Cereal Already?

Sometimes its takes a while to see the signs.  Drew is almost 5 months!!  He's been a dream for months, sleeping through the night, going with the flow etc... lately he's been a pill, waking up at 1:30, sleeping 45 minutes TOTAL during the day.  I'm guessing he is hungry.  We opted to mix up some rice cereal.  Well, it didn't take him long.  He LOVED IT!

This photo cracks me up.  What do you put on a HUGE kitchen island.  Chelcy recommends a lamp, farrah mentions a 3 tiered fruit bowl.  But for now - how about a DREW? 

Look at that smiling face 

 Nick and I were taking stuff downstairs when we realized we hadn't heard drew squawking - we came up to see this...  instantly Nick looked at me and said, 'we need to take a picture'  Can you find his left arm?

Thursday and Friday we spent some wonderful time with the Leadbetters as Chris was away for a few nights.  For the first time in our lives we can just pop in and pop out.  It was a wonderful low key visit.  The good bye was simple as we will see them again soon.  I love that they will be in my children's life on such a consistant basis.  We spent this beautiful day at the fields of South Run.  Both Wyland and Barbara are so fit and active they can keep up with Nick playing soccer, walk Drew in the stroller, focus Shane in the right direction and enjoy a bottle of wine with me at night!  We are blessed to have them in our lives.

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Here Nick just competed almost 5 rungs on the monkey bars.

What a monkey

Off to bed!  Or at least off to read.  I just joined the Brambleton's womens group and their book club book for the month is Hunting and Gathering - Barbara picked it up for me at the library and I am LOVING it (its an Indy film in a book).  Lately I have been CRAVING an assigned read.  I hate having to decide.  Since I haven't met ANY of these women, I must read the book.  Now here's hoping I can just say yes to the invite.

And the days roll by

For those of you tuning in hoping to see boxes everywhere and our town home bulging at the seems - wait another week - at least.  We received a call on Thursday from our shipping company.  (I hesitate to call them a shipping company because all I have witnessed them do is a feeble attempt to coordinate contractors) however, they notified us that our vehicle shipment container was elected for an additional customs search.  What does that mean for us?  An extra $$ for winning the customs search, extra $$ for both containers for additional storage days and an additional week without our things.  Chris called me later that day after he endured a long day of meetings in Suffolk VA and was totally deflated by the news.  Honestly, we can't make this stuff up, its just too good.

Farrah recently sent me an email concerned with how I was dealing with all this.  Below is all I could think of and wanted to just put it on paper as I have been saying it to myself constantly

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

For those that know me know I am not overly religious - but I do know that god gives you just a bit more than you can handle to remind you that you do need him in your life.  The challenges in life make you stronger and the strong ones keep getting strengthened.

So on goes the limbo time.  Thank you to the Leadbetters for outfitting us with real silverware (the plastic stuff is wearing out) as well as some fabulous camping chairs as sitting on the floor is just uncomfortable.  Thank you to the items stored in our Texas attic that we thought we would never need are truly essential.  

Movie night is still on!!  The boys LOVE the Ninjagos - thank you Tate for introducing us.  Those with boys - do tune in.  I love it.

This will one day soon be Drew's room.  I LOVE those animal stickers and cannot believe how well they endured the hot attic of Texas.

I am forever thankful for how flexible our boys are.  They are sharing a room for the first time and Shane is out of his crib for the first time.  Its going AMAZINGLY well.  I have gone in there a few nights with Shane repeatinghimself or just chatting while Nick is starring at the wall hoping to fall asleep.  But now instead of seeing Nick in our doorway at 6:30 we get the Pitterpatter of both of them.  Its really cute.

 Here is our bedroom.  Thank you to the leadbetters for the blow-up mattress that has also translated into a trampoline for the kids.  Can anyone see that white/yellow TV?  Yup, my sister had that in college and yup, it still works.  However, when viewing it from our bed, you can tell you are watching basketball, you just can't tell if its men's or women's.....

