Things that tried to kill us for $400, Alex

Last year was a rough one. It started off decently enough. So decently, in fact, that I really don't remember much that happened before April. We had been looking for a rental house that didn't suck for about a year, and we finally found the.perfect.house in April. A cute little three bedroom bungalow, with the entire second floor freshly renovated to house our three little cherubs. Aside from the James and the Giant Peach Overload main bathroom and the half bath in the basement that came straight from Alcatraz, this house was perfect for us. Our landlord, well he is amazing. We found the house just before he started painting, so he let me pick out paint colors and he didn't mind the 200 lbs of dog that we roll with. I was excited because I was finally, once again, going to be able to open up a door and send everyone into a fenced yard so I had a minute to myself to sneak some leftover Easter candy in peace. Things were good.

We moved in the first weekend in May, and because I'm a giant idiot with an extra helping of self loathing, we planned a triple birthday party for the boys three weeks after we moved in. Gary bought me a new dining room table that seats 100 and made me promise never to make him buy me a table again. We also, after literally 7 years of shopping, found a couch we both liked that met our ridiculously picky criteria. I was busy fighting with Dominic the Douche from the Detroit Tigers trying to make sure that my kids were going to have Paws at their party, and we were getting settled in. And by settled in, I mean boxes weren't unpacked or anything crazy like that, just stacked neatly out of sight so I could ignore them until I needed something that was probably in an unlabeled box, at which time I would make Gary find it.

One week after we moved in, Gary called me in the middle of the day. He had lost his job. Being the calm, rational and together person that I am, I completely melted down. I quit my job when Grayden was born to be a stay-at-home-mom. My biggest fear since we lived on one income, was that going away and now it was happening. A week after we moved into (and signed a lease for) a house. And a few weeks before this giant party I had spent almost a year planning. It was so much worse for Gary. He's a freak of nature and actually likes to work. Not going to work was hard for him. Plus, he felt like he was letting us down and a bunch of other nonsense that wasn't true and that I certainly wasn't thinking, but, understandably when you've got a wife and a bunch of kids, he felt anyway. It was a bad, bad time that even I can't find any jokes for.

One week of unemployment led to what felt like a thousand interviews, lots of kicks in the gut for Gary, and a long and stressful six months for our family. There were lots of tears and worry. A lot of not knowing what to do to make it better, from both Gary and me. Questions from a curious four year old that were hard to answer, and many sleepless nights. Sometime in October we had the conversation that I had actively ignored for six months (I'm really good at ignoring things). We had to talk about moving. Moving back to Houston was the most logical of all places to move, because we know it there. It's close-ish to my brother, Gary's youngest brother, and my bestie Harmony. We have a long list of friends there and in Houston "polar vortex" doesn't mean temps with a minus sign in front of them. The negatives were that we would have to leave our family. The main reason we moved back to Michigan in the first place. Also, balls hot weather. We'd be trading the polar vortex for the 9th circle of hell from May-October. Plus, my cute little bungalow!!! And then there was the thought of actually making the 1500 mile move. Again. For the third time. Blech.

Gary contacted his former employer, and the wheels were set into motion. He was offered a job back at his old firm and then, suddenly, he was leaving. We had to make more hard decisions, we had a family meeting, and then that was it. It felt like 5 minutes rolled into an eternity, rolled into five minutes. We were moving. Gary was going to have to go without us for awhile because, well, we were poor. Unemployment isn't exactly lucrative. We had to save money, start over and be apart for a little while. It was a hard decision, but a necessary one.

And that brings us to the now. When it's all said and done, we'll have lived apart for exactly 12 weeks. It's been hard. It's been hard for me, it's been hard for Gary, it's been hard for the boys. It's even been hard on the dogs. They're more alert and reactive to noises. And when I say it's been hard and they're alert, I mean they are useless lumps and I hope I never have to rely on them to protect me. My mom was all the way in the house the other day before either of those two cracked an eyelid.

Anyway, we've made it through with help from our family and an amazing group of people that we're lucky enough to call our friends. I don't think that I could ever accurately convey our thanks for the long list of people that helped us, it's just not possible. We can't ever repay you, but we can pay it forward. And to all of those people, thank you. Thank you.

::UPDATE::

I started this post a long time ago. Right before we moved, actually. It's a little hard to read. Last year sucked. But, we moved. We're here. We're doing good. We found a house that we really like, with a crazy amount of room. One day I'll do a home tour post. (LOL, it will probably be after we've long moved out of here, I'm not so good at blogging) Gary's digging his job, I'm digging being close to my Houston friends and decorating the house. I have about 500 DIY projects lined up, including turning one of our spare bedrooms into a craft room and a bunch of stuff that involves power tools, my brother's help and someone with knowledge of math beyond adding using a calculator. The boys are having fun with all of the old new friends and rediscovering their toys that were packed away. 

