Zoo Time

Wyatt and I recently went to Des Moines (while Rex was in school) and I took him to the zoo.  We had a wonderful day together- we saw goats, otters, penguins and a bunch of other animals.  They even had a play area and a train ride too!  There isn't too much to tell about it but we got a lot of good pictures.  I'll let them tell the story this time.

We went out to lunch afterwards then came back home to pick up Rex from school.  We still haven't told him about our special day- no need to upset him!  He has been to the zoo before, by the way, so he isn't missing out too much.  He is usually the one telling stories about school or fun trips he got to go on so I think it was definitely Wyatt's turn.  It was beautiful weather that day and we just had such a fantastic day!

Blogger Funk

So I have had no desire to blog at all for the last month or more.  Sorry about that.  We have plenty going on to share, I just don't have a lot of time to sit down at the computer and share.  I will try to be better and I'm going to set the goal (once again) of blogging every Monday.  Let's see how I do this time.  I should at least blog as practice for typing because without going to work and typing reports for the last five years, my typing is suffering.  I'm slow.  And I make more than my share of typos.

At least one person in our house has been sick for the last month.  Rex brought us home a cold from his second week of kindergarten and we've been struggling ever since.  First mine turned into the most awful sinus infection I've ever had.  Then Rex had a double ear infection which also gave him a bloody eye- he looked like he went a round with Mike Tyson or something.  It was bad but the eye drops from the doctor cleared that part up in like a day.  Now Wyatt has a cold again and his right ear is infected.  He coughs so much, my poor baby.  He is getting better though too.  Hopefully Rob can stay healthy- he's done good so far!- and the rest of us will all be better soon.  With all the doctor visits we've had lately, the boys and I have gotten our flu shots out of the way so that is one good thing about all this.  Here we all are, happy despite being sick (I think Rex and I were both pretty bad at this point).

Wyatt has two big goals he needs to accomplish and we finally knocked out one of them.  I decided probably six months ago that when his current pacifiers (he had four) were lost or destroyed, that was it.  And don't you know, those last four would not die???  We lost one of them but those last three were indestructible and un-loseable.  I finally just had to tell Wyatt, "It's time for the papas (what he called them) to go.  You are a big boy and those are for babies.  Throw them out and I will take you to buy a new toy."  He took one last hit off of them, and they were gone.

As promised, we headed out to the store where he picked out some new Thomas the Train stuff to expand his train empire.

Now to get him potty-trained.  I wonder how much that is going to cost us in new toys!!  He is so resistant to using the toilet.  Please say your prayers for us- we need them!

Since Wyatt starts preschool next year, I've been giving a lot of thought to what my next move will be.  Going back to work and making money certainly holds a lot of appeal but I have always wanted to go back to school to get my masters in urban and regional planning.  I've been talking to our closest university that has that program to see if we can make it work and it turns out, we can!  So I'm now in the middle of applying to grad school for Fall 2014.  My application isn't due until February 1st but I want to get it done early and turned in asap.  I need to get all my college transcripts and letters of recommendation too which is proving to be difficult.  My two former planning managers that I would like to write letters for me have both retired and moved on and it is taking a little while to get in touch with them.  It's a good thing I have a lot of time to do this!  Although I've met with staff and faculty already, I'm attending an official Open House event next month that I am really looking forward to.

In other career news, I am taking the AICP exam to be a certified planner.  That test is on November 11th.  So if you say a prayer about the potty-training, please add this request in too.  It's not cheap and it's not easy so I would really like to pass on my first try.  Since I don't have a planning degree, I've had to study extra super-duper hard to learn all the material.  I will sooo be ready on the first day of grad school, let me tell you!  IF I can remember all this material by next August ;-)

In a last bit of news, we have lots of trips to California planned- some soon and one (the big family one) that we are still working on.  Rob will be going out later this month to race and I will be going to LA to visit my lovely friends Nanette and Tricia in November.  I have yet to meet the adorable Mimi (Nanette's youngest daughter who will be almost 9 months old when I'm there) and I couldn't pass up the chance to see pregnant Tricia!  I am way excited.  And I get to eat In-N-Out Burger.  And Versailles.  Oh boy, my mouth is watering already.  AND there is lots of estrogen time and shopping and all that girl stuff.  I love all my dudes, but it will be nice to be around girls for a few days!  Finally, we are all planning on coming out next summer.  I am shooting for around the July 4th holiday but we will have to see how that all works out.  I will be sure to keep everyone posted on that.  Thanks for reading and check back next Monday because (hopefully) I will have more for you then!

