No pods

They don't have the service in my area. That just sucks. So today I go down to find a storage unit to rent. I've got boxes scattered through-out the whole house. I have wrangle with my dh about what goes and what stays. He wants to keep some insanely large pieces of furniture. I want to keep a few boxes of books. I would compromise on the books if he would compromise on the furniture. We had a small talk about it last night so we will see what comes of it.

I thought about having a yard sale but that just seems like so much work and the only time I would have to hold it is in the middle of the week. Who goes to a yard sale on Wed? So I will be getting tax deductions care of Goodwill.

Moving again

No big surprise there. We will be headed to lovely central Washington, within a couple weeks most likely. Dh is heading up there tomorrow to check out the job and plan and whatever things he does to prepare for a new job, order parts?? I am not exactly sure but it requires planning and organization two things which I am sorely lacking. Both of which are kicking me in the butt right now as I get ready to move. I have boxes and boxes of stuff. Did I mention that I have a small tendency to be a pack rat? But I am overcoming that, the local freecycle and Goodwill are my friends. Now if people would come when they say they are going to but that's another matter.

No pictures of my mess but there has to be a better way. Has anyone tried one of those Pods storage things? I was thinking that would be nice since they deliver it. We have some family pieces of furniture that we have to put into storage but I'm not that attached to much else. Except my books, if I've read them why is so hard to get rid of them? There are few books that I will read again and again. Most of them I would consider reference books (love Dr. Sears!). But really how many reference books do I need, and do I really need to keep my A&P and Chemistry text when I won't be finishing school until Journey start Kindergarten at least. Help, my name is Elaina and I have a problem. I hoard useless books!

At the Beach

We went for a little camping trip to the coast with my mom, dad, sister, niece, and of course all of my kids. Poor dh was working so hard that he couldn't make it. We went to a wildlife park on Sat. The kids had a blast! There were a lot of little babies there, and tons of animals that you could pet and hold.

Then on Sunday we did a little shopping, of course, there were three women! Then went to the beach. Everyone got covered in sand, wet and a little sunburnt.


I think I should get postcards made, what do you think? A little thing I did for dh, I missed him. We went to the coast on our honeymoon so it's always special.

We will be heading out in our land yacht to lovely Central Washington here soon. I'm going to miss all the friends that we've made here. We will come back and visit though. I'm packing since we've been in a real house for the past several months we've accumulated a bunch of junk! I can't believe how fast it piles up. My 5 rubbermaid totes of just fabric surely doesn't help. It's hard choosing what goes into storage and what we take with us. All this packing reminds me of when we first started. I wrote a little poem about it way back then.

Jen I'm working on it, you wouldn't be interested in reading timelines, and outlines and notes though.

I spend way too much time here!

The "P" Word

Potty training, okay it's actually two words. We are getting to this point now with Journey. The other day he was having some nakie time and told me that he had to poo. And unbelievably he actually did, several times. He'd poo, look in the potty chair, empty it out into the toilet then sit and do it all over again. About 5 times. A couple hours later he went on the potty again. Quite a feat for a not quite two year old.

Now you think I'd be jumping for joy but I'm actually kind of sad. I'll miss my pretty diapers. I know I'm a weirdo. But it's also a sign that he's growing up, that he's not a baby anymore. That's what really makes me sad.

I asked him this morning if he was my baby or my big boy. He said my baby. Wahhh! Why do they have to grow up so fast?!?

Random Pics

See Smoky was right, always make sure that your campfire is completely out. This is so much more dramatic in the spring/summer. When there isn't snow on the ground. The amount of devesation is just amazing. Journey took a picture of me. I'm not sure why it ended up all red. I have not edited this except to rotate it.

Covered Bridge. I really love the little town where this is and would love to finally settle down there. It's pretty close to all our family without being close enough that they are over at our house all the time.

How come no one told me?

All this time it has said "The nomadic life of a almost normal family". I can't believe no one corrected my grammer before now. I've had it like that for what almost a year now. I'm sure it wouldn't bother a normal person but that's just gonna annoy me now.

Potty time and claymation

Well I got Journey a potty. It's kind of sad because it's one more step towards him growing up. He likes to sit on it but has yet to "do" anything in it. He is telling me when he goes. Also when he's running around naked he makes pissing sounds like he's going. Boys! So he's interested, lets see how long this takes though. Mckenzie wasn't fully potty trained until he was almost four and Sapphire was just three.