We still have a long way to go before we fully recover from 2013, but for now? We're doing okay.

I'm leaving the original part of the post as is. So one day, when we're Scrooge McDucking in our vault of money I can come back and remember.

Cheesecake-gate 2013

Look at all the ways I have failed to deliver on my blog posts already. Set the bar low, people. Set the bar low.

Anyway, I like cheesecake. Probably an alarming amount. It's my favorite dessert, and I'm no dessert snob. I could probably exist on fountain Cherry Coke and an assortment of baked goods, with the occasional side of mashed potatoes and a salad. With ranch, naturally, because what kind of barbaric human being doesn't like ranch? I don't want to know if you if you're one of those people.

Wait. Cheesecake. The point.

The day and the day after Gary left for Houston I was kind of useless. The boys and I had pizza delivered and basically laid on the couch and moped. On Sunday, I pulled myself together enough to make a no bake cheesecake (my most very favorite kind) so I could eat my feelings.

Monday was just as rough because it was the first day that I had to do school drop off by myself, with all three boys, and then get myself to work. While I was rushing around making sure I had everything we needed, I heard a noise in the kitchen. When I walked around the corner I saw Elliott holding The Cheesecake and Bennett trying to take it from him. Before I could do anything (we all know how quick I am), and in slow motion, Elliott tipped the pan and The Cheesecake slid on the floor and broke in half.

I gasped. The Cheesecake was on the floor. I recovered and did what any normal, rational person would do. I scooped that shit up and put it right back in the pan. I wasn't about to let a kid and possibly a little dog hair* ruin a perfectly good therapy session. Plus, the boys and I were going to be the only people eating it, it wasn't like I was serving it to the Pope or my grandma.

*I had just vacuumed and mopped the evening before, so the kitchen floor ick was at a minimum

Tuesday is my day off, and once I got Grayden to school we came home so I could get some cleaning done. I was off being a neglectful mother, probably passed out on the couch with a glass of wine and a bottle of pills, busy ignoring my little cherubs (or maybe vacuuming or folding laundry, I don't know) when I heard a rustling. The kind of rustling that a tin pan makes when it's empty. The kind of tin pan that a pre-made graham cracker crust comes in. The kind of crust that I use to make my... shit. 

I've probably never moved so fast in my life. As I came around the corner into the kitchen I saw it. The massacre. Bennett and Elliott were sitting in the middle of the floor, hands and faces covered in my cheesecake. All of it. There was a small piece of crust left and that was about it. They ate the whole damn thing. They left me nothing of substance. I wanted to weep, but there was no time because what was left of the crust was about to be ground into the floor and small hands were about to be wiped on the walls. Fortunately, I was able to say one last goodbye to my precious cheesecake as I cleaned up what those sweet, sweet angels had smeared on the floor and their clothes and their faces.

Take my advice, friends. Lock your fridge down. Lock it down so that the people that design and build maximum security prisons are calling you for advice.

In related news, does anyone know how to lock your fridge down like a maximum security prison?

Well. Hello there!

Happy 2013, long time no see! Oh. Wait. Uh...

Sooooooo, it's been awhile, no?

Like, so long that this kid:

The night before his 1st birthday.

Looks like this now:

This one is easily amused.

And the big one?

Such a smooshy face!

Well, he's like 18 now:

I demand to know who let this kid grow up.

 And that other guy? Well, he's never even been here.

He doesn't need your judgement.

Unimpressed with the shenanigans.

Call me a minion again, lady.

Lots of things have changed since I last posted. We got ourselves another kid, moved (shocking, I know), we went through a hellish 6 month unemployment stint where we almost killed each other grew closer as a family, my 3 month stint as a single mom, and we're planning another cross country move because we are dumb.

I have lots to update and a year and a half of pent up ranting to unleash here, and fortunately for everyone, I'm about to be snowed in. Bring on the blogging! And Happy 2014! =)

Happy 1st Birthday, Bennett!!

Happy, happy, happy 1st birthday to my sweet Bennett!! I can't believe it's been a whole year since you joined our family. You've brought more joy and laughter to our family than I ever thought was possible.

We love you, buddy!!

2 days old

364 days old

The Boys

I've been a terrible blogger. I have lots of things that I could probably share, in fact, I know I have lots of things to share. But lately I've lacked all motivation to post anything. I'll try to be better about that.

I was pretty good about documenting Grayden's baby-hood and I was alright about documenting my pregnancy with Bennett (I think?), but I've been TERRIBLE about documenting Bennett's baby-hood and even worse about this pregnancy.