Here are a few more funny pictures of the boys just because.  Just because they are adorable!!!

HUGE Milestone Today- Rex's First Day of Kindergarten!

Well, it is finally here- Rex's first day of kindergarten!  Wow.  We have been counting down all summer- literally. We wrote out the countdown on our calendar so Rex could see every day how many days were left.  Two weeks ago, we found out who his teacher was and I had a little orientation meeting to attend.  Then this past Thursday he had kindergarten orientation where he could see his classroom, meet his teacher and see where everything was around the school.

All weekend we heard about how much longer there was until Monday morning.  I would be shocked if the kid got more than 3 hours of sleep last night.  He was that excited.  I was too- I know it took me forever to wind down and get to sleep last night.  It was fun to get out his little firetruck lunchbox last night and make my son's lunch that he was taking to school in the morning (he has half of a turkey sandwich, cheez-its, nectarine, go-gurt, orange juice and a granola bar if anyone cares- and I don't expect him to eat much today but I wanted him to have options).  So we were off to school this morning.  Rob had a big morning at work so he left around 6:00 a.m. then came back in time for all of us to walk Rex to school.

When we got to school, it was a giant cluster of kids trying to line up to go inside and parents wanting to watch every last second before they disappeared inside the school building (yes, Rob and I are included in that group).

I got him over in the right line, told his teacher good morning, gave him a kiss and of course, started crying.  It was just such a big moment- though you wouldn't have known it by looking at Rex.  He acted all cool, like this was just what he did everyday.  No big deal.  No crying or melting down from that guy.  There was plenty of that going around from his little brother though.  I think everyone there heard Wyatt yelling, "I wanna go to kinnergarten!!"  I had to carry him away screaming and crying because he did not want to leave.  That turned out to be not so bad because it kind of snapped me out of my little teary-eyed moment and back to reality and dealing with him.  It was the longest walk home EVER.  Then we took Rob to work and once we got back home, I think it turns out Wyatt is enjoying his time as King of the House.  No one steals his toys, he gets to pick whatever he wants during tv time and, best of all, we are going to the pool later.  That right there really cheered him up.  On to our new adventures!

Where the Wild Boys Are

The wild boys are here.  It's been a long time since I blogged so here is a recap of their latest adventures.

Rex's birthday

Play Pals at city gym on Friday mornings.  Apparently they love it because we are always counting down to Fridays when we can go again!

Swimming lessons for Rex-

We try to go to the aquatic center (our super-fancy city pool) once or twice a week.  It has a lazy river, waterslides and a special toddler/little kid area.  And a snack bar, which is where this picture was taken.

Firefighters are big around here.  The library had one of their story times at a fire station which was so awesome for the boys.  And then there is Wyatt, pretending to be a firefighter in our front yard.

We spruced up the playroom (which used to be Wyatt's room) and now most of their toys are in there.  We even made a little play kitchen for them as seen on Pinterest and, well, everywhere on the internet.  But this way they got a manly kitchen and it was cheap.

They mostly love to pretend to wash things in the sink and turn that faucet off and on.  There was major disappointment that it wasn't a working faucet but they got over it. I bought the old entertainment center from craigslist for $10, spent $5 on contact paper for the "countertop" and $6 for the bowl which became their sink.  The faucet was found by the side of the road for free (someone put out their old bathroom cabinets, countertop and sink so we helped ourselves to the faucet).  Not bad.

I don't have any 4th of July stuff to share because we pretty much skipped right over it.  We didn't go anywhere or have people over- we were busy with our front yard project.  The local fireworks show wasn't even on July 4th, it was the next night, but we did watch the fireworks on PBS and NBC.  We thought about going watch fireworks the next night but Rex was too tired- they don't start until about 9:45 pm here- so we stayed home and put him to bed.  Wyatt was still awake but winding down quickly.  Things have been pretty busy around here but hopefully it won't be another month before I get another opportunity to blog again!

