Dear House...

Dear House on Davis Street,

We may go down in history as your shortest ever occupants, but don't worry, we won't forget you.

You gave us a safe place to lay our heads and our hearts these past 3 months. Your walls have heard our deepest desires and biggest questions asked.

You gave our son his very first bedroom. And our daughter her very first bedroom with a bathroom attached. Both big deals.

It was at your house that our dog ran away for the first time. It wasn't her fault, your smoke detector scared her. She's forgiven you though.

We leave with you a bit of the Pacific in the garage. We wish we could take every grain of sand with us, but I know you don't mind if we leave it here with you.

Thanks for the late surprise of a Mimosa tree blooming these past couple of weeks. My favorite tree, right there in your front yard! I'm happy to leave the snails behind though.

You've treated us well, and we hope the next people to walk through your doors are as happy with you as we were.

But for now, House on Davis Street, The Watson's are on the move again. Tomorrow we head North to Sacramento for the week, and then on to Colorado, hopefully arriving on Saturday.

Thanks for keeping us one more night.

At least we don't have to sell anything...

Packing...again.

Not fun this time either!!!

Please remember to say a blessing our way for the people looking at renting the house on Sunday, that they will want to rent it right away. This is the only way we can get into something quickly once we get to Denver.

Talk to you when I come up from boxes and bubble wrap!

Again...

If there's one thing I've learned over the past 6 months, it's that I am so not in control.

I've also learned that I/we make the very best decisions we can at the time, given the information and knowledge we have at the time.

I've learned a lot about Max. About who he is, who he is becoming, and how my care-giving is changing for him.

I've learned that my husband is amazing. Okay, I already knew that, but really really amazing. He's put up with a lot in these past 6 months. He's been beat up by the world more than once, but holds his head high. Always thinking of us first.

I've learned more about who I am, and what I need. I've learned that I can't do it all. That I have to say it out-loud sometimes..."I need help". "I can't do this on my own.". "I need people."

I've learned how to eat my words, swallow my pride, make confessions that aren't easy to make.

And so I come again...for the fourth time to announce...we are on the move.

Full circle, friends, full circle. We will be going back to Denver next week. Steve's work is allowing him to work from home, from there. We still have way more questions than answers as to why we had to make this journey, but like I said, I've already learned so much. And I truly feel like we are coming out on top. And that every step we've taken has been in the right direction...even if it ends up we walked in a big circle.

When we get back, we will get Max into his therapies right away, he will see a dentist, eye doctor, and a GI doctor, as we are planning on getting him a G-tube(feeding tube) placed in his stomach. Then, we are going to get him strong, gaining weight, and then we will put him in school. And all of those things, for those of you who have followed here for a while know that those things have been very very difficult for me to comes to terms with. (G-tube and School). But now, I see it as the next step for Max. Not exactly sure what opened my eyes and mind to it. But I know it is a good thing.

So friends, think of us as we pack up again. It shouldn't be too hard, considering we're not fully unpacked! Also, please pray for a tenant to fill our current house so we can move together. There are 4 people coming to look this weekend, after the landlady posted it last night.

And also know, I am truly truly truly happy, as I have been this whole journey. England was amazing, California was refreshing, but to grow and to move on, we need to go home.

A quick update...

"Abbey" "made" "dinner" "tonight". She has also taken a liking to using "quotes" at the wrong time.

I made pretty much all of it, but she wanted to make Chicken Curry. It was my best yet! She made the mango lassi. I usually put yogurt in my chicken curry, but tonight I made it with double whipping cream...let...me...tell...you! It was AWESOME! And now I am so sleepy!

Abbey is going to work with Steve tomorrow for take-your-kid-to-work day. What will I do??? Probably clean uninterrupted...or make some phone calls uninterrupted!

I think the heavy curry has made me feel extra extra tired! That and smelling fire smoke all day. Abbey was loving the smell of the forest fires to the north of us. It was a bit much for me today. She said it smelled DELICIOUS outside!

Okay, enough for me. I'm going to bed!

The babies...

My step-mom sent these pictures to me this afternoon of the babies. They are getting so big and not so alien looking! HaHaHa!

Summer-time blogging...

Steve is out of town again. We were going to join him this time, but the only hotel room he could find wasn't big enough for all of us to fit comfortably all day while he worked. So we're here holding down the fort for another day until he comes back.

Abbey has been a ball of energy today. I've asked if she wanted to go outside and play, or play the Wii Fit, or run up and down the stairs, ANYTHING, but no she doesn't want to. So it's been a day full of, "You need to CALM DOWN!". She sang through dinner...until I told her to stop singing and eat...then she started humming...until I told her to stop and eat...then she started drumming on the table...until I told her to stop and eat. Then she asks if I just want her to be quiet...YES!! I told her it wasn't because I was being mean, it was because it is bad manners to sing and hum and pound on the table.

