The Waiting Game Begins

Well, it's been another hot week here. We've been taking it easy. Hannah has been at zoo camp this week after being at gymnastics camp last week. She's enjoying it and I'm enjoying the beginning of the proverbial calm before the storm.

We're shoring up the house now. Last Sunday, we did a bunch of yard work and are almost done with mulching. Why is that a bag seems to cover only half of what it seems it should? ANYWAY, I planted some hosta today and there are some other flowers for Brian to plant tonight since he's done with Capstone paper (thank God). The garage is almost all painted and actually matches the house now (BIG improvement!). This weekend has a lot of cleaning in its future I suspect.

We went to the kids school this week to figure out where they will going when they get inside (their old school building is being torn down and a new one will be built, so we're in a 'swing space' for 2 years). It's really nice, but I need to say that if I were teaching there, I'd probably have walked in and then turned around and walked right back out. Zach's teacher had at least 1/2 of the room floor to ceiling boxes. Hannah's teacher wasn't in a much better position. It seems way overwhelming and I'm glad it's not me!

Me too, aka Elizabeth is doing well and is well on her way to being just like Zach and Hannah. Whatever they are doing, she has to do too. The other day I asked her who gave her permission to be so cute and she looked at me and said "God". It will be interesting to see how she does when Zach and Hannah are gone off to school all day. I think she's going to really miss them. Truth be told, I'm going to miss them.

As far as baby watch, my doc is out of the country until the 9th, so please pray that nothing happens until then. The doc that is covering for him doesn't deliver at the hospital that I want to go to and my experience at the hospital he does deliver at wasn't great. So, we'll see. Until then, the waiting game begins!

What was I thinking?

So, I thought it would be fun to go camping. What?! I'm only 37 weeks pregnant... Well, it was quite an adventure.
First, it was like 90+ degrees with humidity added on just for me. I felt like a peep in a microwave (let the swelling begin). After taking an hour to get the tent up and everything ready (it all takes longer when kids are young- should have thought that through a bit more) we were ready for the day. We spent the afternoon at the water park and then went back to camp where it took us another hour to get the fire going and cook hotdogs (a microwave would have been good).
After that we spent some time with the Cub Scouts we were with. If only my camera was working for this next part. The girls and Zach went creeking with Brian and the other Cub Scouts. Zach jumped in, Hannah followed and Elizabeth (aka- ME TOO!!) jumped right in to her waist! They had a blast. My daughter- Hannah- CAUGHT A FROG!!!!! I wish I could have been there to see that, but the climb down was comparable to jumping off a cliff, so I made a S'More instead.
I took the E home and slept in the AC and went back Sunday morning at 6:45 to get breakfast underway and break camp. Goodness. By 10am, we were ready for a quick hike. The kids found vines hanging all over the place behind our site and so the pics are of the kiddos swinging their little hearts out- even little E. There was also a log bridge that we all crossed. I wasn't aware that being pregnant throws your balance off so much. I almost didn't make it across. It was one of those things where I thought afterwards...'hmmm.. that may not have been the best ideas I've had...'
After that we made it back home in one piece and the kids slept really well and so did mom and dad. I'm not sure who was more tired- them or us. Definitely could have used a beer after that one!

no love for the mom

Well, I thought that maybe since I finally found that cord that connects the computer to the camera to allow you to upload your pics, maybe I should post a few. The first bunch are from our adventures blueberry picking and the others are from our recent trip up north to Cleveland.
The girls really enjoyed the pool and Elizabeth especially enjoyed the slide. Allison was such a dear and went down the slide with her about 100 times. Zach was all about the big zoom flume slides and was pretty much on them nonstop for 2 hours. The other photo is at Lake Erie shore in Rocky River. There is a great park and it was beautiful to spend some time there and with the Mackay and Kershner family up in Cleveland.

Today, I dropped Zach off at an overnight camping thing through our church. We spent the morning at Ft. Ancient (which is a state park full of American Indian stuff and earth mounds). It was really fun. There was a team doing a dig at a site near one of the mounds. It was really interesting to watch them work and to go through the museum and they also have a great kids room full of stuff that the kids could touch and play with and try. They also have a model of a Hopewell Indian hut that the kids really liked.

So anyway, I digress... I dropped Zach off, took him to his room and asked if he needed help getting his sleeping bag out or anything. He looked at me and said nope- are you going to leave now? I said "well, I guess I can". He said "okay. that would be good. love you. bye." No hug, no nothing. Boys.

Time Tickin' Away!