Our Front Yard Makeover

I have never loved the way the front of the house looked.  It had some parts I loved (the orange side door and the stone facade) but there were a lot more things I didn't like when we bought the house.  Let's call them out, shall we?

Plants that were taking over the house
Orange-y/Pink-y rail fence and porch deck
Gingerbread house style screen door
Brick paver walkway
House numbers
Mailbox

The plants were tamed/removed very soon after we moved in because I couldn't take it.  I remember my  mom saying to me, "Oh, I didn't even realize you had all that beautiful stone on the front of your house because I couldn't ever see it!"

So it was a lot better just after that but the screen door, porch and fence had to go and about a year or two later, we got all that done and then it looked like this.

Things were pretty good at this point, especially in the spring with the tulips blooming.  The new storm door looked great as did the new deck/porch Rob built.  We still had the old black mailbox and house numbers which caused me many fits- I had a really hard time figuring out what to do.  I don't want to share our address so I won't put up pictures of the numbers but trust me, they were bad.  I bought some new ones that I LOVED but they were too big for the space above the door.  That didn't turn out to be so bad because our neighbors put up the exact same ones.  That would've been embarrassing.  I turned my attention to finding a new mailbox (which led to a numbers solution) but it was so difficult.  First I painted the black one orange to match our orange door that I love.  Whoa, bad idea.  It looked terrible.  Rob had a cow.  Oops.  So then I bought a cheapy brass one at Lowe's thinking it matched the brass on the storm door and it would look all tied together but I hated it.  I really wanted a statement piece that said, "HELLO!  We like modern design and have a cool 1950s modern ranch house."  All the mailboxes that said that were very very expensive.  This one was my favorite and at $275, didn't seem so bad (compared to the $600+ ones I had been in love with).

I really liked that it had the house numbers on it already (this one isn't ours, just the example from the Etsy listing). I was seriously thinking about ordering it when Rob suggested contacting a local metal fabricator and seeing if I could get it made right here at a cheaper price.  I found someone and it came out great!  And cheaper!!  And they gave me the cutout numbers to use above the door for our address numbers!!!  It is just raw steel so it is rusting a little and looking really cool now.  Once we got that taken care of, then I really had to do something about the landscaping and the horrendously un-modern brick walkway.  We decided to frame out the planter bed area and do all new plantings.  We rented a rotary tiller yesterday to make re-grading and planting go a little smoother.  It wasn't easy, but it was a lot faster.  Here it is after that was completed.

We replaced the brick with a grey paver path and added some lighting and pea gravel around the edges.  And now, it is a million, gazillion times more our style and better looking and complements the house.

There are still a few minor things to be done but that's about it.  We sat out on the step last night and just talked and looked at it for probably 30 minutes.  Then the mosquitos found us so we went back inside.  We are so happy with it though and really love the new landscaping and hardscaping and the change it made to the whole house.

Our First Graduation Experience

Rex had his preschool graduation yesterday.  It wasn't much really, just a slideshow of their year and some cupcakes, but it still hit this mommy pretty hard.  Is it all just going to fly by and soon enough I'll be sitting at his high school graduation and watching him go off to college?  I can hardly watch Toy Story 3 because it's too hard for me to watch Andy pack up his room and toys and go away to college!  I can't even imagine what a basketcase I will be when it is happening with my own children.  Anyhow, it was a nice day and I really enjoyed seeing all the photos of what Rex and his classmates did all year.  Here are Rex and Wyatt eating some cupcakes.

Apparently Rex is sticking with being a doctor when he grows up.  I know the kid is smart enough.  He can read anything and then he told me the other day, "Mom, 5 plus 5 plus 2 is 12."  Yes it is, genius 4 year-old.  I'm feeling a little sorry for his teachers because they are going to have a hard time keeping him interested when he is so smart and things are so easy for him.