Max was also a live-wire today, very talkative, but also very strong. He kicked me while throwing a big fit this afternoon. He kicked me right in the gut, I seriously had to collect myself because I thought I was going to throw up! Ugh...he's only going to get bigger, isn't he?

I've been wanting to play Wii Fit this evening, but one of the shows Abbey likes is on tonight, the Celebrity Circus. It's ridiculous really, but she thinks it is SOOO COOL that one of the former Brady Bunch stars is on there. That, and someone really likes to coach unsolicited Wii Fit advice while I'm playing. Maybe tomorrow.

I guess that's all I've got tonight. I wish I had something more exciting to write about on here. I guess it's just like summertime tv...only some-what entertaining! HaHa!

If I had the time...

I would tell you all of the things going on in my world if I had the time to stop and type them out.

Perfect example...
After finally making myself a cup of chocolate hazelnut hot tea last night, ready to sit down after cleaning the kitchen for 2 hours...yes...two hours, it was a deep clean...so I go to sit down when little one #1 asks for ice in her hot tea, after I just asked if she wanted some to cool it off, to which she said no. As I put the ice in her cup, I told her I was going to go sit down now with no requests to be granted for a while. At which point she asks, "what are you going to do?", and I pulled one out of my mom's bag, "sit and stare at the walls!", Okay...I'll come sit right by you!

All that to say, if I had more than just shower time alone to myself I would tell you about how we went to San Francisco Saturday to watch the Kite Boarding Championship...


And afterwards walked around the Palace of Fine Arts...
Where we saw this (Daddy take note, this is what I want for my birthday next year!)


And this...


And Abbey climbed trees...


And Max thought he was in England...at least her kept saying England...
Here he is in front of the "Monster Plant"


And if I had the time I would tell you about Father's Day...and having a picnic in the car before Abbs and Steve played in the freezing cold Pacific...


And how Max napped in our tent...while I FROZE in the 50 degree overcast weather!


AND if I had the time I would tell you about the appointment we had yesterday with the feeding specialist, to help us to get Max to eat more foods, and from different people. And while she was helpful, we found it pretty ironic that he didn't eat well all day because of the mess-up in his schedule!

Or I might tell you about the meeting we had to get Max Medicaid here, and how we HAVE to have a respite nurse come in to sit with him for the regional center to get to pay for it and then to pass it on to medicaid to prove that we need them to cover it. Yeah...did you get that? They need to prove that they had to pay for something in order to prove to medicaid that we need their services. This is the only way they will refer us on to the medicaid waiver. And I would gripe and tell you how much at the end of that meeting I wished we had never moved away from Colorado.

But alas...it has taken me about an hour to type this amount out...and now I need to feed the children, and also need to get myself showered. So maybe you can click on the pictures and just see what all has been going on.

Until next time...

up for air...

GULP....GASP...COUGH COUGH COUGH....

Okay...coming up for air. What a week it has been.

I got out 3 times this week. I know that sounds like "big deal", but it really was a big deal. I got out, 3 times, with putting Max's seat in and out of the car, him in and out of the car, navigated around Santa Clara/San Jose. Pretty...BIG...deal. Yesterday we went to get a bite to eat at Red Robin, where Abbey tried to convince me that we should talk Daddy into us all moving back to Denver. Rip my heart out...poor kid. It's hard to remember that this is her first big move in her life. All she's ever known is our house in Denver, and her house in OK. We're working through it though.

Afterwards we went to Blockbuster to get some rental Wii Games. We have a Wii, and a Wii fit. When we went to England we busted the cord and had to replace it there, but in coming back, it would have cost as much as the console for just the cord, so we left the lot with Sam and Rachel. As soon as Abbey got here she wanted to know where the Wii was. Oops.

Back to the story, so we got a trivia game. It's really fun, some of the questions are way too old for Abbey to know. And it is set for the whole family. Oh well, she really is enjoying it. And we got some movies. Nancy Drew was the movie she chose. And we had a couple from Netflix we watched. I bought a couple of the ones they sell there, the old rentals I guess. One of which was Death At A Funeral. I'm sure it's not everyone's humor, but I laughed so hard at that movie I didn't know if I might throw up from not catching my breath. I knew at the end I had to own it. In fact...just sitting here typing about it...thinking of the scenes that made me laugh...oh dear it's funny!

Today we got out to go to the mall. It was a good outing. Lunch was just so-so, mostly because my salad was warm...yuck! Who likes warm Cesar Salad? And being there alone with the kids I couldn't take it back up there without a big fuss, so I just snarfed it down to get it over with. My strawberry ice-cream cone at the end of our excursion was much more tasty!

Steve gets home tomorrow. Boy am I glad! I don't know what all this weekend will hold, but being Father's Day, I'm sure we'll make it to the beach at least one day! Whatever we do it will be fun.

Steve is off speaking at conferences, so I am home alone this week.

With two children who want undivided attention.

In a city I don't know...without a soul to help!