As a SAHM, I am infanitely thankful for the area we are living in.  There are basketball courts, tennis, playgrounds and everything walking distance.  even the Doctor office.  Its almost like living in Germany.  I hardly need a car.  The simplicity is just what we need - for the whole family.  We pulled up to the basketball court and I realized I forgot a ball.  no worries, Nick grabbed some rocks to start shooting.  Gotta love his ability to improvise.  Here's hoping he picked that up along the way.

And a POND - hours of entertainment for these boys.

A little basement bowling is always good for some fun

Chelcy turned me onto this awesome trundle bed idea.  Of course the frame arrived before our mattresses (from Germany) but its all ready to go!.  Twin to King in just minutes =) 

The great thing about not having our stuff is today we spent the day at World Market, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Best buy.  What did we buy, 3 bottles of wine, that it!!  I cannot believe it.  We had stuff in our hands, but the idea of being inundated with our stuff encouraged us to put it all back.  Who needs it right??

We ended our day at the AMAZING grocery store Wegmans.  As Chris completed our dinner and grocery purchase our credit card was denied.  No biggie as I assumed it was linked to the fact that we just received new cards in the mail due to the expiration date.  Maybe something was lost in the activation.  A quick call to the wonderful USAA bank relived that someone else has our credit car number and opted to purchase flowers in great Britain....  see, I can't make this stuff up.  new cards are in the mail - and the leadbetters as a family will be trying a new church tomorrow at 10:30.

Before and After

Every decorating book I have thumbed through in the recent months has stated that PAINT in the single cheapest BEST improvement you can put on a house - how true.  Its a rental so lets not go over board, but check this out.  I bet you guys are thankful those fake flower survived the HOT texas attic

Before

After (really only 1.5 hours of labor, not bad right?)

The guest room downstairs - and your room if you want to visit... we removed the vertical blinds...  yuck right?  Painted the room Elephant Grey.  Barbara offered up some old material and her labor for some beautiful curtains and a room transformation.

The curtains are currently in the hemming process.

Here is a fun before and after story - before - kids running around the empty house crazy...  10 minutes later of the GMC Denali motor running and you have - AFTER.... 

I gave them an extra 10 minutes as I chatted with Elle about her trip stateside.  I cannot believe we traveled France shortly after new years and now we are planning a weekend in VA for March.  How lucky I am to have friends that travel!

So 10 minutes later and we are in the Restaration Harware outlet.  They have an 'outlet rack' rack of curtains.  I have several lined out - colors, Rod pocket, Grommet, 84, 96, 108...  colors, locations...  I need help!!  I phone a life line and THANKFULLY Chelcy answers.  Seriously, what do I do with these options.  Chelcy finishes her business call and immediately pulls up Restoration Hardware on her computer - so we are talking the same language.  Within minutes she has me focused on what I need to purchase.  Than she stops and says, what is the price you are looking at for these curatins?  I answer with $25-$40.  Her response - buy them all!!  o.k. maybe the wrong life line....  but here are the after photos of our family room. and boys rooms and yes, I may go back for more!

And now the purge

Last Tuesday a portion of our stuff was delivered to our TH - a small portion.  For the past 3 years its been stored up in our attic in Texas.  So if we haven't needed it in 3 years we surely don't 'need it'.... WRONG - a little.  Its the stuff that TOO hard to get rid of.  Which is why 5 year ago my mom purged it from her house to mine..... 

Its the old army uniforms, the newspapers from the rose bowl win, the handwritten letters from ROTC camp, Ranger school, Kosovo, Iraq.  The wedding cards.  The baby photos (OF ME!) What the heck do you do with this stuff!! 

Chris is addicted to the show 'hoarders' so I went into the purge with the mindset of - THROW IT ALL AWAY.  But as I read through the thoughtful written wedding congratulations I think, o.k.  I will keep this one... and this one.... and this one...  what the heck, lets put them all in a folder.  I will purge something else.