So that is about it for the graduation.  I took the boys to lunch afterwards and let Rex pick so we ended up having a celebratory bean burrito for lunch.  Yay.  He still has one more day of school (today) and I need to pick him up soon so I better wrap this up quickly but I think I have time for a little bit more sharing.

The weather has been so rainy lately.  And trust me, I am not complaining.  Last year was so dry and hot and it felt like being in California again.  It's nice to feel like Iowa again.  Everything is so green and beautiful and fresh.  It's great to have the windows open all the time.  I think I've still been using the heater more than the air conditioning!  We've had some nice sunny days too.  Unfortunately, it hasn't been warm enough to go to the aquatic center (I'd say pool, but it's a lot fancier than that) so there has just been play time in the backyard so far.  Here's a little bit of Rex playing baseball.

He bats left-handed and I have no idea where he gets that from.  He also tries to golf left-handed.  He eats, writes and does everything else with his right hand though.  Now I really do have to go pick him up from his last day of preschool though so I better get going!

Wyatt's Birthday and Room Makeover

So I'm already late with last Sunday's post but I have very good reasons.  Last Sunday was Wyatt's birthday and I was busy celebrating with my little guy- when we weren't hiding out in the basement because the tornado sirens were going off.  Yikes! It was quite a day and definitely left no time for blogging.

Other than the craziness of the tornado about 10 or so miles south of us, it was a fun birthday for Wyatt.  I have to say, it was a pretty laid back day.  We made him a special breakfast and then took him to play at the park.  He got a Taco Bell burrito for lunch (which he loves) and "spahdeddy" (that's Wyatt for  spaghetti) for dinner.  There was also a cake with a fire truck and fire station on it that was a big hit.

He got tons of gifts and toys and has been busy fighting with his brother over them for the last 5 days or so.  There is a fishing set and a red motorcycle that are at the top of the list.  The biggest excitement for the weekend was his new big boy bed that he got on Saturday.  I think it is safe to say he loved it.

The plan up until that day was to keep them in their own rooms but once Rob got home with the bed, I had the idea that Wyatt might do better with the transition if he and Rex were in the same room.  We talked it over and decided to put both their beds in Rex's room and turn Wyatt's room into a playroom.  We worked hard and got the bedroom mostly set up.  Here is how it is looking by now.

We still have to do something about the red curtains and get some stuff on the walls.  I'm just glad I bought them bedding that actually goes together because when I purchased it, I was not planning on having them in the same room.  But Rex's duvet has almost the same green color that Wyatt's has so it works.  I need to organize the giant bookshelf that is in their room still (and that's why there is no picture of that wall to share!) but I did get the clothes situation all figured out and got everything in this room.  That was not easy but they each ended up with half the closet and two drawers in the dresser.  Thank goodness they still have fairly little clothes!

We were going to start working on the playroom next but after lots of discussions, decided to wait a bit on that until after we hold a yard sale.  There is a lot of stuff in our house that we need to get rid of and the playroom makes an excellent staging area for the next few weeks.  Also, we can use the money from the yard sale to buy a new tv for the family room and move the old tv into the playroom.  Anyhow, we are putting together all our plans for that room now and hopefully will have something to actually show you in about a month or so.

5 1/2 Weeks

I seriously don't know where the time goes.  I can't believe my last post was April 4th- over 5 weeks ago!  I keep thinking I should making blogging a Sunday tradition and I am going to try.  Starting today, the plan is to blog once a week on Sundays.  Knowing me it will probably be Sundays for the first few weeks and then evolve into Mondays but here goes.  Sundays for now.

I can't remember too much in April but May has sure been busy.  And let's start with the snow we got on May 3rd.  That's right- snow.  Not a typo.  Here is our street.

It snowed a lot.  You can't really tell because it melted quickly- because it had been up to 82 degrees just a few days before.  Everyone is saying we were lucky the snow was so wet and it had already been warm because it could've been a foot of snow.  I think 5 inches was still quite a bit- for May.  It stuck around for a few days and now it is all back to springtime.  It was really crazy.

Now that Rob and I can both Facetime on our phones, I realized by looking at myself all the time while talking to him that my hair was in desperate need of some lovin'.  I made an appointment and got my hair cut last weekend.  Rob's parting words to me were to not go short.  I love the man, but I don't listen to him so good.

