This Old House

So, recently I've been checking out real estate on the internet...no, I don't know if we'll rent or buy again, but it sure is fun to shop! I've come to realize that some people really need to get a clue about clearing out clutter. Seriously, why would anyone be interested in a house that the realtor didn't even bother to have the home owner put all the bottles away on the bathroom counter or clear the dirty dishes out of the sink before the listing pictures were taken?! At any rate, it made me nostalgic about our old house, so I looked up our old listing and snagged our pics. It was just about this time of year last year that these were taken; it's amazing that so much has happen since then! I really do miss that house. C just wanted over to the computer and said, "I miss that house." See, I'm not the only one!

The entryway


The living room (in order, turning clock-wise from entry-way)


The dining room/school room (no pics of the office)


Kitchen (laundry is behind door by the yellow bench)



Master bedroom


Master bath


E's room (apparently we don't have pics of H's)


Back porch and yard (find the hidden E!)

It Hasn't Been a Year Yet!

Swirling in the back of my mind, I've been telling myself that I've can't let this blog go for an entire year without updating it. So finally tonight, I've returned and, look at that, I have 10 days to spare! Whoo-hoo!

Since you're here reading this, you know what a crazy past year it has been, but that is still no excuse for being such a slacker on such things. So this week, a crazy week of getting ready for, not only a week long vacation, but two sets of visitors (just parental types, so no tragedy if they arrive to a dirty house) I think I might try to go back and fill in some of the last year. It's probably just going to be pictures, but that will at least be something, right?!

A quickie update for anyone who might not be "in the know," C got promoted back to the job he had in P'cola, but now it's in Ocala. It sucks we had to take a detour to Tampa for 6 months to do it, but hey, he got more money this way, right! Oh, and we got to meet some really awesome people. Bummer part, we're moving again. I'm in no real hurry, C's job is an hour's drive away, so we'll see how fast we actually leave where we are. Yeah, if it were up to me, I'd just stay put, but it isn't really up to me is it. I'm just sayin'...

Our First Fatality

It was bound to happen. From the moment the hermit crabs came in to our lives, we had prepped the kids for their eventual demise. Well, today it finally happened.

After returning home from a birthday party at the local park this afternoon, E looked in the hermit crab box and exclaimed, "What happened to Car?" I glanced in the box and to my horror discovered a poor dismembered crab. All but one of his legs and claws were ripped off. Oh, oh, oh...not good. I pulled the little guy out and tried to shoo the kids away from the grisly site. Sure enough, Car was dead, or at least not alive enough to respond to me. I set him down and set about cleaning the cage. Grrr, I was so irritated at the other crab, Rosie, for doing such a horrible thing. I've since learned that if you don't have other shells in the habitat for the crabs to switch into, they will sometime fight each other and try to pull the other crab out of it's occupied shell.

Of course, this entire time the kids are hovering over my shoulder asking what happened. I made up some line about Car not feeling well so his legs fell off. That should give them nightmares the next time the have a tummy ache, right?! We all said goodbye to the sad little crab and put him in the garbage-no ceremony here, but no one seemed to mind. E was still a bit suspicious about what actually caused Car's death, but didn't push it in front of H. Instead, in words beyond her years, stated, "I know what really happened to Car. God decided it was his time to go to heaven." I don't think I could have said it better myself.

Flat Stanley Comes to Visit

This week, we volunteered to be a host family for our friend Emily's Flat Stanly project. While he was here,

he checked out some pumpkins with H:



he did home school with E:



he ate Sonic in the car with us:



and we took him to the beach:


Hope you had fun with our family Stanley, we'll miss you!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! Hope you were treated and not tricked.

Tonight we had the neighbors over for chili before taking all the kids out trick or treating. It was nice to hang out for a while enjoying everyone's company. After dinner we got the kids dressed. E was a princess (not one of the 'named" ones) and H was a puppy (he's declared that when he grows up he wants to be a puppy-who am I to dissuade him).

H was pooped before we even had dinner!




One to show the prom date:






After doing a thorough tour of the neighborhood to clean the all little old ladies out of candy, we came back to our house. There we had dessert, my evil pumpkin crisp (anything with a cup of butter should be outlawed). We took the time to peruse the kids bags to make sure there wasn't any really evil Chinese chocolate. We didn't find any, but we made sure to confiscate some suspicious looking Snickers bars. E was still in the holiday spirit and decided to man the door for any lingering trick or treaters. Our visiting buddy Flat Stanley from B'ham assisted.



Super fun night, our fabulous neighbors made it even more fun. Glad they could join us!

On the Move Again!