So I move to the box that has stored memories from my years at Michigan. Ticket stubs from concerts i had totally forgotten I attended. newspaper articles from the storied football season. Notes and birthday cards and friends, family and the most humorous - boyfriends. Just reading through everything (and yes, I read through it all) brought me back almost 100% to the days in college. NOTHING else can do this as I swear my memory gets worse every day. So now I am drudging through clipping here, pasting there and trying to put the one book together worth storing in some trunk that I will inevitably have to go through again (or my kids will with hopefully some form of nostalgia)

My folks keep just about everything.  I will prove it to you next month as they travel out here with a hanging lamp that my mom thought of while I was telling her there isn't any overhead lighting in the bedrooms.  Her exact comment was - I don't think I have seen it since Italy, but I'm sure we still have it....  of course they did! So does the new use for the light fixture justify its nearly 40 years of storage.  I guess maybe the picture will tell - stay tuned.

some of my favorite treasures so far -
rose bowl 1997-8 game AND parade ticket
Letter from Ryan Ehrler (never a boyfriend - just all around awesome guy) from Ranger School
Card from Diana after an interesting altercation (this card 'grounds me')
Letters from my sister while I was at camp - to include her graduation announcement as I missed it.
Deans list notice for college (yes, this is me bragging)
Copies of airline tickets to ROTC advanced camp - these hit the trash - pronto -
A letter from Rib saying the party they had Friday only required 1 keg and the person sleeping next to him was Vito
newspaper articles my folks saved from Kosovo as well as cards I had written

As my husband watched Rambo 2 (i cannot believe they made more of these horrible movies) I put them all in a scrap book and all the while I wondered the conversation my 3 boys would have when they stumble on this stuff.  Newspapers?  who prints this stuff?  Why would you write a letter?  Guess some things are worth keeping.

Time without stuff is time to enjoy right?

When does our stuff get here, who knows...  until than. lets enjoy these days.  We don't have a lot of 'stuff' and without stuff, there really isn't a lot of responsibility.  So we really just enjoy each other and what we have - foam blocks, a few race cars, books, walks to local parks, swim time and the gym (my savior). 

Chris's folks are a HUGE reason why this move is rather enjoyable.  From letting us tour around in their vehicle, fabulous meals and housing us quite wonderfully in their home - we are forever grateful in their relaxed hospitality.

But let me share a few photos of literally our final days in Germany - we (Rhett McDonough - THANK YOU) won a photo shoot with the creative services division of MC Dean.  She offered to meet us where ever so we choose our favorite playground in germany - the kliene gartner.  It was an overcast day and Shane won't smile...  but great memories just the same.

The fields behind us were covered, but i will rememeber them filed with asparagus, strawberries, wheat etc...

Nick is clearly a pro at this and the only one looking at the camera

At this point we are asking Shane if he intends to smile

His answer is no

O.k., maybe

I want to remember how simply Nick always smiled.  I also want to remember these boots.  He wore them EVERY DAY for months.  They were Tates and Niklaus taught him to criss-cross the velcro

My smiler

This tree house is literally built around a tree.  a place of many family memories - honestly, looking at this family photo, I cannot believe that it isn't a 10 minute walk anymore.  Gosh will we get back there?

Sweet baby Drew

Our efforts to make Shane smile caught on camera!

Drew was a bit easier

Shane is taking his big brother role VERY SERIOUSLY - this was my favorite photo by far.  He is almost cracking a smile - but I swear I see the big brother look in his face for the first time.

Now lets get them all in the picture -

And a few family photos  - wrap a ribbon around it and call it done - 3 years in Europe.  I cannot believe we packed up 3 years ago with just Nick - now we head home with Shane and Drew as well as some of the most amazing friends a family could ever ask for.  One of the things I remember thinking as we packed our bags for Germany was... the folks we would meet there would be open and friendly - I couldn't have been more right. 

Thank you to all those friends who welcomed us into your lives - we will never go away....  promise!