On a totally different note Sapphire has taken up an interest in claymation. She loves to do art projects. Has been making these great tiny incredibly detailed litttle things for the longest time. Well she started making flip books after reading Captain Underpants. I told her that she could to the same kind of thing with her clay. So now she's running off with my camera all the time. It's really cute. She needs to work on some fundimentals, such as the camera should be in the same place everytime you take another photo, that way they actually look like they are moving. But she's figuring it out. I think I need another software program so that I can put them all together to make a little movie. I just slideshow them now. Any ideas on this would be great.

Name Two

Two Names You Go By 1.Elaina 2.Lainy

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:1 Jeans 2. Tank

Two Things You Would Want (or have) in a Relationship 1. Trust 2. friendship

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:1.Beat my dh at cribbage 2. Read a good book

At The Moment:1.Watching American Idol 2. Eating Popcorn

Name two people who will fill this out: Probably no one

Two things you ate today: 1. Clam Chowder 2. M&Ms

Two people you Last Talked To:1.My Mom 2. Randy

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:1.Sewing a couple diapers 2. Laundry

Two longest car rides: 1.Mexico 2.Montana

Favorite Holidays:1.Halloween 2.Christmas

Two favorite beverages:1.Hot and Spicy tea 2. Cranberry rasberry juice

Two of your favorite things to wear:1.Jeans 2.Boots

Two songs you love to listen to: 1. The lighthouse by Nicklecreek 2.The Christans and the Pagans by Dar Williams

Fun in the Snow

As much as I complain about the snow and the cold the kids love it. My inlaws were over this weekend. I'm lucky, I don't have the dreaded inlaws. I just love them to pieces. We had so much fun playing in the snow. We made snow men and sledded. My father in law even tried to snow board. I will hand it to him he stayed upright. Better than I. Kenzie kept getting cold and running back inside the house. He kept taking his gloves off. But Sapphire will stay outside all day long if I let her.

Sick

For the last two weeks someone in this household has been sick, constantly. I am just tired. Journey is sick now, poor thing. Coughing, snotty nose, fever...just icky. As a result he's been having trouble sleeping and so have I. Someone send some healthy household vibes my way. I could use them.

Visitors

In our backyard, taken by my budding photographer, Sapphire.

Been Busy

Can you be busy and lazy at the same time? I don't know it seems like I'm always doing something and yet nothing is ever getting done. The house is always a mess and the pile of laundry to fold is taller than me. Of course that's not a hard feat with my stature.

Sapphire loves the snow and is always outside. Kenzie however takes after me and hates the cold and whines after about 10 minutes outside. Journey like to see the snow and be outside but doesn't like to touch it or walk in it. So I end up carrying him around.

There is a small mound of dirt around the side of the house from construction of the house. It's perfect for sledding with the little ones. It's only about 4 ft. tall and not very steep. So we got a few sleds. Theres a three person plastic one that I take Journey down the hill with me on. He loves it and says "weeee" the whole way down. However we had our first sledding accident today. Not serious but the plastic sled has kind of sharp side and Kenzie scraped some skin on his finger. It was awful for him though. He kept crying that this is the worst day ever. Of course once he had a bandage on he was running around playing as if nothing happened.

Update

So we've settled down in our new house. Well new to us at least. It feels so huge after being in that little trailer. In fact the master suite is about the same square footage as our whole trailer! I don't know how we are ever going to get back in the trailer when our lease runs out. It'll really feel tight after this.

The kids are loving thier own rooms, making a mess of them and we are constantly fight to keep them clean but they're kids so what's new. We had a great Christmas and New Years. Went down to visit with all the family and had a great time. I got my butt kicked playing a new card game but of course Randy won. So I lost my money but since Randy won the pot I got it back in a round-about way.

We had a quiet New Years with just the kids and us at home staying up late eating junk food and watching TV.

Sapphire is learning cursive, which she thinks is just stupid and squiggly lines. Still for all her arguing she's doing well. She's working on multiplication and division, she does really well with fact families but not so good with testing. But it's just something you have to memorize so she'll get it eventually.

Kenzie is off the wall as usual. We have a ton of snow but he hates getting cold so he's cooped up quite a bit. He's learning to write his letters and loves to read books.

