 | Diary Navigation:
|
October 24, 2003
October 24, 2003
Time to move~
Once again I will be packing boxes and sorting through all of our things. For the fourth time in 6 months, we will be moving. This move however, is a much needed and anticipated one that we are all looking forward to. At the moment, we live in a small town. I’m not certain of the population but I believe that it’s somewhere around 3,000 if that. We have the luxury of two grocery stores, a Wal-mart, a Dollar General and your typical fast food restaurants. Nothing major and definitely nothing exciting about this town. So why did we move here? Well, back when I lived with my parents and Mark was still in Texas, we planned on moving here to help with a church. We have done so and will continue to help there...but everything else that we do is in Springfield, which is 30 miles from here. I’m talking everything. Mark’s job, major grocery shopping as well as any other shopping (department stores and malls), hospitals and doctors etc. It really is ridiculous at how often we travel to Springfield when the only reason that we live here, is to go to one Sunday morning service a week. Mark and I talked it over and decided that the best thing for us to do would be to move to Springfield. Not only will it be so convenient for the above reasons, but also we will be much closer to our family and friends. To be honest, I’ve had a really hard time living here because we know only a handful of people who all go to our church and I’m not close to any of them. Actually I hardly know them. So my life is filled up with nothing more than taking care of my family. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about my family and my taking care of them in the least. I really miss hanging out with our friends, going places with my family and getting out and about. I’m a mover and a shaker and I’ve been forced to be still for too long. So since one of our close friends is the manager of an apartment complex in Springfield, we thought that we’d fill out an application and see about renting one of the apartments in a complex that his company owns. Mark and I drove to the complex the other day and talked with our friend about the apartments that were available. More than likely we will be renting a two story, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, townhouse apartment. I say likely only because they do have some of these with basements, but at the moment there aren’t any available. Mark and I really are not too picky, and if a basement apartment doesn’t become available in time, we will gladly take the other. The fact of living in Springfield and having the convenience that it offers is enough for me to move, but while we were touring the apartments, we found out that they also have two pools, a kid’s pool and a play ground. Perfecto! So, after a few more things are settled, we will give our notice to our current landlord and plan on moving by December 1st. Very exciting indeed!
Staying busy~
Our weekends seem to be filling up with important things to do, which I am very happy about. As I said, I hate to sit still and being out really makes me feel better, if that makes sense. This weekend we were suppose to be going to a birthday party for Noah, who is Christa’s son (MT diary writer). He turned two on Tuesday but we found out that they had to cancel his party because his brother Austin is sick. Poor little guy! The following weekend we are going to Branson to help my dad celebrate his 55th birthday. He’s been through a lot this year and I’m really hoping that this day will bring him so much joy. He’s had a rough week...but I will talk more about that in a few minutes. The second weekend in November we are going to have my nephews over again for a visit. We had such a great time with them here and we wanted to plan another get together. My brother and sister in-law are going out of town and this was a perfect weekend to have the boys over. We can’t wait! The following weekend Mark and I are singing at a wedding for a friend of ours. They asked me to sing a song and then for Mark and I to sing a duet. We will buy the soundtrack CDs this weekend and start practicing for the wedding.
Update on Dad~
As I mentioned, my dad has had a rough week. Without going into detail...I will just tell you that he had some tests done and they showed that he needs to have another, more detailed screening done. It’s not about cancer this time...but his colon. He does have an upcoming CT scan to see why his neck is still swollen. The doctor had put him on some antibiotics to see if the swelling would go down, which it didn’t. Since then he has had three rounds of antibiotics and has changed some of his eating habits to see if it would help, which it hasn’t. To look at him though, you would not be able to tell that he has anything wrong, which I’m very happy about. He is basically in good health and we are all looking forward to seeing him and the rest of my family on his birthday. Since my parents are the managers of a hotel in Branson they need to stay close in case they are needed for anything. So we are all going down there for the day. My mom told me that she’s kept the outdoor heated pool open so we can all bring our bathing suits for one last swim before winter hits. The kids were so excited when I told them that they’d get to swim on Papa’s birthday. Autumn said, “now dad can see how good I can dive”. Mark was in Texas the whole summer and didn’t get to see them learn how to dive. He’s looking forward to it just as much as she is!
