HOOT

Let's face it, I've had a love with owls for ages now. Pam has the most adorable, and soft blanket for Victoria made of Raspberry and Chocolate brown owls, and I'm on the hunt to make my twinners some boy versions--really how do you NOT love this?

I have no idea what we're going to name the little guys, because I really only have 1 boy name that I love. Jeffrey Logan. I'm not sure where Chris stands on that name.
It turns out that having identical twins not only means you get to have a conversation with the fetal medicine doc, but you get to see him on a weekly basis. I guess this time around, I won't really have any issue paying the insane amount that guy gets to bill, because we'll be BFF.
The kids are screaming. It's 10:15pm, I'm barely coherent, and they are screaming, because they don't want to be going to sleep. Seriously. This is insane. I can't wait for us to move and get into a routine again. This limbo thing SUCKS.

In May, my mom presented me with a voucher for a one night stay to the downtown Hampton Inn, and said it came with a free overnight babysitting. Friday, she came up about 10 am and helped me get things a little less crazy around here. Chris got back about 3pm from studying, and we headed down for our adventure. My mom and the kids played with balloons, play-dough and went to the zoo. Chris and I went to see the International Jazz Festival and had a great time in Salt Lake. It was so nice to just fall asleep and wake up all by myself. I woke up about 8:30, had breakfast and went back to sleep until 11. I felt SO rested. We spent most of Saturday at Weber State so that he could study for a test, and submit some homework. Then we saw Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds-'nough said.
My kids had so much fun with their "Mimi" they were very sad to see her go.
We have an official move date of Wednesday, 13th.
BIG NEWS....Thanks to some very generous Clearfield 8th Ward folk, I GET TO SEE LINDA EDER NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT!!! She is performing with MOTAB for the Pioneer Celebration Concert. I cannot even put my excitement into words. Cannot.

Everything has happened so so fast, that I can't really breathe, and it doesn't feel real.

We decided that we needed to sell the house, since he has 2 more semesters left in school (16 credit hours each ughhh) we figured switching jobs isn't really an option until he graduates. Since we had set up an FSA for hospital bills and daycare at the beginning of the year, his paycheck alone is not enough to stay in the house and me be sane. I don't like having a house payment that is more than 35% of our take home. I've been very spoiled the last 5 years having it only 25%--Ramsey is so right on the money with that number. When my job ends, we'll lose a 1/3 of our income and so we're putting the house up for sale. I'm planning to have my replacement trained by the time I reach my 3rd trimester-aka the end of August. Chris's grandma has offered us her large basement apt to use while we have the house for sale. We figured we'd probably move when Chris graduates anyway, and selling a house before having twins seems easier of an option than after.
Joye-Chris's grandma-is insisting that we stay with her until after the twins come home. Shes concerned with Chris's crazy school/work schedule that I will be better there, and as much as I hate to admit it, she's 100% right. She lives just up the hill from the Hospital, and I'm already realizing I can't do our routine of Chris home from 10pm-8am and me handling the house and kids alone anymore. I'll have some help right there with me while he's living at Weber State the next 5 months finishing school.
We've been working very hard to get our "curb appeal" boosted, and have a few projects left on the inside. We plan to move out this weekend (and probably some of next week) massively clean the place, stage it and then list it. That way, the kids can't undo any of the hard work that goes into putting the house on the market. My ability to keep up is long gone, and they have figured it out. Seriously, if I step on ONE MORE BAND-AID WRAPPER. So there you have it.

So, I decided to do some indoor "to do" items today. Ava's been going through my drawers for tshirts, because she ran out of leggings, and jammies, and refuses to be in anything that isn't made for comfort. This prompted my resolution to climb the laundry mountain. Now, to be fair, I wasn't too far behind. After folding a few loads, I went into her room, and discovered that her drawers were empty, because most of the clothes were shoved under her bed....next to an old pull up. AWESOME. So even though I know she hasn't worn these, the scent of old urine is necessitating a cycle or two through the washer, with maybe a tsp of vinegar just to be sure the odor is abolished. It's been nice not to be doing hard labor. Seriously, I want to be one of those awesome women on HGTV that conquers the house in a 30 minute segment, however, it's just not so. So today, I rejoice in my 75 degree, temperature controlled environment, even if it means many trips up and down the stairs toting baskets of clothing.