Journey is talking up a storm. Speaking in full sentences and really letting you know what he wants. He suprises me all the time. I think the first full sentence he said was "I want candy" He cracks me up. He such a little comedian. He's always making silly faces or putting things on his head like hats.

We don't have internet service right now. Hope to have some by the end of the week. I'll update more later when I have the chance. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year ahead of you.

Let it snow

I don't know how well I am going to adjust to this colder weather. I do not do well in the cold, my bones ache and I just get generally grumpy. But the kids love it. They are really looking forward to having a lot of snow. I am wishing that dh had gotten sent to Arizona. It was -2 the other night. Seriously, it's just barely November, not even techinically winter. Brrrr. I tried to get all three of them to just stay still and look at me long enough to take a picture. Ha what a joke. I have immense respect for portrait photographers now. It was just a little snow but
there were already several car accidents. And you should have seen the line at the tire place. The whole parking lot was filled with cars and then the net two blocks. Just outrageous. I don't think I'll be getting studded tires anytime soon.

On better news we will probably be moving next weekend. I can't wait to get into a real house, get to take a bath in a real tub, cook in a real oven, instead of one that's a step up from a doll house. I'll be sure to post some pics once we get moved in. It'll be pretty bare, we don't have much furniture stored so we'll have to shop around for somethings like a couch. I don't care if I have to sit on the floor, it'll be a real house. Yah!

Little Update

We are somewhat settled here in Central Oregon. We are looking for a house to rent. We'll be here for 6 months probably and I am getting really cramped. It's kind of hard to think that we've been doing this for a year. I remember when we first bought the trailer and started traveling that I wondered if it was going to work. I worried about there being room for Journey to learn to crawl and walk. I worried about the lack of privacy, can you believe that there weren't locks on any of the interior doors? Who doesn't have a lock on thier bathroom door? I was afraid of burning myself every time that I lit the stove, I must have jumped back a couple inches each time.

So now we are used to it and it feels like home. It's a distant memory living in a realy house. And I get my husband home every night. I think that this whole thing has brought us a lot closer together, and not just physically. We rarely fight anymore. It's odd that we'd spend so litle time together before and spend half of that bickering. I think that the financial strain of the rental and such being gone has helped a lot. At least as far as I am concerned. Of course we still argue about what a slob I am. But it seems that we are both getting back to basics in a sense and connecting more. Who would have thought that living in a travel trailer and moving every few months would be good for a family?

Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awarness

I'm lighting a candle for all the lost babies, including my own. We all have different ways of dealing with loss. I guess writing about it helps me. I was hard getting prenant after losing a child, each time was different. There was a certain guilt because it could have been prevented, just a little stitch and my baby would have lived. I guess I still live with that. I don't know if you believe in reincarnation but there was a feeling that my baby came back to me.

Happy Birthday Sapphire

Dark lashes spider walk across pale cheeks
Freckles dance between the webs
Spinning dreams behind eyelids.

Snuffling breath shallow in your chest
Whistling through your missing teeth
Giggling sighs under tangled sheets.

I cherish the moments of angelic serenity
That are missing in the daylight,
As I watch you while you sleep..

I can't believe it's been 9 years. I still remember the first time I saw you, all blue and purple over the sheet for the few moments before they wisked you off to the NICU. I was so scared and so in love with you. When I finally got to hold you I just stared, you were such a miracle. One that I wasn't expecting and didn't think I'd have. I count my blessings everyday. You are still my miracle. I love you.

A Last Look At Summer

The park that we are staying in has an outdoor pool. All summer long the kids have been swimming in it. It's great. You should see little Journey. The first time that I put him in the water he immediately started doggy paddling. He was litterally pushing himself out of my arms trying to swim around the pool. It was just instinctive. I call him my little water puppy.

Kenzie has started swimming without his lifejacket. He swims like a mermaid. Both legs together kinds of waving along. He only swims under water. He has yet to learn to bring his head up to breath and then go back under. So he'll swim to you or along the wall where he can touch.
.

Now Sapphire is scared of the water. She's the only child that's had swimming lessons yet she won't swim where she can't touch. She will only doggy paddle and is completely resistant to me or dh trying to teach her any other way. We worked out the goal that if she swam all the way from one end of the pool to the other that she could have a pool party. Well the pool is now closed for the season and no party. I'm sad because I don't want her to miss out on things because of fear. Still she loves the water, she just can't really swim