Let's start with Grayden. He's a typical 3 year old. The stage that nobody really warns you about. He's incredibly stubborn, but at the same time he's so very sweet. He isn't shy with telling us that he loves us and he is always giving random hugs and kisses. He is OBSESSED with cars. All kinds of cars. His favorite thing to do when we're in the car is to point out all of the vehicles around us, he can't pass up a free Auto Trader magazine and he has more Matchbox cars than any 3 year old I know. I'd venture to guess he's got a couple hundred of them. He doesn't love to share with his baby brother, but we're working on that. Mostly, really, he likes to play cars by himself. He still loves music, and to dance, and now that he's got an iPod Touch he has his favorite songs at his disposal.

His favorite show is Caillou (gag me). We finally got through the phase where he would come into our room in the middle of the night and sleep in our bed. It took a couple days, a baby gate and a new Lightning McQueen sheet for his bed. He loves to help with laundry and taking the dogs out. I really can't do much without him close behind, he's my little shadow. My big boy is sweet, funny, helpful, trying and my most favorite three year old on the planet.

Bennett. He tries his best to keep up with his brother. He was crawling shortly after he turned 5 months old and now, at almost 10 months old (!!!) he's like a tiny rocket. If he is doing something he knows he's not supposed to, or if he thinks you're going to stop him from doing something he hauls ass away from you, generally laughing the entire time. He's been standing up and cruising around the furniture for awhile, and sometimes he forgets that he doesn't quite know how to walk and will let go and stand without holding on. I really want him to walk, if only because it will slow him down a little and I won't have to work so hard to catch him.

I thought for a long time that he was going to go to kindergarten without any teeth. And then the boys and my mom and I went on a little vacation to Louisiana for a week and he came home with four teeth. He doesn't let me look in his mouth very often, so for all I know he could have 10 teeth in there by now. His lack of teeth never stopped him from eating though, that's for sure.

Overall, he is amazing. He's got the best personality and (really!) rarely cries. Even when he's being steamrolled by his 37 lb brother. On a wood floor. He just learned to wave and say bye-bye, which kills me. It's too cute. He says ma-ma and ba-ba and we're working on da-da. I still blow dry his hair after a bath and he still has the best baby comb-over I've ever seen. He's far too independent to snuggle much, he has the sweetest dimple, he loves his paci and he's getting too big, too fast.

Third Baby... Third Baby is another boy! If I thought I was outnumbered before, I was wrong. But it's ok, I know boys. I know they're loud, and messy, and they wear jeans and khakis and almost all of their shirts match all of their pants. I know how to potty train a boy, and we have enough Matchbox cars to entertain 20 little boys. The hardest part about finding out Third Baby was a boy was deciding on a name. Gary and I are mostly tapped out on boy names. We are pretty sure that we've given him a real name, but we're waiting to make sure (I don't change my mind again) before we tell anyone. Otherwise, he's doing good. Measuring a couple weeks ahead, which I expected. I'm excited to meet him and see who he looks like. I think Grayden looks just like Gary, and most people say that Bennett looks exactly like me. Only 15-ish weeks left until we meet him!

Catch up

Since I'm obviously terrible about updating my blog, and I talk to most people that read this (I think?), this post is mostly just going to be for the blog. Nothing big and exciting that we haven't already announced...

We are finally moved and (mostly) settled. Getting here was.. uh.. an adventure. One that I have yet to give Penske an earful about. Long story short, our moving truck broke down 150 miles into a 1500 mile trip. Luckily we were at my brother's house, so we weren't stranded at some hotel in the middle of nowhere. But still.

Most everything is unpacked and organized and we're slowly getting into a new routine. The dogs are still trying to get adjusted to going outside on leashes and the noises that come with not living in a single family house anymore. The boys are sharing a room still, and that comes with its own set of challenges. But we're getting through it. I was able to cook dinner at home for the first time in a LONG time last night, and it was fantastic. I sort of missed cooking.

Baby #3 is doing well. I found a new OB here that I really like so far. I had two appointments last week, and everything is progressing on track. My due date is officially June 21, 2012. I don't think I'll get another ultrasound until the end of January/beginning of February, which is when we'll find out the sex. I'm still in a little bit of denial about this one. It was unexpected to say the least, but I'm very excited. A little stressed about the logistics of three kids, but excited none the less.

Overall we've been back in Michigan for a little over a week and we feel like this was the right move for us. It was so nice to spend Thanksgiving with our families and it feels nice to be "home".

Deja Vu

This picture was taken December 28, 2007. In two weeks from Thursday this will be us again. On the same exact route we took to get here, making the same stop in Lake Charles. The only differences this time will be two more (little) people and an extra dog. Oh, and about 4 extra feet on that moving van to accommodate all the extra stuff we've accumulated in the past 4 years. Oy.

I am excited, sad, thrilled and nervous about moving back to Michigan. Here's to hoping it's the right decision!