Never Ending To Dos....

We are getting ready to sell the house again. This time, however, we will be leaving and then staging. There is a list that seems never ending in cost and energy to do before we are ready though. But, the upside is that when we're all done, the house should be perfect for the new owners.
Yesterday I power washed the fence. I spent the first...oh 2 hours not realizing I was using the power washer wrong, and only harnessing like 1/2 the power. Yeah. Dumb moment for Deb. Thankfully, Chris came home to check on me, and fixed the problem, and then 2 hours later, the fence was done. I'm sunburned, despite the sunscreen I sprayed on myself.
We also have been working on removing the morning glory. oh morning glory...how truly NOT glorious you are. We've also been cleaning up the rock RV pad and digging up dirt to smooth it out.
Next up is power raking, reseeding and weed n feed for the yard, along with some new flowers to color up the yard.
We'll throw up a fence in a couple of weeks too.
Once we move out, we'll do the inside work. We are hiring out the roof repairs, tile job and putting in a closet in the basement room. I don't even want to see the invoice or bid for that. I just don't. But we both feel that this is the right move for us.

Learning Station

Just over a month ago, Ava graduated from her first year of preschool with Miss Eve. Ava loved going to her class every Tuesday and Thursday. She learned-beyond just ABCs and writing her name, that listening, and sharing and singing are all vital elements in life. Sadly, we missed registration for the 11-12 year, and so she won't be going back. She misses school so much, and often asks if Miss Eve will come to her birthday party. I miss her preschool too. She's so bored. I have her enrolled to go to Bravo preschool in the fall, but as time goes on, I fear that it will be something we won't be able to fit into the budget. It's 3 days a week and about $100 a month. They really do need scholarships for this stuff. I mean, her Bravo teacher said she was ready for kindergarten, but due to being born in December, she has another year of preschool. Emotionally, she is probably in need of the extra time. Academically, however, she is so ready. It's frustrating. The hardest part is knowing that as a parent, I'm completely unprepared for her being this smart. Seriously. I didn't study early childhood education. I have no idea. So we do workbooks, and worksheets, and read books and sing, but I'm just scared that I'm not offering her what she needs. I knew there'd be drawbacks to marrying such an incredibly brilliant man---really smart kids. Any ideas on what you've been doing to keep your kids brains going during the summer?

I was looking for the perfect funny to describe what I've been feeling the past few days. I'm working very hard to keep my life away from
where, sadly, I have been many many times before. We have spent the past month really working hard to declutter our lives, and get organized. Now, it's my task to keep it that way. I realized today, that since Simon is up at 6:30, I should probably take advantage of that. Making the bed, folding the laundry, and emptying the dishwasher are much easier to do with only 1 kid awake. Especially when that kid only desires to drink his chocolate milk while watching netflix. (seriously, he may need a 12 step program.) Last night, it took me almost 3 hours to do what my mom could have done in probably 20 minutes. by the end of my day the energy is not there, so I really need to start doing the stuff I hate most, first. The exhausting part, mentally, is knowing that by cleaning the house first, it's bound to get destroyed the moment child #2 joins the fun and she and Simon begin "playing." However, I am starting to put more of the "clean up" jobs in her list of "to do." So, hopefully it'll be routine before I lose the ability to bed over. So here's to a day of laundry, grocery shopping, where the hell is the vacuum, has anyone seen the sun screen, no you're not going outside naked, seriously, put your pants back on kid, man i'm starving-can you pass the bag of bread this way please.....