This is My Forties

While we desperately needed the rain, it was still a little disappointing to have our last week of summer be spent indoors.  We made do though.  The living room was our playground. Noah entertained his brothers by allowing them to watch him defeat various bad guys on Zelda (one of his birthday presents).  He also enjoyed vacuuming dog hair off the couch, really he did, he's like that with anything that involves a machine of some kind. Brennan took to annoying the dogs every chance he could get.  He said he checked their teeth "so they could fly" ::shrug:: ok, son.  He also tried to make them "hold hands" and tried to get away with "petting them with his feet"... riiiiight.  He drug them around by their collars, outside and then back inside.  I stopped him every instance I bore witness, but he was relentless.  Thankfully none of the dogs are novices at the game of toddler torture.     Brennan spent a lot of t...

All last week I was implementing various psychological warfare tactics on Noah.  We weren't going to celebrate his birthday, I didn't have time to get any presents for him, we forgot the day or didn't believe the current date.  He knew I was joking, but on some level he was afraid his birthday was going to be total crap.  It wasn't :) He got his eggs and toast for breakfast and shortly after that we headed out to see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" (his choice).  Personally I think Greg Heffley is a jerk-weed.  He lies all the time and thinks he's better than everyone.   But, Noah loved the books and it wasn't my birthday.  Noah had a good time sitting in his own huge leather recliner with his own fanta to drink. Noah chose wings for lunch and Buffalo Wild Wings was right across the street so away we went.  He got sweet barbecue :) Being in a family requires compromise... grocery shopping might not be fun, but it's necessary. ...

Since we moved back to the States our home has been a virtual revolving door, welcoming visitors from all over.  We've had more visits this month than we had the entire 3 years we were in Spain!  It's been fabulous.  What a great way to be welcomed back.  I know I overuse awesome sometimes, but what other word describes "full of awe" better?... awful?  I think not!  HA! Rudy and Kevin were both visiting on their own and we saw them a few times for various dinners or lunches (including a trip to Medieval Times) before and after we picked the kids up from Ohio.  Jessica and the kids were here for a couple days at the end of July before they went back to Kansas. We hung out with Brandon & Bekah at the beach and had a little game night as well.   Kevin came back, but with his wife Erin this time!  Yay!! ;)  They are both photogs so we did a little night shooting, which is always a great time.  Most of their vi...

The morning of the sixth we were up early, raring to get some breakfast and head over to the office to sign the final closing paperwork.  Our appointment was at ten.  There was a little tension in the room with the divorcees there together, but everything was done quickly enough and they remained civil.  Our realtor had a minor panic attack when our bank didn't transfer the money over right away, but a phone call expedited the process.  Last time we bought a house Josh's credit was so awful they said it was best to list him as a non-contributing spouse.  This time it was all him and I was the one not on any paperwork really... yay for no job! haha.  We had to rush right out of the room because it happened to be the last day we had reserved the rental.  Josh tried to extend it online or on the phone, but because we'd already had it for a full month, it was something that apparently had to be done in person.  Off to Dulles we went.  As luck wou...