Step 2

Well, I am back in Salem. I have settled into my friends Dan and Mary McIntier's home and Alexander is sleeping. Tomorrow starts the first of many busy days I will have this next two weeks. I really am not going to have much time to relax, especially this first week. With two weddings next weekend and renters to get moved into the house, my schedule is full. For those of you in town, let me know if you want to get together before I go because if I don't know you want to, I might not get a chance to make time for you.

-Here's to fun adventures!!

My second week in Washington

I know that the only people who can understand the difference in the following pictures are people who have been to my parents house, but Meghan said I should post them anyway. I spent the second week of my visit to my parents house redecorating their upstairs bathrooms. Both rooms were white with no decorations. The master bath had a blue rectangle on the back wall that looked like a bad design off Trading Spaces. Both my parents have always said they wished they had nice bathrooms to enjoy. So I decided that if they had a little extra money to spare I would do something for them before I left. I designed, shopped, painted, and decorated both bathrooms in fives days, mostly only working on Alexander's naps. I did have help. Kenny helped paint the guest bath, Kiley did a little painting in both baths, plus helped me put the decorations out, mom helped paint the master bath and watched Alexander when I needed to finish something up, and dad helped me put the screws in the walls so that I knew things were safe. I had a lot of fun and I am so happy that they let me do it.

Brown accent wall with freshly painted mirror and shelf to match

New picture, bath mat and fixtures

New mirror frame, shelves, picture and matching fixtures
Most everything in the picture I reused from what they already had

New shower curtain, rug, and towels

Another Fun Day

It has been very hot here, so we have been doing what we can to cool off. Yesterday we went to Mud Mountain to play in the water and on the playground. Alexander did a lot better with going in the pool than he has, but he really did not like going under the the water mushroom. It was really fun seeing his face light up after we would go down the slide, and watching him kick his feet and splash his hands in the water. He is becoming more fun to play with everyday.

Our humble abode

Here are a few pictures of our tiny apartment in Pittsburgh. Other than window coverings, blankets, the pack-in-play and Alexander and me. There will not be many changes once we get there. It is a huge change from our house, but it will work for four months. This morning we met online with Josh and talked on the web cam. It took Alexander a little bit to figure out what was going on. But once he realized it was dad talking to him he started saying hi and blowing kisses.

I am excited to get there, we miss Josh a lot.

Living room

Kitchen

Bedroom with the one bathroom to the right

Playing with Kiley

Alexander has been having so much fun playing with his cousin Kiley. They play from the time they get up until the time they go to bed. Kiley also gets excited when he gets up from his naps, she wants to come with us to do everything, and she helps me get him dressed. I know things are different with boys and girls, but it really supports my idea about having another baby and the fact that Kiley is the exact age difference that I want really helps support my plans. Here are a couple pictures from the last few days.

Step 1

This morning we made the first major step towards our masters adventure. Josh and I were up at 5 am and out the door to drop him off at the SEA-TAC airport. It was very hard for me to put Alexander down for bed last night knowing he would not be able to play with his dad for almost a month. It was expected that I would be sad dropping him off at the airport. But we are so excited to get things going since we have been working/preparing for this for several months now. It just does not make being away from him for so long any easier. We have been together for 11 years now and it will be hard to not have him with us.

I will keep everyone in the loop as things unfold.

First Family Camping Trip

Nap time

Hanging out by the campfire

So we had a really fun time on our short camping trip this weekend. We really should have stayed home and finished packing but we wanted to spend as much time with some of our friends as we could. Even though I forgot just about everything, we had fun. In fact, if you look at all the things that went wrong, you might think I'm crazy for saying that, but it was more humorous than anything. Here let me give you a sample...
1. Directions to the camp ground
2. Wipes for Alexander's bottom
3. Matches or a lighter
4. Napkins, paper/cloth towels
5. Anything to clean Alexander up
6. Soap (dish or body)
7. I had nothing to wash our dishes after I cooked
8. Taggie (Alexander's sleeping blanket)
9. Stroller
10. The jelly to make the PB and J's sandwiches for lunch.
11. Rain gear (we looked at the weather before we left and knew that it was suppose to rain)
12. We forgot to put the rain fly on the tent so when it started raining at 4:30 am I woke up with my face getting wet.
AND
when the baby crying medially started at midnight Alexander decided to be the chorus to the other babies. What I mean by this is that when one baby would cry, he would wait until they were done then start. Then when the next baby would cry, he did the same thing. There were three other children in this song and he was just right in there helping wake up the next child.

This truly was a fun night. Alexander had fun playing with his friends. I had my first run with Tonka Toasters, very good I am hooked. We have fun conversations around the camp fire after the kids were to bed and laughted a lot. We are going to miss our friends (and family Matt and Meghan!) very much. Thanks you guys for sharing you stuff with us, we would not have made it through without you...

I will post all the pictures on my facebook once I get settled at my parents this week.

Afternoon Nap

The last two weeks have been especially tiring for me. I have been trying to get everything in order to move across the state, then out of the country, pack the house, help plan seven weddings, work a couple early mornings a week for Artapart, and take care of a teething toddler (who in the last five days has decided to get up between 6 and 6:30 am). Well finally today, after two weeks of not having the chance, I got to take a nap in the afternoon. It could have been more restful, but what mother would complain about this...


I will let you know that at this point I was not actually sleeping. Josh had come home and woke me up. He wanted to take a picture and since the room was so dark I closed my eyes as to not be blinded by the flash, plus I think it makes for a sweeter memory anyway. We slept like that for about 45 minutes before we had to get up for dinner. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my son!!! (And my husband for taking the picture).