Here's hoping a few of us are in-laws someday - I mean, look at the cute dudes!  I must admit I have the cutest one =)

thanks to farrah

As an extension of our stay in California I have enjoyed waking up everyday and reliving it through Farrah's blog.  She took the time every day since we left to chronicle it all in detail.  I love it all and she remembers everything and records it so clearly.  I want to thank her for putting it all on paper (or what we call paper these days.... digits I guess) so please check it out.  What a labor of love and I thank you Farrah for doing recording our history

It starts here.

http://www.brianandfarrahmccullough.blogspot.com/2012/02/wednesday-january-25-they-arrive.html

More fun stuff

I was flipping through my photos and found a few great photos and events that I wanted to share.  First - Drew is rolling over - only bellie to back and its really a matter of swinging his rather large head - but he does it once and immediately wants to do it again.  He was a trooper through the travels and always a smiley baby.  I snuck in 2 fabulous naps with him while traveling.  Nothing beats waking up with a sweet baby dreaming away next to you.

This was open gym morning at the local gym.  It was a treat for Macy and Nick.  What a blast - I remember LOVING that as a kid and I think the kids enjoyed running, swinging, jumping.

Catch the dudes in action.  I love how nick runs without really moving his head.  So serious about moving fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gkibi2XFKQ

Macy and I managed to sneak in a little girl time.  I mentioned painting nails to Macy and her eyes just lit up.  I had to do it as she kept asking.  A 2 year old really doesn't understand later!  I got to enjoy time with just her on MWF as Farrah took the boys to school.  She has such a sensitive serious personality.  She speaks deliberately (where Shane tends to just speak) and it takes effort to get a hug from her - I am proud to say I got a few.  Nick got more, but I got a few.

Thank you to Farrah for being 1 of 3 moms that volunteer at Tate's kindergarden.  Her dedication lead to Nick being able to attend for a few days.  It was half days so Nick was thrilled to be part of the crew and it was great to expose him to the American School system.  We over heard him asking Tate if they spoke German or English.  English, how easy!

Here they are celebrating 100 days of school - 1 for Nick, but 100 for everyone else...  ok, 99 for Tate (he missed friday and maybe a few others....)

Dont you just love these 2?

Packing up and heading home

It's been wonderful living in fantasy land for over 2 weeks. There were many times we were able to forget about
- the horrendous move (Although i did spend some time speaking with the NY attorney general)
- the outrageous landlord in Germany (Chris is still making calls to work with floor repair men & power spraying options to appease the random demands of our landlady)
- and the upcoming unpacking in Virginia.

Staying with Chelcy I learned that everything has a place. Staying with Farrah I learned that that place can be anywhere (the crockpot found it's place in the downstairs bathroom). Moving can be viewed as a time when you learn new functions for your old stuff (or your decide your old stuff is crap). I enjoyed seeing things in farrahs home that I remember in different locations in Germany. Makes me wonder how our stuff with end up.

Thank you to Chelcy and Farrah for opening your homes to your homeless friends. From indulging us on local cuisine to snuggling up on the couch together I am thankful that your homes can feel like our homes.



We are lucky to spend the remaining time 'in-between' with chris's folks. They are wonderfully accommodating for our family and I think they enjoy a bit of the commotion for now.

Tonight is a special bonus as Chris's brother's family will join us for 2 nights. Wyland is just returning from an almost 10 month deployment (almost unheard of for the marines) and we will enjoy time with their family. The Leadbetter house will be busting at the seams, but the time together is truly precious!


Macy, say 'what'. Miss you already!

A tradition continues

Our first family sleep over was January 2010 at the McCulloughs in Germany. The super bowl started at midnight and it took hefty toothpicks to keep ourbeyes open though halftime. In 2011 the McCulloughs slept at our house. Does anyone remember the embarrassing photo that Brian posted on FB of Farrah and I couch snoozing before half time? Well it's 2012 and time for a new time zone. The 3pm kick off was too easy. We saw the entire game, loved halftme (all with the kids) and managed to get hooked on The voice, the show after the game. We have come a long way!!


One of the many reasons why we love the McCulloughs, their shared love for Peyton manning;)