute Monkey.

I'm really looking forward to kissing that round little noggin.

Blessings in Disguise --or-- Public Pouting

Warning--this post is negative, painfully honest and kind of a downer. Read at your own risk. Just so's you know.

~~~~~~

My sister-in-law has a really cute plaque in her really cute living room that reads,

Lord, grant me the patience to deal with my blessings.

Whenever I've seen it, I've thought of my children. They are huge blessings that also happen to require a huge amount of patience. Now, however, I'm seeing it from a different perspective.

Sometimes in life, the Lord sees fit to give us a blessing that feels more like a curse. I'm living that now. Without divulging the details that I would really like to vomit here on my computer screen, let's just say that I'm in a situation that could either lead to amazing growth or end very, very badly. It started as just a short-term thing. Manageable. But now it seems that it's going to be long-term. (By 'long-term,' I mean longer than I want--like tomorrow.)

When my husband suggested the possibility of short-term turning to the next 3-6 months, my first--and very honest--response was, "I really don't like how much sense this makes." And I've spent about the last week being just depressed. I cried for about 3 days whenever nobody could see me and filled in the rest of the moments being irritable and annoyed. I know in my head that my problems can only be solved by looking in the mirror and it will all turn out for the best and that I'll be a better person for it all. The Lord knows what he's doing and I won't be given more than I can take and I'm a wonderful, strong person who can handle things like this with grace and faith.

Blah blah blah. I'm tired of waiting and praying and working for ____________. (Enter any number of things I've waited and prayed and worked my butt off for but didn't get.) I want it now. So to be seemingly on the edge of forward progress and to be blessed with this load of garbage is a bitter pill to swallow.

The optimistic and hopeful thoughts in my head haven't yet passed to my heart, however, and it would seem that the Lord is getting tired of my rotten attitude.

Sunday was an interesting day. All during church there were not-so-subtle moments where He very lovingly and patiently whacked me upside the noggin:

--Paul instructing the saints in Corinth to be unified and not divided. (1 Corinthians 1:10) *sigh*

--Mosiah 3:19--"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Do I have to?

--And the piece de resistance: being put in a situation where there's no option to gracefully bow out of publicly extolling the virtues of the precise source of my irritation and annoyance. Really? Are you serious?

God's message to me: "Get off your high horse, knock off the attitude and deal with it."

I'll get there. I will. I'm just not done being mad yet.

(And another lovely reminder was a friend's blog post about waiting actively and faithfully on the Lord. PS--my troubles don't hold a candle to hers and her post is inspiring. Unlike mine. Which is pouty.)

Unblogged

(Quick update because it's really, really overdue: moving is always a pain in the neck, but we moved mostly uneventfully from the temp place we were in on June 18th. Mr. Live-in-Landlord even took some time out from his father/daughter/grandpa time Father's Day weekend to come say his goodbyes. We moved into the really cute little rental owned by Hubby's mom, and just as we were really starting to get settled, we found out that it sold. We knew it was on the market, but all indicators pointed to 2-12 months of being able to stay there. No dice. July 17th had us moving into mother-in-law's basement just a few miles away. *sigh* I guess that's what happens when you don't really pray about what your major decision will be, you just move forward with what makes sense. So nearly all of our stuff is in a storage unit in the city where we'd like to end up (3 hours away), Hubby has a great temp job that is exactly what we need (we were praying about that one) and we're living in his mom & stepdad's basement. Anyone who knows me well knows that my relationship with my mother-in-law...well...it's come a long way. And judging from my irritation levels, it's got a long way to go yet. Well, I've got a long way to go.)

So here on the other side of the mountains life is different. The climate is different, the landscape is different, the lifestyle is different...it's just different. And while I've been internetless for a month during this most, uh, changing time of life, there have been quite a few blogs that have sprung up in my head. And stayed there. So for your reading pleasure...a few cliffnotes:

I Spy...

Things that I see where I live now that I'm not really used to yet