Life’s lessons~
If you have a son over the age of five or so, then you’ve probably heard of Yugio cards. These are cards that kids buy, collect, trade and in Gabriel’s case, sell. A few days ago he told me that he was going outside to sell some of his Yugio cards. I honestly didn’t mind because we haven’t bought him any in quite a while and I didn’t plan on pouring any more money into them. I’ve been finding them everywhere lately including the washer and crumbled up under the edge of the couch. I’m think that a little 17 month old who shall remain nameless had something to do with that. Wink! So back to my story. Gabriel came back in and hollered out “mom I just made 5 bucks”. I said, “wow...what are you going to buy me” joking of coarse, to which he smiled. His sudden entrepreneurship caused Autumn’s wheels to start turning. So she sat down and colored and cut out snowflakes to sell. Her heart was broken when she came crying to me saying that no one wanted to buy her snowflakes. She then asked me if I would give her some money since Gabe had some now. I tried to explain to her that it wouldn’t be fair of me to just hand her money. If the situation were reversed I wouldn’t feel like I needed to give Gabriel money just because she had earned some either. Regardless of my attempt to explain this to her...she went off crying in her room. She kept peeking around the corner and wailing loudly so I would “hopefully” have pity on her and toss her some money. I pretended not to hear her and finally told her that I’d heard enough. She wiped her nose, composed herself and headed outside with a raccoon puppet (that Gabriel had made and given her) to see if she could possibly make some money. She returned a few minutes later with 4 quarters and happily exclaimed that she had sold her raccoon puppet...to her brother Gabriel. Ahhh the love!
Doctors, shots and starting to talk~
On Wednesday Mark and I took Matthew and Christian to their pediatrician. We decided to use the same one that we had used when we lived here 4 years ago. Christian’s weight is now at 24 pounds and Matthew is at 44 pounds. Christian was given his shots and they both received the flu shot. While we were sitting in the room waiting for the doctor to come in, Mark was asking Christian some questions. I ask him these same things when we are at home all the time, but it was cute to hear his daddy ask and see him respond. Mark asked him where his eyes were and he pointed to them. Then he asked him where his ears were and he pointed right to them. He proceeded to ask him where his nose, hair, belly, diaper, knees and toes were and he of coarse knew them all. Mark then asked him “where is mommy” and he pointed right to me. He asked him where Matthew was and where daddy was too and he pointed to them perfectly. We clapped and told him what a good boy he was. He smiled happily and swung his feet as he sat in Matthew’s wheel chair while Mark held Matt. Christian cried only with his last shot which was the flu vaccine and Matthew didn’t cry at all. They were both given some Tylenol and a sticker and sent on their way. Christian is really started to talk more lately. I mean, he’s always been very vocal and has babbled his baby talk for a long time now. But in the past week or so I can tell that he’s really trying hard to sound out words. Anytime he sees something or touches something I tell him what it is like shoe or TV or bear. When I ask him what a puppy says he will tell me “wuff-wuff” now. He knows that when I put his socks and shoes on he’s about to go somewhere and will start waving his hands and saying “bye-bye”. I showed him some fish swimming in a tank one day and I kept repeating fish as I pointed at them. When we walked off, he said “ishh”. I love to hear his little voice and even more, I love watching him grow into a little boy. When I ask him to give me a hug now he will...and it melts my heart every time.
This and That~
If any of you are signed up for the iParenting newsletter then I’m sure that you’ve received emails about their contests from time to time. I opened an email from them a few days ago and it said that I had won a contest that I had entered the week before. I was to choose from 6 prizes and send my choice back to them. I was thrilled and decided to pick something that I could give Christian as a Christmas present. It’s a Thomas Train set with tracks and cars. I’m sure that he’ll love it!
I wanted to mention one of the most hilarious commercials that I have seen in a long time. Maybe you’ve seen it? It’s the one where this man is sitting in his comfy chair watching TV in his living room. The camera gets closer as he explains about his purchases and the funny part is that it’s in a woman’s voice. The expressions that you hear in her voice are matched with his facial expressions perfectly. Mark and I roared with laughter when we saw this. I believe the purpose of the commercial is an advertisement for an Identity BankCard to prevent fraud. It’s down right hilarious! Have you seen it??
I’m sending out a huge congratulations to Preconception diary writer Linda. She is pregnant with her first baby/babies after having IVF done. Congratulations to her and Andrew and I wish them only the best on their journey to parenthood.
Lastly, I am excited to say that I have finally updated our website with new pictures of everyone. So please come on over and take a peek at how much our darlings have grown. You’ll want to check out the Photo Gallery as well as the front page.
I've put a link to the site on my TTM board.
Take care~
Jennifer :0)
PS~ Don’t forget to set your clock back one hour on Saturday night. ;0)
 |  |
|
want to keep a diary on iParenting?
Authoring a diary on the iParenting network allows you to chronicle your family's story, preserving it for years to come. It's also a great way to get the most out of the iParenting community. Click here to start...
|
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families. 