I can hardly believe that it is possible that we've got less than 30 days before the baby comes and the three ring circus becomes four. I've been in Cleveland with the kids for the past few days visiting friends and family and when I get back; I'll post the pics of the rooms and of our trip to Cleveland.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Saturday was a busy day for the Kershner family. We went blueberry picking (along with a quarter of the city I think) in the morning and then a friend of ours, Nayt got married that night. Zach was in the wedding and as you can see it was a theme wedding. I've got more pics that as soon as I download onto the laptop, I'll post. (btw- Donn Brooks, Nayt's dad took this pic).

Zach was so excited about being barefoot and about the guys in the wedding thinking that he too needed a REAL sword, so he's got a nice, sharp sword swinging by his side. He was so excited. It was the first thing he wanted to show me when I got there with dinner for him. Yes, the sword was sharp, very sharp and apparently none in the wedding party has kids- or little boys for that matter. Who gives a 7 year old a sharp sword? In all respect for my kid, he did show a great deal of self restraint and while he pulled it out a few more times than were necessary, no animals were harmed. So, that was good.

Rounding Third and Heading Home

Wow. It seems to have been a whirlwind of a weekend. Brian's dad came down for a visit and the kids were SO EXCITED to spend time with him. Friday, I finished painting the girls room and we did a quick shopping trip for curtains, rugs and other things for the rooms. We've been busy! The rooms are almost done- a few things to hang on the walls and a few places to touch up and cosmetically, they are finished. Now, I still have the closet to attack and maternity clothing to send to the wonderful people who lent them to me! There also seems to be a large amount of toys that the kiddos don't play with that I'm trying to figure out how to get out of the house without permanently damaging my kids' psyche.

Saturday, Brian surprised his dad and Zach by taking them down to Great American Ballpark for a Season Ticketholder's Special. They got breakfast and Brian's dad got to take 5 pitches ON THE FIELD and was up on the jumbo screen. Dan's dad played ball in Philly back in the day and it was really meaningful to Dan. Brian got to do batting practice inside and Zach got to throw some pitches and do some other fun stuff. They had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the morning together. Brian forgot the camera and so we need to wait for Dan to send them to Brian this week.

The BMV has been an interesting experience. We are still trying to get the title work straightened out and all the proper paper work signed and notarized in order to get the plates and have the car be ours.

So, all in all, it seems like we've got a lot that isn't complete, but is close. We're rounding third and heading home. Being a task oriented person, this would drive me insane and I'd not have any peace and would be so uptight that I wouldn't be able to relax, but I've been surprised how much I've been able to give up and just take a deep breath in and just allow it to get done when it gets done- even if it isn't in my timing. Funny how God teaches us lessons and then shows us how we've grown (or haven't).

Moving without boxes

Well, for the past week, we've been moving rooms, painting, creating chaos (as if we don't have enough in our house already) and in general, staying up way too late and waking up way too early.

We got our bedroom furniture moved into the old nursery and we've painted Zach's room and for the most part have moved him in. We're waiting for all the cool Cleveland stuff we bought for his room to decorate it with. His favorite is the Cleveland Browns Helmet Fathead we bought him for his wall. Hopefully in the early part of next week, we'll be completely finished with his room. I think he likes it and he's been a good sport about letting the girls bunk with him while we paint their room- who am I kidding, while Brian paints their room.

All the furniture for the girls is in the middle of the floor with tarps all over it. I should have thought about clothing before I moved and tarped and taped it all up. Hhhmmm.... that would have been good. Anywho... we've got one closet (the girls) to clean out and then we've got about 4 boxes to move out of our room into their closet and we'll be finished! Hopefully, we'll be done by Friday. We'll see. We'll post pics once all the rooms are somewhat presentable.

Brian starts back to school tonight and while I'm not so happy about it, it is a necessary evil for him to get finished (which we have decided will be in March instead of December so Brian can take only one class a quarter as opposed to two at a time. While this isn't my favorite decision, I see the wisdom of it and am willing to do it).

Tomorrow we get to pick up the Pilot we decided on. We are really excited about it. We were looking for just another Accord, but after learning that the insurance was $1 different and after finding an incredible deal on a 2004 Pilot with towing package AND bike rack (YEAH!!!)AND after calling on 4 different Accords and having each one tell us that it had just been sold or traded in we started to think, huh, maybe we are being given an okay to get the Pilot. So we did! We're very excited that we can get the whole family in it and if necessary, we can also get a set of Grandparents in there with us. What a blessing.

Well, I need to go back to cleaning and keeping the chaos under control (or at least giving the impression that the chaos is under control). Post more later!