Well after waiting for news since July, we finally know what our future holds. On Monday C was offered two different jobs with the new M-C company. The first position is the DSM role (what he does now) in southern Alabama (Montgomery). The second job is a new job for the company as a supermarket channel manager in Tampa, FL. We've decided it would be best for his career to accept the job in Tampa!

We're not quite sure what all we're entitled to in relocation benefits, but we're getting ready to get the house ready to put on the market. For the last few days, we been cleaning closets and purging all the stuff we've managed to accumulate in the last year of living here. Hopefully, we can get this house sold, so we can start our new life in central Florida.

We're excited for things to come! I'll try to keep this blog updated.......

Baytowne Village Beer Fest

Another weekend, another festival. This week, we accompanied C to our home away from home, the Sandestin Resort for the Baytowne Villages Beer Festival. It was a two day event so we drove over on Saturday and just spent one night.

Check in was super quick. We were excited because we got to stay on a building that we had yet to say in, the Pilot House. I swear, the resort has so many building and accommodations, that we could stay at a new place every night of the month and not hit the same place twice!

C had to get his booth set up ASAP, so the kids and I did the only reasonable thing, we went shopping! We spent the afternoon at the Silver Sands Outlet Mall. This time of year is awesome because the stores have tons of clearance merchandise on top of all their regular stuff. I managed to score big time at Ann Taylor. There I purchased 4 skirts and 2 pairs of pants for $44 total. Even the sales girls said, "WOW!" You know you done good when the sales staff compliments ya!

The kids know the routine by now. If they let me do my shopping, they will be reward in three ways. The first is they get to play on the playground in the center of the complex. It's not much of a playground to speak of, but they seem to enjoy it. their second treat is they each get a cookie at Mrs. Field's cookies. I was a little worried that Mrs. Field's would no longer be open, due to their declaration of bankruptcy, but the retail gods still hold me in high esteem and the store was still there, allowing my bribery to continue! Their last little treat is a stop into Harry and David's. yup, free samples are hard to beat. The day we went in we each were given a peanut butter truffle. "Yummo!" H said, as he popped it in his mouth. For the next few minutes he wasn't able to say anything else. Yummo, indeed!





After a long day of shopping, we went back to the hotel for a little rest. Not too long after, C came back up to the room and we went around the corner to P.F. Chang's for dinner. I just learned that there is no "Mr. Chang." Not that I really thought there someone by that name, but P.F. stands for Paul Fleming, the dude who created Fleming's Steakhouse. Another note, after eating at the restaurant once, my Mom forever referred to the place as "B.J. Chang's." Anyway, we had a great meal and stuffed our bellies. I laugh, because my kids would rather gobble up salmon than noodles-good kids. As we were leaving the restaurant, we ran into some ladies from our church waiting to be seated. They were out on a ladies only weekend. It's always strange, but fun, to see people you know while you're far from home.



We all went back to the room. C helped me get the kids settled in bed and he went out with some of the other guys who were there for the Beer Fest.

The next morning, as it has become our tradition, we went to brunch at the local IHOP. It's become so ingrained in the kids that when we drive past an IHOP, some one always mentions it's where we eat when we go to the beach! Both of the kids ordered the super sized "create-yer-own funny face" pancakes. Check out their creations:

E doesn't eat bananas so you guess who's is who's.


After breakfast, we dropped C back off at the Fest and the kids and I hopped over to Jolee Island. I had read that there was a letterbox located there and we were going to go hunting for pirate treasure! We first crossed over the pee-inducing bridge to get to the island. For whatever reason, every time we cross this bridge, halfway over, H announces that he really, really has to pee. Thankfully, the island is full of little bushes!



We had a great time reading off the the letterbox clues and we're very excited as we neared the hidden location. Unfortunately, when we found the place where the box was supposed to be hidden, it wasn't there. Oh, well, that's one of the hazards of the sport. We managed to have a fun time on our journey anyway. We explored the rest of the island and stopped to play on the pirate's roost and the pirate's ship as always.





We still had a bit of time before it would be time to pick up C, so the kids and I did the only reasonable thing we could think of, we went to Target! They're always game for an Icee and popcorn.

When we were done shopping, we headed over to The Villages of Baytowne Wharf where c was working to let him know we were back at the resort. the kids and I went to go over to the playground but got sidetracked by the toy store and the always popular "big" chair:




By the time we were done messing around, C found us and let us know he was about done with the Fest and would meet us at the entrance after we picked up the car. Sure enough, 15 minutes later, he was where he was supposed to be and back home we went.

It was a nice weekend, especially as a bit of a stress reliever, as it took our minds off the M-C joint venture happenings for a while. If C is going to lose his job this coming week, at least we had one last nice weekend on the company's dime.