As it turns out, he is really into it after all.  Whew.  My hair is only capable of so much and long hair really isn't great for me.  I'm sure I will grow it out long again, but for now, I'm loving this.  (Side note- every selfie I took looked like I was trying to wink.  I'm sure it has something to do with me concentrating on pushing the button to take the picture and doing the semi-wink as I click it.  Lovely.)

Last weekend we invited some friends over for Cinco de Mayo.  I made carnitas, tres leches cake and refried beans from scratch and it was all delicious.  I was going to make up some horchata from my California horchata stash but it turned out we were busy drinking other Mexican drinks with a little more oomph to them ;-)  The adults anyhow.  The kids were busy with this-

I picked up a piñata at a party store for them and they LOVED it.  It was a last minute idea and I wasn't sure I could find one in Iowa without doing a lot of searching but they had one at the first place I checked.  I can make one but it takes a while and I didn't have the time for that.  I think we all had a great time and I will definitely be making my own beans again because they were awesome.

Rob decided to take off Thursday and Friday from work and have a 4-day weekend.  Sort of a mini staycation here at home.  And the past few days have been so much fun- he definitely needs to do this more often.  Thursday morning he took Rex to preschool then came back and picked me and Wyatt up and the 3 of us went out to breakfast.  I also got to take a little time off for me that afternoon while Rob watched the boys and I got a pedicure and got my nails done.  I must say, it feels wonderful to have them done again.  I used to do that all through my 20's but then stopped when we moved here.  I love having them and think I will keep them up from now on.  On Friday, Rex had a school field trip so it turned out that I was able to join them while Rob stayed home with Wyatt.  They spent the previous 2-3 weeks learning about butterflies so the trip was to a garden with a big butterfly house.

Those kids were all so dang cute!  I had a lot of fun.  And I'm a very proud mama- my kid was one of the best behaved.  He is such a good kid and I love him so much!!

Today is Mother's Day and it has been the best day ever.  Rob got up early and went out to pick up donuts for the kids and get my favorite cinnamon crunch bagel for me.  Yum.  I got to take my time getting ready (and paying bills- okay, that part kind of stunk) and then we headed over to the park to run around and play.  We walked back home and got in the car and went to Taco Bell for lunch.  My choice though heavily influenced by my children.  When I say we walked home to get in the car, we only had to walk about halfway because that is where our car is parked while they are redoing our road.  It stinks so bad.  I would be okay with it if our road actually needed it, but it was fine.  I told Rob it is part of the city's  "Fixing Perfectly Good Streets Program".  Sometimes, I think this town has more money than it knows what to do with.  Not that I'm complaining, they just do some weird stuff sometimes.  Like they get grant money and they just don't have enough to spend it on so they make up projects.  Free preschool?  Check.  Awesome library?  Tear it down and make it even more awesome!  Okay, what now?  Let's tear up some roads!  Okay!!

I guess that's enough of a tangent for now.  Rob and I have a date night tomorrow night to go to a banquet that he has to attend.  I think it will be fun and I even know one other person so that's good.  I met this other lady because she is the application coordinator for a nearby university because I'm going to go back to school!!  I'm seriously thinking about applying for Fall 2014 to get my Master's Degree in Community and Regional Planning.  I'm so so excited.  I'm about 90% sure we can make it work and I will be able to do this.  I've been busy figuring out requirements for getting into the program and costs and child care and everything that goes along with this.  It's long been in the back of my mind (since before we even moved to Iowa) to do this and I am beyond thrilled that I will be able to get that master's degree.  Anyhow, I am looking forward to date night and eventually, more school.  Exciting stuff around here!

Don't Even Know Where to Start

Life has been so incredibly busy for the last 5 weeks and I don't even know where to start.  I wrote about my sister's family's visit in my last post but I skipped over our trip to the Quad Cities area over the  first weekend of March.  One of Rob's best friends is a musician and recently started touring with Luke Bryan.  Swoon.