Nature Hikes, Cub Scout Camp, Painting, car buying, oh my!

We took a little nature hike on Sunday, here are some pics. It was quite good, actually. It was a mile and a half and Elizabeth did at least 78% of it herself. There was a place towards the end where they hopped down into the creek and threw rocks. At one point Hannah slid across the mud on the rocks and how she didn't fall neither of us knows- but she caught her balance and made sure to tell us that she was okay!

This week Zach spent the week at Cub Scout camp where he got to do crafts, learn boy things, like knots, folding flags,etc... and don't forget about the fishing, shooting off arrows and the BB guns. Today was the last day and they had a special thing for the BB gun range and each boy was given 5 shots and if they all got on the target and added up to 35 points, they would be eligible for a junior US shooting badge or something. Well, Zach has 3 bulls eyes, a fourth was right on the line, so they gave him 9 points and an 8 pointer. He had 47 out of 50 points! I was really impressed! Yes, he is now asking for a BB gun and so is my dad- we've told them both NO!!!! (plus Brian and I deserve to give the cool gifts from time to time- we are the parents are we not?)

We are still in the throes of painting and prepping. As I am typing away, Brian is up sanding and cleaning up dry wall so he can paint trim. We moved all the furniture around and now Zach's old room looks like a storage closet. We moved our furniture into Elizabeth's old room (she is QUITE confused why our bed is in her room) and it is chaos up there. The sooner this is done, the better!

We also found a car. We were looking to buy another accord and we found a Honda Pilot that a family is selling as they are moving out of the country in a few days. While it was a little more than what we originally wanted to spend, we decided to take a look and sleep on it. WELL, that was on Saturday. On Sunday, we still had no direction as to what to do, so we decided to call on a few more accords and call the insurance and maybe look at it one more time and go from there. Interestingly enough, the insurance is $1.00 more than the Accord. Then, I started to call about the Accords. Each one of the 3 had just been sold or traded. It started to feel a bit more than odd. We went and looked at the Pilot again and they had gotten an offer that day but didn't take it because the guy was going to just sell it to make money. So, we told them we'd buy it. They leave on Saturday, we didn't have the heart to take away their car until they were a little closer to the move, so we close the deal Wednesday/Thursday of next week. Can I tell you how excited we both are. When we went to buy the van, I really wanted a Pilot, but they were still so new that they were out of our budget, so I had to skip it. Funny how things happen!

Well, once we get the rooms all situated and clothes moved in and furniture as well, we'll post pics.

The Week in Review

Wow. What a full week we've just been through!
-We managed to get a more than fair settlement from the insurance company for the Accord. The cops called Brian on Friday to let him know that they had not only found the owner of the vehicle (and she has insurance!!!) but they also found the driver and cited her. Hopefully, this will mean we'll be more likely to get our deductible back. That would be great!

-We started the wonderful world of car shopping. I'll be glad when that is over.

- Hannah spent her mornings this past week at Nature Camp. Her favorite things were making lady bug cookies during Red Day and getting to pet and play with the box turtle.

- Zach spent the week at Zoo Camp! His favorite part was getting to see the Red Tail Hawk. He didn't like the lorikeets so much, as one of them mistook his finger for a branch and nibbled on it- drawing blood. He got a certificate naming him the "Most Adventurous Camper".

- I chased after everyone and spent a good portion of the week spending time with Sabina, Dori, Andrea and Borah. (Sabina is my friend from Albania) We had some really good talks this week and they were very encouraging.

-Thank you to Sarah and Janet for throwing me a wonderful and relaxing baby shower yesterday. I had a great time and it meant a lot to me.

- I FINALLY GOT ALL THE WALLPAPER OFF THE WALLS IN THE BEDROOM!!!! Now, it looks like a rehab project I use to work on in highschool. Nothing like living in a bit of chaos.

I'll post pics of the room in a few days and I'll post after pics once we've got it done. Zach is very excited about fatheads. We're going to put a huge Brown's helmet on his room's wall. He is going for the Lebron, but I don't think a lifesize Lebron James Fathead is going to fit in the room. We'll see. Well, we're off to go on a hike and spend the rest of the day and dinner with my family at my Grandma's house. Should be fun!
BTW-
Happy Father's Day to all you dads.

When it rains...

So this morning, I dropped Zach off at Zoo Camp and guess what. SOMEONE HIT MY VAN AND DIDN'T BOTHER TO LEAVE A NOTE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? Twice in 4 days. The only good thing was that the body shop got all the paint off and buffed it all out for free for me. There are a few scratches on the bumper, but it's plastic, so no biggie. But still, WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?