Spring is sprung,
De grass is riz,
I wonder where dem birdies is?
De little birds is on de wing,
Ain’t dat absurd?
De little wing is on de bird!

Took some photos of the kids playing in the yard yesterday. Olivia was dressed quite fancy. She likes to pretend she is Shula Lula. Shula is fancy. And generally wears sunglasses. And sometimes has a southern accent. It is pretty darn cute. Jack was excited to look around wearing his binoculars. And brought out thousands of toys to bury in the sand. They LOVE playing in the sandbox.

This is about how they look after spending the day in the sandbox. I can remember barefoot summers and stubbed toes and knees. I can only hope my children too, can grow up loving the dirt. We will have lots of ground to cover up the North Shore’s of Minnesota!

Dirty Hands and Feet are Happy Hands and Feet!

My children have been so! naughty and whiny the last few days. Maybe me telling the internet will cure it! I swear they have been abducted and naughty little creatures have been put in their place.  I am tempted to call the goblin king to come take them away!

Watch out children David Bowie is coming to get you! I wish the kids were old enough to watch Labyrinth. Maybe a few more years. Although they like watching Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas and those are pretty creepy. I wish I did have another mother to tidy up and cook supper for us!

Bu.. Bu.. Bu.. Buttons?

We have a member of the United Van company coming to look at the house this FRIDAY! It’s coming along. The company moving our things called yesterday to get the ball rolling. They could be here as early as May 23rd to collect our belongings. Which cuts another week off our time here. The hospital will provide a full service move and unpacking. Although I might just unpack myself. They said they would put things in correct rooms and reassemble the beds and any other furniture. My heart is happy knowing things are moving along. And now that the weather is getting nicer things should move faster. Although.. they won’t. I need a project to keep my mind off the impending move.

The doctor visit was awful yesterday. It took forever. And Olivia was supposed to get four vaccines and they were out of two of them. So we have to come back next month. The kids were running around like wild animals waiting in that tiny little room for the doctor. And I couldn’t even complain to J, because he was just sympathizing with the fact that sometimes the doctors get busy. Blah! Whatever. What does he know about doctors anyways!

Both children are napping today. It is nice to have a quiet time. I picked up a copy of Water for Elephants. And finding it to be a quick and nice read. A few of the books I have picked up lately from the library sit on my bed stand till I force myself just to get through them, so they can be returned. Well back to reading. Hopefully I can enjoy this quiet time for at least an hour! Wish me luck…

While I welcome the warm weather. It was nice to play outside with the kiddo’s. 82 degrees and humid as August was not welcome. I got to take out Black Betty for the second time this year.I love this bike. It makes me smile riding it up and down the street. The kids love going for rides in their bike trailer. Although yesterday they kept yelling “faster mom, its hot!” I can’t wait till they can ride bikes along side me. The trailer sometimes acts as a sail and works against me. It makes for a good workout though! My training watch has a bicycle setting and I can keep pace against an electrical partner. Its a lot of fun, besides the whole fact that I am having to actually go fast. Today it is luckily a lot cooler out. I can handle 50′s – 60′s. Good thing we are moving to the air-conditioned city! We have O’s 4 year well visit later this afternoon. I HAVE A FOUR YEAR OLD! I forgot to mention we had a wonderful birthday adventure. She told us it was the best birthday ever! So we must have done something right! Well we better get out and race my electronic partner. Did I mention I love my bike..?

We made it to and from Duluth without dying! Now we just have to make it another two months and we will be moving from the BIG D to the little d. We had a good trip. The kids enjoyed the airplane more then I thought they would. Jarrod was kind of going a little crazy.. but the kids kept their calm. Jarrod likes things to be very orderly while getting to the plane. And Jack and Olivia put a little hiccup in the orderlyness of this. Getting through security went well none of us had to go through the big x-ray machine. I actually kind of wanted to go through it though. There was a man that was refusing to go through the x-ray machine in Detroit which made standing in line quite interesting. His wife looked a little embarrassed to be there with him yelling at the guards. Once on the plane Jack got a little cranky while we waited to get off the ground. But once we were allowed to play the movie, he was happy as could be. Until we had to turn it off again. Which caused a full blown tantrum. Luckily we had lots of candy for him.