When Rob told me that, I said, "Well anytime you want to go see Jason and go to a Luke Bryan concert, you just let me know and we will be there!"  The closest they got to our house was the Quad Cities area so arrangements for tickets and hanging out were made.  One issue- our children.  There is no one to babysit that far away from home and so I ended up staying at the hotel with the boys while Rob met Luke Bryan.  Argh- my plan totally backfired!  Oh, and he also met everyone from Thompson Square and Florida Georgia Line and ate and drank for free all night.  The boys and I ate Taco Bell and watched Cars on our little tiny dvd player we brought with us.  Yeah.  Exciting trip- for Rob.  I got to see the Mississippi River for the first time so that was good, I guess?  I did have a good time getting out of town, it just wasn't quite as fun as I was hoping for.  Oh well.

After that was my sister and family's visit then Rob went to race in California and was gone 5 days.  We all missed him a lot and was so glad when he got back.  We both have iPhones now though so being able to do Facetime and talk and see each other helps a bunch.  Two days after Rob returned, my parents arrived for a week-long visit.  We honestly didn't do too much while they were here.  The weather was really cold and crappy.  Over the weekend though we did go to Des Moines to visit the West End Architectural Salvage store- if you are an HGTV fan, you may have seen their show before.  I have been wanting to go to their store for years but it took my mom seeing the show and suggesting it to finally get me there.  I knew it wouldn't be something the boys would like or a good place to take them (lots of breakables!) so I just never made it there because the boys are always with us when we go there.  This time though, Rob stayed home with them while my parents and I took a little trip.  I even got this badboy.

I have been wanting a library card catalog like that forever- probably since I first saw it in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment.  Can you see it way in the back there, near the "window"?

Well, I've never seen one anywhere to buy and when I found this little 10-drawer part of one, I took it.  Actually it ended up being a birthday present from my parents (thank you mom and dad so, so much!).  I have plans to put some legs on it and find a new top and use it for a side table in my living room.  So that trip was kind of my highlight of their visit.  Not just because of what I got, but because I got to spend the day out with them and have my full attention just be on them and not trying to be a mom first and then give them whatever I have left after that.  It seemed like their visit went really fast and I was very sad to see them go.  The boys keep asking about them, and Uncle Jim, Aunt Megan and Olivia so I think they miss all our visitors a lot.  Me too, boys.  Me too.

So that brings us to the past weekend which I knew would be a busy one with Saturday being my birthday and then Easter on Sunday.  The birthday started off great- I actually got to go to Des Moines by myself in the morning to pick up the card catalog and do a little shopping.  After being gone about 3 hours though, I was notified that the fridge at home was having some difficulties.  I ended up skipping the last few places I wanted to go so I could come home and see what was happening there.  We got some over-the-phone advice so Rob could try to figure out what the problem was and see if he could fix it since guess what? No one wants to come out and fix your fridge the Saturday afternoon before Easter.  Rob worked on it a lot over the next day and a half but we still ended up needing a repairman to take a look at it.  He came on Tuesday and will get the part he needed today and be back tomorrow to install it.  Crossing our fingers that solves the problem.  My birthday did have some bright spots though-

 They are both going through a no-shirt phase so I'm just thankful one of them at least had their shirt on for the picture.  In more good news, we decided to save a bunch of money on cable by getting rid of it. And for some crazy reason, when I called to cancel that but told them I wanted to keep internet service with them, they gave me a big price break on that by agreeing to a 2-year commitment.  Uh, okay!  It's not like we could give that up and there is no other decent provider around so that was a no-brainer.  We bought an Apple TV box and got Hulu Plus and are trying out Netflix right now but I think we'll probably keep both.  Since they are each only $7.99 a month, we are still way ahead financially on that.   No HGTV or ESPN but for the amount of money we are saving, it's okay.  I was a little skeptical on how well it would work and if it would stop and start a lot but once we moved the router to the middle of the house, it works like a charm.  I also had a tech guy come out yesterday to verify we got it all set up right and he took care of a few other things I couldn't figure out computer-wise.  Definitely worth paying him for 30 minutes of his time to get all my tech questions answered.

I think there was more I was going to share but my brain is all tired now from trying to remember everything about the last month.  And it is just about time to go pick up Rex from preschool so I better end this here.