ONE DAY MORE!!

"One more day all on my own....one more day with him not caring...what a life I might have known...but he never saw me there!!" Okay, so we just saw Les Miserables last night at Wolf Trap in Virginia and now I CAN'T STOP SINGING!! I have seen Les Mis twice before and knew that I loved it, but I didn't realize how much I LOVE THAT SHOW!!! It is definitely my favorite (with Wicked being a very close second). It is a sad story, but soo beautiful too! Dan and I had lawn seats and enjoyed sitting on our blanket and listening to the amazing singers. I seriously knew every word that was sung before they sing it...I just love that music! It was a great date!

For Real??

I am never going to understand kids! They always through me for a loop! As I am typing this, Carson is taking a nap (at least I think he is). He has not taken a nap for quite a while now, although we are still trying to get him to. The thing that is so crazy about him taking a nap today is that I put him down late b/c I thought FOR SURE he wouldn't sleep anyway and we have to go pick up the babysitter a little after 4 anyway. So, the ONE day that we actually have to leave the house is the day that he decides to fall asleep...I just don't get it!! I need to get a babysitter so I can leave for work and Dan won't be home b/c now he is commuting far for his new job. So, instead of naps lately, we have called it "quiet time" and hoped that he would fall asleep, but he usually doesn't. He fights it more and more these days and so now I'm not sure if it is even worth it. What do all of you guys do with your 3 year olds who don't want to nap. I need some sort of break? Any ideas? Also, we are trying a new "happy jar" where we put m&m's in a jar if Carson does something good or take them out if he is bad. I'm just trying to have something visual to show how he behaves. Do any of you have any suggestions in this area?? Carson is a pretty good kid, but I don't like his little attitude that he is developing. We've actually had some pretty good days recently, so maybe there is hope. I'm looking forward to our co-op preschool that we are starting soon. I think it will give good structure to our days.

House for SALE!!!!

http://www.postlets.com/rem/1088422

Here it is...our house!!! It's on the market! You can click on the link above for our "website" and then if you want you can look at the virtual tour tab with pics of the inside and fun music! After a couple weeks of serious cleaning/painting/moving stuff into storage, we have it in tip top shape and it went on the market last night...yippeee!! I feel like just getting it ready was a mini victory, but now we just need someone to buy it. Who knows how long this could take with the market the way it is, but maybe we'll get lucky. Now that this is all really happening, I want it to happen fast...you know what I mean? Plus, I'm not sure how long I can keep this house looking this good for people to see! Carson has been doing well with all this packing and cleaning. He's been a real sport watching hours of TV a day (okay, so that's not hard for him). He did make me laugh the other day though when he asked for a certain toy and I didn't know where it was, he said "did you pack it up?"....poor kid.

I've been having mixed emotions about this whole move. I am TOTALLY excited of the potential of buying a "real" house...you know, with a garage, a yard, and maybe even a sewing room (okay, not maybe...there is going to be one!) But, I honestly LOVE this little townhouse of ours. It has been just perfect for us. And let's not forget that it was the birthplace of our baby girl! I got a little sentimental (which I'm usually not at all) when I realized that. I'm also excited to meet new people, new neighbors, new ward, new friends...that's all very exciting and I've always enjoyed meeting new people. But, then there is the sad part. I absolutely LOVE this ward we are in now!!! It is BY FAR the best ward I've ever been in. The friendships we have made here are AWESOME!! We hang out with friends all the time. The husbands like to hang out together, the ladies do stuff together all the time, we travel, we let the kids play, we have parties...it's just the best!! Luckily we are not moving far, so I can still see my friends sometimes, but I'm sad that we won't see them regularly. I'm also sad that Carson is leaving some of his favorite little friends (you know who you are :) , but he has more friends where he is going too. Anywho, I guess you can tell that I'm torn. I think most people feel this way when they move, but I just thought I would share. We are soo excited for this new adventure, but we will miss good ol' Laurel, Maryland!

11 months already???

I say it EVERY time...I can't believe Bryn is already 11 months!!! Time is really flying by!! She is a speedy little crawling and standing up to everything. She cruises around a bit and loves to be entertained by her brother. She has also started to say a few little "words". She can say "uh-oh", "mama", and "dada". I'm not sure she knows when to use them, but sometimes it seams like she does. She is a fun, spunky little girl and we love her!!!

Dan's New Job!

Before we left on our trip to NY a few weeks ago, Dan got a job offer for a job doing IT stuff. I don't really know all the details, but after talking/praying about it, we really thought that it was something we couldn't turn down. So, he quit his gov't job of learning Arabic and started this week learning computer stuff. He has always loved computers, but doesn't have any official training. This job will hopefully provide some training. Two of our friends work at the same company (one of them hooked Dan up with this job) and they both really like it. So, we really hope that Dan likes it too and that this works out. The job is in Reston, Virginia....so we'll be moving!! Dan can commute till then, but it's a really long commute, so we hope to move soon. The housing market is really slow right now, but we're getting our house ready to put on the market next weekend. I've been waking up with Dan at 5am and cleaning all day long. We've put stuff in storage, cleaned things I've never cleaned before, painting, carpets cleaned, etc! We are so sad to leave our area and ward and all of our friends, but excited at the thought of getting a real house. Maybe it will even have a backyard and a garage (and a sewing room of course!). So, with all this boxing things up, Carson has had a great time making "forts" or "cages" as he calls them. He also wanted to stand on the counter tops like mom was to clean the cabinets. Anyway, hopefully this selling/buying a house won't be a super hard ordeal. Wish us luck!!

Like Brother, Like Sister

It's fun to see how Bryn discovers new things, just like Carson did at that age.

TREK

I just got back from being the nurse at our church's stake TREK. TREK is where the youth 14-18 dress up like pioneers and pull handcarts and do pioneer-y things for 4 days. Luckily for me, there were no serious illnesses or injuries. Some nausea, headaches, ankle sprains, cuts, lots of blisters, etc. Here is my TREK experience in numbers:

-40 youth dressed like pioneers
-4 handcarts
-1 day of nothing but walking and pulling handcarts
-12+ hours of walking with handcarts, LOTS of that being uphill
-1 stream to cross
-1 leg run over by the handcart
-1 kid run over by the handcart
-1 women's pull
-4 days of really nice weather (besides a little rain)
-2 rainstorms
-2 salamanders seen
-1 deer skull
-2 bats
-2534 bugs seen
-1 time peeing in the woods
-2 portapotties
-50 sleeping bags under the stars
-1 bread TOTALLY burnt
-1 hole burnt in 1 ma's skirt
-1 handcart canvas ripped and unusable
-5 campfires roaring
-1 really funny, yet spiritual testimony meeting
-1 hoe-down
-4 chickens killed
-4 pots of nasty corn-mush for breakfast
-4 fires trying to cook leftover corn-mush patties for lunch
-40 starving youth
-1 really neat sacrament meeting
-15+ dedicated adult leaders
-50+ people who REEKED by the end of the 4 days
-1 YW leader who did not want to go, glad that she did go, but never wants to go again :)