We got to see the inside of our new house! We love it! And I mean love, love it! I can’t wait to move in. Its huge.  Here is a photo of it from the Realtor. The history on the house said it has the nickname of “the wedding cake house”. It will be fun to live there for awhile, while we figure out the town.

Olivia and Jack are enrolled in school. It was a last minute decision on putting Jack in too. But it will be good for him. He goes just two days a week. And she will go either four or five days. It will be so weird not having them home with me all day! I might cry a little bit. The school teaches Spanish reading and music! It will be cute.

Its 78 degrees here today! I don’t remember how to dress for this kind of weather. Jack is finally waking up from his nap. I better go get him so we can get back out and play play play!! Woohoo spring time!

So I spent the entire day on the phone with preschools in Duluth. Apparently I should have called sooner. Everyone was either full. Had a spot open in the afternoon toddler class. Pending payment for the last spot available. You name it. I had no idea preschool was so cut throat. I had to even name drop that Jarrod was actually a physician, so payment would not be an issue, to one of the ladies I talked to. After all that we have two tours lined up. This is Duluth MN we are talking about. Apparently I need to open a preschool program when I get there. haha! Not really!! Don’t worry mothers out there. I will not be teaching your children my bad grammar habits! Plus I don’t think I have the patience to watch more then my own children. OKAY!! I must start packing or I will not be able to attend my tours and then Olivia will NEVER learn anything. haha.

Apologies made for the lack of updating. We are doing well. The kids are growing and getting more adorable everyday.

Jarrod is almost done with his Fellowship. Thank goodness. I think we are all sick of him being in training. We can’t wait for June/July when we start our new adventure. We are taking a trip to visit Duluth this week. We have a busy schedule while there! We plan to go check out our new house. We have a few preschools to tour. Hopefully we will get Olivia all signed up for preschool for the fall! She is so excited about getting to go to school. We are spending one night in the twin cities for a meeting Jarrod has to attend. We will be getting together with some family and enjoying a little MOA amusement! Our darling little girl will be turning 4!! during our trip. Olivia gets a free wrist band for her birthday for the rides at Mall of America. Jack is quite the little busy body. And is full of boy! It amazes me everyday, how much of a boy he just has bred into him! He is seriously part monkey. He climbs on everything and he is talking a lot more. The kids play together well.. well enough, anyways. Jack is usually yelling “OK NO!” Because big sisters sometimes don’t get when enough, is enough. Some day he will be bigger then her and well it will certainly be interesting around here.

I had been training for a 1/2 marathon. But have been slacking a bit. And I am not sure if I will be ready in time. I might have to set my goals forward to another date! I have been crocheting like a crazy lady getting dishcloths made for the family reunion this July! I am excited to visit Deadwood with all our family. It will be a great weekend adventure. And the start of our new adventure. We will be 100% done in Detroit by then. It sometimes makes me a little sad. This was our first house as a Married Couple, The home the kids were born in and we have been here SIX years (sometimes I can’t believe its been that long!). But we are more then ready to move on. Be closer to family. And hopefully have more time with Jarrod!

We have had some change in our lives! Jarrod graduated from General Surgery Residency. They had a great little ceremony for him and the other two graduates. They had such wonderful things to say about him. We are so proud of him!! Now we are into the last year of Detroit while Jarrod completes his Vascular Surgery Fellowship! The kids and I were out of town in SD during the first half of the month. But now that we are home. This is going to be a L-O-N-G eleven and a half months! I can not wait till this year is over already! I should have plenty to keep busy with. The house is going to be put up for sale this year. So I need to start organizing AGAIN! Hopefully I can get in a garage sale by the end of the summer. We will be going to Duluth to find a new house! -I am more excited for this then anyone could ever know!! Luckily his hospital is moving us so we won’t have to pack a thing! Just purge.. lots and lots of purging. Its amazing how much Stuff you accumulate in almost six years. Especially with two babes! And more then ample room in the house to make room for mass accumulation! We more then likely will rent at first. So I am almost positive we won’t have enough space.
My little brother came back from SD with us to visit for a little while. It has been so nice having Uncle Max around the house. We are going to run another 5k this week. We ran another one in Hot Springs SD over the 4th of July weekend. It isn’t soo bad and the best part is you get a t-shirt! We are going shopping today! Better go get everyone ready! Hope all is well in your lives!

