Goal Complete: Paint Boys' Room

Does this completed goal count if:

1) I didn't physically do it?
2) It didn't come out as originally planned?
3) and there was only 1 room instead of 2?

Yes.

The original goal was to paint the boy's bedrooms when they were in separate rooms, with separate themes. Then the goal became to paint their room that they shared. I started to paint a SpongeBob theme back in July 2009-never finished it.

Then we sold the house and the realtor told us to paint it back to white. Keith's dad came over and did the whole room for us, which was such a nice thing for him to do.

Goal complete!

Big Family Move: Part I

Let me preface this by saying "I am happy with my decision to take this new job and move, regardless of the stressful tone that is about to be posted".

I've just never experienced moving a family of 5 across the country before.

Let's backtrack to last week, Wednesday in particular, which was the day I flew to Dallas to get this move started! The plan was to have a rather peaceful day. I would go into work like usual, leave slightly early to drive out to Milwaukee to go through a painless check-in and security process, and then spend 2 hours reading US Weekly, eating junk food and people watching before boarding the plane. Sounds like a good day, right?

Let's look at how the week really panned out!

Wednesday: About halfway through the day I realize I forgot my medicine at the hotel that the dentist gave me for after my upcoming root canal in Dallas along with the other half dozen items I forgot. I leave early enough to go grab those things, stop by the bank for cash and change clothes. Head out at 3:30 giving myself a good 2.5 hours to get to the airport knowing it should only take 1.5 hours. I don't get very far and the highway backs up with traffic, what should have been 1.5 ends up taking me 3.5 due to a cow truck tipping over and the highway shutting down. I'm doing everything I can from taking off the road detours, calling a closer airport to get another flight, to checking in on my phone while I'm driving just in case I can swing the 8:00 flight. I get to MKE at 7:05, RUN to print my boarding pass, get through security and go the bathroom and run to the gate just in time to get through the door. It's a miracle.

Thursday: This is pack up day for the movers! Window for them to arrive was 8-10, they decide it would be a good idea to show up at 7:30 without calling. They were really nice, but we weren't dressed, the kids were all over the house and we still had things that were not put aside to not pack in boxes. 4 people come in and in a matter of 4 hours the house is packed up. We didn't even have glasses to drink out of nor did we think about things like that. I did take a break to visit Fossil and have lunch with a few friends from there, that was really nice. The afternoon was spent searching for my debit card which I never found. Called to cancel it and later that night found it. Too late now! By that time the baby was getting increasingly hot and really cranky. We spent Thursday night on about 2 hours of sleep and a sick baby. Assuming his temperature was at least 103 (thermometer packed up in a box somewhere).

Friday: Root canal day! I spent the morning with a lovely wake-up call to Chase to deal with another issue between my Chase account and Wells Fargo which is still not resolved. Took Kolbe over to school in a daze after a sleep-less night. Keith took the baby to the doctor, and he had blisters on the back of his throat-something the doctor assumed was there from him not brushing his teeth well enough (he's 15 months). As soon as Keith came back (we only have 1 car mind you), I went over to the dentist for what I thought was the last part of my root canal. When she put the crown on she grabbed my mouth with her thumb and finger like you would a fish, and pushed down so hard it bruised me. That was fun. As I'm getting up to leave she said see you in 3 weeks for the final crown. I said "What?". I thought this was it? And then said "You can ship it to Wisconsin or wait 7 weeks". I gave them $500 and said I'm waiting 7 weeks. When I got home nothing was left in the house but cranky kids so we decided to get a hotel room for the next 2 nights instead of spending the time in an empty house.

Saturday: Car day! We got up early to head over to the rental car place to get a car for 2 days. They had no record of our reservation. We wait, they bring an SUV to us, we leave. The movers come to load our car to ship-they tell us it will get to WI no later than the 21st (hopefully). I'm doing random things and head back to the back bathroom to get the bath mat to throw away…I just happen to look in the bedroom closet and realize the movers didn't load anything from our master closet. Great. We spend the rest of the day entertaining the kids and visiting with friends and family that stopped by. We pass out at the hotel that night at about 9:00.