...way more than usual. Well, laterally. The Pacific Northwest is quite hilly, and those hills are generally covered by really old, really tall trees. Cedars, generally. But over here, the hills are more roll-y and spread apart, so I can see way further that I'm used to. And that means that I also spy...

...light coming in my bedroom window at 4:30 in the morning. Who knew that the sun was even awake at that time of day? Yeesh! Go hide behind a tree or something, and let me sleep!

...zero bicycle helmets. Lots of cyclists, but no helmets. Except on the noggins of my own children.

...more yard sales than I have seen in my life...combined...in one neighborhood in one weekend. And it happens every weekend!!!

...mercury. You know, that red stuff that usually hovers between 50 and 65 on the thermometer? It goes up. Did you know? Sometimes it even goes between 90 and 100. I kid you not.

...pedestrians jaywalking. Everywhere!

...vehicles stopped in a 5-lane road so that the pedestrians on the sidewalk can jaywalk. What??? I understand that you want to be considerate, but how badly do you want to be rear-ended?

...a thunderless thunderstorm. Really. I sat on the porch, enjoying a cool evening and saw lightning a few times, but didn't hear the thunder. Odd.

Move & Move & Move & Move

Okay, there's a line in Jurassic Park that I like to quote. I amend it to the situation at hand because it's such a great line. When that pesky T-rex is loose in the rain storm and the kids are in the car, then out of the car, then over the wall, then in the tree, then the car joins them in the tree and they have to climb down as fast as they can to avoid being smooshed by the car, then said smooshed car falls right over the big roots between which the kids & Mr. Scientist are cowering, the boy breathlessly states, "We're back--in the car--again." I've felt that this line has been rather relatable lately, except we were back in a truck instead of a car.

I was talking to someone recently about our situation, explaining that we'd like to move straight from the rental to our ultimate destination and just wait for Hubby to be accepted to the program there he wants. (Obviously, this was before we moved.) I said, "We'd just like to move once and not have to move again. Well, twice. We've already moved once." She must've been listening well, because she corrected me, "You don't want to move and move and move again." Yeah.

So when we've found a place that works for us, we'll be towing a trailer and I can say with all the breathlessness I want, "We're back--on the road--again."

Where Did I Put That %@!&# Silver Lining?

This was one witty blog title that I came up with during a less-than-optimistic moment. I'm a self-proclaimed optimist, and underneath it all I really am. But sometimes I just get tired of it all & want to crawl in a cave until my problems solve themselves. Sadly, that never actually happens. Dangit.

But during a significantly-less-than-optimistic moment, I realized that for the first time ever, I'm alone. I am without my support network. I don't live by my family. I don't have friends that I can call to arrange sanity-saving playdates for my children. I can't call a friend to have them watch my kiddos so I can go get my hair cut for the family pictures this weekend. I don't get calls from friends who are getting together. I don't have anyone to play with. Even my freshman year at college where everything was new and unfamiliar, my sister was just a phone call away. I'd even see her on campus occasionally! But here I really don't have anyone. And I get lonely. And it's sort of pointless to make friends because we'll be gone in a handful of weeks.

I can't wait to move and get settled. I want to put down roots and make connections and have the kids make friends and host a ladies' night. I want to move forward.

There's a silver lining in all of this muck somewhere, but right now I'm just too tired to look for it. No matter what happens it'll all work out. It always does. I don't know how or when, but in the meantime, I'm counting down the days until I go camping with my friends. I can't wait. I might just stay there forever.

So that's just a few of the blogs that have been rattling around in my brain. Not really happy-go-lucky, but whatever. When I finally have internet on MY computer (using my mil's now) I'll have better ones, and pictures! Especially of Cora's nutty antics during the short time we were living in the bachelor pad. Think independent 2yo and a fridge of beer. Good times.

And this has ended up to be some pretty long cliff notes. I'll try to be better about sorta' more kinda' consistentish blogging, and I'll get more light-hearted as we go. In the meantime, here's to not seeing the inside of a moving truck for a very, very long time.