Done

All done.

Time Change

Fall Back + Going West = Trouble

We're Tired

We all had a busy day today. Andrew had school and then went to some friends' houses afterward. The rest of us, with a lot of help, starting loading the moving truck this morning, and sent it on its way this afternoon.

Tomorrow we close.

Early Voting

Susan, Mari, Elliot and I went downtown this morning to cast our vote. We waited in line for about 1/2 an hour. All-in-all, it was not a bad deal. It was not as easy as walking to the church at the end of our street on election day, but since this year that would be a 600 mile walk, we thought that we better just go ahead and vote. Now we just have to wait for everyone else.

Afterward we enjoyed some hot-dogs from the stand outside the BOE and then picked up a few more boxes.

The Final Week

So, as you may know, we sold our house. We are set to close on Friday. There is a truck coming to take all of our stuff on Thursday. It is going to be parked in Des Moines for a couple weeks while we get things finished up there.

Things have been a little crazy lately, with getting out of our current house, trying to get into a new house, and trying to live our normal lives. The three kids have certainly kept things interesting for us.

I would say that 75% of our house is packed. We will finish up over the next few evenings, dwindling down to just the things that we will keep with us for the couple weeks that we are staying at Erin & Nate's.

We are definitely excited to have finally sold our house, but leaving Cincinnati will be hard. We had a couple of parties over the weekend and it was hard to say good-bye to everyone, not knowing when we will see them again. I know that we will see most people again, but I also know that things will never be the same, and a lot of the relationships that we have here will fade away with time.

There is a good chance that a week from now, I will be blogging from Des Moines. I'll let you know.

The Dinner Blog

After being offline for a few months, I have now successfully updated the Dinner Blog through a complete cycle.

Now if only I could convince Susan to start posting here, we will be all set.

Craigslist

We just put two items on craigslist - the couch and entertainment center that were in our basement.

The Couch
The Entertainment Center

If you are interested in either of them, let us know. They are all yours, whoever you are.

Jumping Rope

Andrew was working on jumping rope yesterday for 2 hours straight. When he woke up this morning his legs were tired and he could not be convinced that it was the rope jumping.

Unsung Milestones

In parenting circles, there is a lot of talk about milestones. Usually the talk focuses mainly on a few big ones: first smile, sitting up, solid foods, crawling, walking, talking, running. As Elliot gets older, he has eclipsed two milestones that always stand out for me: helping dress himself and sitting on a stool, instead of his baby seat.

The first one, helping to dress himself, is a very useful one. When dressing babies, usually you don't get much cooperation which can make it challenging. Once they have been through the routine enough they start to pick up on when to straighten their arm or bend their head, which makes the dressing process a lot easier.

Sitting on a stool, instead of in a baby seat, is a little more nerve-racking. I know that he will probably fall off at some point (Andrew & Mari both did); I just hope that he is as old as possible when it happens. Elliot began sitting on a stool a couple weeks ago at Erin & Nate's. All of the other kids were, so he wanted to as well. When we got home he refused to sit in his booster seat.

Neither of these things are earth-shattering, but they do lead to the moments when I have to step back and think "Wow, he's not much of a baby anymore."

In other news, if we had stayed on the same baby-birthing schedule, we would have a newborn right now.

Andrew's 5th Birthday

I guess Andrew turned 5, huh? His birthday was last Friday. It was the end of a crazy week. He is very excited to be 5, but he is already talking about being six. He can slow down, as far as I am concerned.

He is still enjoying riding his bike more than anything else, I think. He would ride all day if he could. He also got a guitar for his birthday which he has been playing a lot. I just wish that he would learn how to maneuver without conking someone in the head.