Sunday: MOVING DAY! I head over to the house with the baby to load up everything the movers didn't get and take it to my grandmother's house. I also try to clean up more and get everything picked up the boys had played with the day before. Leave the house for the last time. Pick up everyone else back at the hotel and head over to my grandmother's house again to say goodbye. We leave to head to the airport. Get to the rental car place and they drive us to the terminal. Realize we didn't refill with gas. I don't care if it cost $100 to fill that tank as long as it's one less thing we have to do. Once they dump all 5 of us, 3 bags, 4 carry-ons, 1 stroller, 1 daybed and 3 car seats at the curb reality hits me that we gotta do this. The process from here to the gate is laughable: from the airline employees losing track of how many checked items we have, to watching Keith sit the baby on the security belt, to having 2 hours to spare just to make sure we got there with plenty of time. It was an adventure to say the least. I was not impressed with AIR TRAN. I may do a separate post just on the airline, but they did not allow us to board first with the kids and we had the car seat and everyone situated and then informed us we couldn't have the car seat in the aisle seat. They just were not very pleasant, but then again maybe I wasn't either. The boys were angels on the flight and Erik and Nick slept for most of it. Getting off the plane, through baggage claim, the bathrooms and parking was OK. The ride to the new house was long and tiring for everyone and we were cranky.

But we are HERE!

Disneyworld, 2010

It was almost 3 months ago, but I wanted to share some of our experiences at Disneyworld this year!

We went during Spring Break in March, and were lucky enough to stay with Keith's brother and his family at the time share they had right in the Epcot park. The room was so nice.

We drove with Kolbe and Nickolas and left Erik with Keith's parents for most of the week. The boys were excellent during the road trip. We stayed at a halfway point, and it took about 20 hours and 2 days to get there.

We spent time in 3 parks-Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately on the last day at Epcot Keith got really sick, and I had the boys on my own with some help from Keith's brother Eric. It worked out just fine, but I felt horrible for Keith. I was also able to meet up with Jill and family and Andi and family while we were in Epcot. We rode one ride together, but after that it was too hard to keep together.

The boys favorite ride was "It's a Small World" and Kolbe would ask if we could ride it again as soon as the ride began!!

I flew out on Thursday morning to get baby Erik and spend 3 days with him just the two of us, and Keith stayed with the boys for the rest of the week. He drove home with them and did an outstanding job. I was really impressed!

We're looking forward to making our way back in the next year or two when Erik is big enough to enjoy. Maybe we'll do a Disney cruise!

Until next time Mickey!

Hotel Lucia in Portland, Oregon

Hotel Lucia

This was a beautiful hotel. In the heart of downtown Portland, if I had more than 24-hours to experience the city it would have been ideal for a longer stay.

Very modern and eclectic style. Down to the final touches such as the door handles, sink style and shape, and packaging of items in the mini bar. The bed was A-MAZING! It was like lying in a cloud, and I thought to myself, "self- you should have this bed". But then I would never get out of it.

I ordered room service while I was there, and cannot make a fair assessment on it as my stomach was so much in knots about making a presentation I couldn't eat. But they had a very heath conscious menu which is appreciated, and I did order eggs whites, fruit and whole grain toast.

This is definitely a place I would consider staying-NOT with kids, but on a business trip for sure.

Review: Prince of Persia

On Sunday night Keith and I went to see "Prince of Persia" after the boys went to bed while my sister stayed at the house. It was great to get out just the two of us even if we were staring blankly at a big screen with no conversation between us for 2 hours!

Let me just say off the bat, I hadn't heard a single thing about this movie and had no idea what it was about. My remedial knowledge of history is no help, so I didn't know if this movie was fact or fiction. Turns out, it was based off a video game! What? Now if they could make a movie around Tetris, Q-bert or Galaga then I might be able to relate better.

Nonetheless, the plot was good, the eye candy was better. I would watch it again, so that's saying a lot.

We were slightly distracted though because some parents decided it would be a great idea to bring their small children (under the age of 5) to a 10pm showing of a grown up movie!! Who does that? These poor kids were in there until after midnight talking, crying at one point and very tired. I would have brought my kids but "Spliced" is coming out on Friday and thought that might be a better fit for them with violent and terrifying visuals!

The movie was good. Tip: don't bring your preschooler.