Memorial Day weekend

We have had a very busy but great Memorial Day weekend. First of all a big thank you to all of our relatives who have and are currently serving in our armed forces! We are so proud of all of you and are so thankful for all of your sacrifices. This country wouldn't be the best in the world if it weren't for all of you and your bravery!!!

We spent this weekend about like every other weekend for the last couple of months. Working/packing/playing.

Emma graduated from preschool on Friday and they had their "olympics" followed by a picnic out in the grass. I took the day off and thanks to Aunt Stacy for keeping Lauren, we had a terrific time. Emma did great in her olympics and her "blue team" won many of the events. :) Her favorite was squirting the teachers with giant water guns. They even had an obstacle course and supermarket sweep. Afterward, we "dined" on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with her friends. She is excited to start kindergarten in the fall but was sad to say goodbye to her teachers and her friends.

Later that day, we dropped off both girls at mom and dad's so Dave and I could make a three o clock appt. at the bank to "close" on our construction loan. That didn't take too long. It's amazing how many papers one has to sign especially we you don't understand half of the stuff that's written on them.

Dave and Ted then helped mom and dad move a bunch of stuff up to the garage for the big garage sale this weekend, then we went to some friends' house for a cook out.

I had to work Saturday and thankfully the phones were very quiet!!

After work, we loaded up a bunch of stuff to take to mom and dads and helped try to organize the garage.

Dave worked Sunday as usual and then as soon as he got home and changed his clothes, his pager went off and he was gone again. We did manage to get some ice cream when he got home that night.

We both worked on Monday and it really felt like a Sunday, so I am a little confused.

Emma started running a fever yesterday and complaining that her throat hurts. We struggled to keep her fever down yesterday and as soon as I put her to bed last night, Lauren woke up crying. I went in to get her and she was burning up. By the time we got down to the kitchen, she threw up! I did get some Tylenol in her and we waited up till Dave brought home some Motrin at 1130. Anyway, she was perfect all day, so I don't know what that episode last night was all about. Emma went to the doctor today and it's either a viral thing or strep. She has watched more TV in the last two days than she has in two weeks. :(

dirt lovers

After dinner we went out to "the lot" AGAIN! Both Emma and Lauren love the dirt and trying to climb all of the hills. It was a beautiful night so I had grabbed the camera. Emma even decided to use our lot for a quick bathroom break, but I just don't have the heart to put the cute picture on here because I promised her over and over again that no one would see her. (Truly there was no one around.)

We are STILL waiting on the permits BUT they have been out there to survey the lot? (if that's what you call it) Anyway there are tons of little sticks marking all sorts of things and we had to make sure Emma didn't pull them up to make our yard bigger than it's supposed to be.

Anyway, Dave just left to work a part time job from 10 - 2 am. Oh well, we certainly can use the extra money. And truly...what happens after 10 anyway? (Don't answer that!) We have another soccer game in the morning and Emma instructed Dave that she wants bacon and eggs for breakfast for "energy." I told her that Cheerios would give her the best energy and she fell for it. Whew!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

6 weeks and we're out!

Well, we put the house on the market a week ago today and the first people through decided they wanted it. We went back and forth with them a little and eventhough we weren't very flexible with the price etc. they accepted our offer on Sunday night!

So, 4 days on the market and 1 showing!!!! YEAH! Thanks to everyone for their prayers! We had our inspection already and things are moving along rather quickly here. We have a couple things to fix/replace and then we are done for good.

We are moving June 25th to mom and dad's till our house is ready. We debated whether to put our house up so early just in case it would sell fast BUT since the market is supposed to be "so slow" we decided to do it anyway! Mom and Dad...I hope you are ready for the chaos. Luckily it is becoming nicer and nicer out everyday and we aren't going to be in your hair 24/7.

We have rented yet another storage garage and have been making trips to it! Emma helped me decide tonight what toys of hers are going to grandma and grandpas and which can be packed into the storage unit. She actually did great...the storage pile was significantly bigger than the "take with us" pile. Good Job Emma!!!

Thanks dad...AGAIN....for helping out around here with the ugly neighbor's yard and all the projects!!! I promise...it will all be over with in a month! :)

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well.

Odds and Ends

We have done a lot of "outside stuff" getting ready to sell this house. The girls love it cause they get to play outside and get messy.

Today while Lauren napped, Emma and I planted flowers to add to the "curb appeal." Our house will go on the market on Thursday so we are doing some last minute things to get ready.

As you can see our wonderful abandoned house next door has grown a forest so we are now going to be caring for two yards until our house sells. We decided to gut it out cause we really don't have a choice. It has been abandoned for over a year and is in foreclosure. Dave borrowed a really nice weed trimmer from a friend and secretly couldn't wait to get over there. (I think he had a smile on his face the entire time.) Anyway, he knocked the 3' high weeds down and located a couple dead animals in the process. YUCK!

We started trimming some of their bushes? / weeds? in their front yard and I told Dave that I felt so "criminal" doing it. His response was, "you feel criminal because you haven't done much criminal stuff in your life. " Anyway, it probably is illegal but who cares. Call the cops. :) I guarantee the yard will look 100% better in a week!

Also, here is a picture of Lauren and her new favorite vegetable. :) She loves sweetcorn and actually chews it so well that I swear she is getting chunks of the cob too. She fits right in to the Kaup side of the family.

Soccer has been underway for about three weeks now and Emma is thrilled to be playing again. Once again their team is amazing and hasn't lost a game yet...except we aren't keeping track of that...(except Dave.)

Goodnight!

spf 48 and hats for Lauren

Poor Poor Lauren Elizabeth.......she inherited the dreaded pale complexion. We have to smother her in sun lotion and force her to keep a hat on. The other day while I was at work, Dave was outside working and he had the kids out with him. Lauren had on pants and a long sleeve shirt and Emma had on shorts and a tank top. (Luckily it was too hot). Dave told me that he didn't feel like smothering Lauren in the sun lotion so he just covered all her skin. :)

Anyway, we are thankful for nice weather. Emma has made new friends with all of the neighbors and their dogs. Last weekend Dave and I spent HOURS staining the deck and our neighbor behind us is fairly new. She is a young gal (probably in her 20's) and has two boxers that Emma adores. Anyway, her dad must have been over and as soon as he walked out their back door we heard Emma say, "hi Mark, how are you?" Of course Dave and I stopped and listened and sure enough "Mark" answered, "hi Emma." OK.....I know I have covered the whole stranger danger about a million times but I guess a million and one wouldn't hurt. Dave and I laughed SSOO hard. The other day I heard Emma tell the neighbor that "my dad is 38 and he's older than my mom.....she's only 32." BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.

Of course they say they don't mind talking to her (or rather listening to her talk) but how annoying sometimes. She even has conned the neighbor's boyfriend to letting her throw the toys to the dogs.

Not much new. We are shooting for next week to putting this house up on the market. I had no idea it was so much work and it's not like our house is in shambles.

OK, I just realized I haven't downloaded the pictures from my camera that go with this entry. AND since I am completely honest....I am too tired and they will just have to wait. (actually, I don't have enough battery power and I'm not staying up to charge the batteries.)