Well we made it home from the water park in one piece. It was a great trip. The place was gigantic. Olivia and Jack had so much fun. They played on the slides and splish splashed in the water. It was so much fun. The wave pool (renamed by Olivia as THE OCEAN!) was a huge hit with her and we keep having to reenact the waves with her. They had a little animal safari area too with kangaroos, turtles, goats, llamas and other such animals that you could feed and pet. Jack was pretty impressed and walked around the place like he owned it.

Easter was a wonderful day. We were so busy with Olivia’s Birthday and Easter celebrations. I didn’t get to sit down till bed time! Olivia got a big girl bike which she still needs some work with getting the hang of using and keeping her feet on the pedals. Olivia requested a frog cake for her birthday. She has been very into the movie and the book princess and the frog.

Ok I have to cut this short Olivia is begging to go outside and play. And I think it is planning on raining this afternoon. A bike ride to the park this morning might be a good idea. Jack sounds like he is finally awake. He slept in till 9:30 this morning! Now if only his sister would follow suit. Have a great day!

Well things are certainly busy around here. Jacks birthday went well. We spent the evening at Chuck E Cheese and played games and ate pizza and came home for “hamburger” cake and presents. We just did a little family time. Christmas was great the kids were loving the free for all in the living room for the week or so after Christmas too! Toys and Candy galore! New Years we didn’t do much we watched the ball drop and went to bed shortly there after. The kids went to bed at the regular time as the mention of a New Year just got us blank stares. And then the last month and a half we have just been keeping busy organizing the house getting ready to put it up for sale. We have a while before we leave here but in case you have been living in a turtle shell you would know how horrible the market, here in Detroit of all places, has been for home sales. It is a lot of work cleaning out a home you have been settling in for five years, not to mention the accumulation of two sweet little babes!
Olivia is doing well. She talks talks talks all the time. She talks to anyone who will listen too. The other day I went to the knitting store and she just chatted up and down those little ladies. Telling them about everything under the sun. I told Jarrod we are going to have to watch ourselves around that one. She will be telling people the wildest stories and we will just have to sit and take it because once she has something to say she will say it! She currently loves playing with PBSKids.org (she reminds me of the .org every time we have to type it in) and her other favorite is the “ABC’s” aka Starfall.com. She works the computer like a pro. And has learned so much from them. She has started a little thing when she does not want to do something. She will be going along fine and if you ask her to pick something up or throw it away she will fake yawn and say “uff, I have had a hot day” and limp around like she is exhausted. I think she pays way to close attention to her daddy. :]

Jack is doing well. He is in that screaming phase that is just driving me a bit crazy. I keep having to remind myself that it will pass! It is not that he is crying and fussing he just likes to scream as loud and high as he possibly can. And Olivia loves it and does all she can to encourage it! He is our little singer and he loves to softly sing song along with any music playing. All the while bopping his head and wiggling his cute little body. He does not say much coherently anyways. He says Mama and Dada and Nigh nigh and Uh oh which sounds a little more like Uh Uh and points his little finger and says s’dat. He loves playing peek a boo too. He is always seeming to pop out of the most random places, with a big BAYA! He is definitely different then Olivia was. But he is super lovey and cuddles his sisters dollies and even gives her hugs and kisses on occasion which she just loves and announces to us that “He loves me!! Jack is giving me kisses and hugs! He Loves me mom!!” And I love them! They are an amazing pair, those two. We couldn’t imagine how boring life would be without them!

Jarrod and I are doing well. I have been knitting a lot lately and I am doing the Olympic Knitting Challenge, that requires me to start on the opening ceremonies and finish a challenging (for me) pattern before the Olympics are over. I am fully confident I will finish it and I will take pictures of it upon me finishing it! I have been reading a lot more lately too. I have a reading goal for the year and I am currently on track, lets hope I stay on track! Well its late! And I uploaded pictures of Christmas finally! Although I am not sure what is going on with the coloring.. hopefully they will print nicely. They look good on my computer they just did not upload onto our website very nice. I don’t know why. Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to see some of you sooner then later! Love.