Yeah...should be fun!

It was kind of toasty today...got up to nearly 90. Abbey was lamenting the fact that we no longer had a pool in the neighborhood to go to. In fact, she lamented the fact for about 2 hours until I got online to see if Target (the onlt store besides Safeway I know how to get to) had any that would fit in our tiny space in the back.

I found a couple, and put Max's seat in the car, and loaded up the kids and off we went to Target. I was proud of myself for getting there on my memory. But I had the GPS for back-up just in case. We got there and wandered around for a bit. We found the only wading pool that would fit in our 55" back-yard space. It's for babies, but she insisted it was JUST WHAT SHE WANTS!!!!

I got the pool, and then over to Michael's for some summer arts and crafts. We left with paint by numbers-a-plenty, a craft for Daddy's Father's day gift, a body art kit, and a crystal growing kit. Maybe those will keep her attention for the rest of the week. How did we ever survive summertime as kids!?. It is seriously like every waking moment has to be encouraged to do something or she spins in circles with boredom!

I drove us back home and out she went with her pool! After I fed Max, I went out to check on her...and this was what I found...




She was out there for about an hour watching a movie on her playstation, eating a chocolate bar(which will not happen again! HYYYYPER!), sipping her cold water. What a life!

After she finished out there, she went straight to work on each of us to give us a tattoo from her kit. Yes, even Max got one!


It is pretty cute!


Now we're watching Annie. It was on sale at Target, and I don't remember watching it since I was a little girl, so I got it for us to watch. She is loving it!!! Max is loving the singing!

If I don't come up for air for a few days, you'll know I'm just paddling to keep my head above the water!

Painting by fingers...

Max says "HI!"



"Kiss my FEET!"


He also did some fingerpainting today with his sister...


Here she is with some of her masterpieces!

Abbey is here...

Life is busy. Miss Abigail is here, and like usual, we are trying to get re-adapted to life with 2 kids. We went to the beach the day she arrived. She liked it, but it was so cold! She said the sand was "delicious to her feet!", and said she would like to go in the water next time with a wet-suit on!

She's had a few different things going on so far this summer than our usual routine. Firstly, we're in a totally different place, so we went Sunday afternoon to IKEA to get her bedding. She chose a black white and red flower/polka dot theme. Very pre-teen!

We're not doing the summer school notebook this year. Instead, she's going to have some select lessons in geography, mostly world geography. And will be reading 2 books, and do book reports on those books. One will be a written report, and the other will be a scene acted out, since she enjoys performing so much. We are starting a blog for our family to see, which she will post a blog to about every day. One day a week she will choose and prepare our dinner. (She chose tonight to do hamburgers with fries and salad...pictures tomorrow). And each night she gives me and Steve homework. (Her question for me tonight, "Why do I call you NeNe?") This year I'm trying to let her see that it isn't all about the grown-ups making her do things just to be mean, or because we have nothing better to do.

Lastly...and maybe her favorite part...she has NO bedtime. When we go to bed, we ask her to go up to her room, but she doesn't have to go to sleep until she wants. Last night it was about midnight we heard her get up to turn her light off. And we're not dealing with the exhausted crying fits. The lesson to be learned here for her is that we need to go to sleep when our body tells us...and wake up when we are ready...and when we have somewhere to be the next morning, we need to go to bed earlier so we can wake up ready for the day. We're about to go to bed, I am so tired! But she's still fighting falling asleep. She's sure growing up! Going to be 10 this summer...as she calls it "Double Digits!".

Ok, one more story, and then to the pictures from the beach.

The night before Abbey got here Max was awake calling out ...Aaaaaa-Aaaaaaa? Aaaaaaa-Aaaaaaaaa! I told him Abbey would be here in the morning and he needed to go to sleep. When he woke up he started right back into it, Aaaaaaaaa-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! When she walked in he was all smiles!

Through-out the day he would say her name, much to her delight! That evening as we were on the way back from the beach, she was watching a movie on her Play Station. It wasn't excessively loud, but loud enough that when his opera was at a quiet point it would be louder than his opera. I thought this would upset him at some point, as he was getting pretty tired. Instead, we hear this little big boy voice say...in the most convincing tone...Aaaaaa-Aaaaaa?....Ah-Ah-AH!!!!!! (Translated for those who don't quite know Max-speak...Abbey? Opera!!!). She agreed and turned her movie off...and he said , "yeah, ah-ah-ah!"

On to the photos!



I love this sequence. Go to the flickr page to see a close-up of her face!






Check out his toes...covered in sand...minutes on the ground!


We buried her in the sand...



It was a good day...this weekend...San Francisco Here We come!!! She is crazy excited to see Chinatown and the Golden Gate Bridge.

She finally gave in and went to bed...and so I will too!

Be my guest...

Today I am the guest blogger over at my friend Sam's blog.

Head over there and say hello!

Sam's Blog, The Sixth Sense.

See you there!