Holidays, Boxes, Family, Adjustments, Work etc.

Whew what a month! We have survived "the move" with much help from friends and family and are about 80% settled.
We went to "close" on our house on the 19th and after 30 minutes of signing papers, we were told there was a discrepancy in "the numbers" and that we would have to come back and resign everything. UGH! So we left there really without anything accomplished but the go ahead to still move which was the main thing. The big moving day was Friday the 21st. We were totally blessed because the weather was gorgeous and we had some really great friends that helped Dave carry all of the real heavy things. I think that morning we had 4 pickups, a moving truck and 7 guys! That beats "2 Men and a Truck" anyday. I ran boxes back and forth from mom and dad's to our house and fed the troops some yummy barbeque for lunch.
Stacy came over early with the twins to "hang out" out at mom and dad's with Lauren, and of course Emma was in school. Mom got off of work early and also helped babysit/pack. I have some great pictures of our Runza luncheon we had with the twins that day. They had a fun day and Lauren definately enjoyed her little visitors.
Stacy helped me get the kitchen put together that night which took about 4 hours. Doesn't that seem crazy? Anyway that was a great task for us to get accomplished and it was much more enjoyable doing it with someone eventhough she made fun of me for several of my belongings. :)

We were so tired that night that when I asked Dave where he wanted to sleep, he said, "are you kidding, I'm going home to sleep." (mom and dad's)

Saturday morning we spent cleaning our "suite" at mom and dads. The rooms were all dusted and vacuumed and bathroom scrubbed. The furniture was even put back to where it was prior to our existence. I should have taken before and after pictures as the transformation was unbelievable. The rooms look a little empty now which is why mom doesn't make a point to go into any of the rooms. :(

Saturday was spent putting beds together and trying to make most rooms liveable to stay there that night. Of course Emma was thrilled to be there and to move all of her things there BUT, not Lauren. Poor thing did not understand what was happening and spent most of the day and Sunday asking for someone to take her home. She would stand at the front door and say, "mama, take Lauren home, take a nap." Ok break my heart!!! Then, patient Emma would yell, "Lauren, I told you THIS IS OUR HOME" and Lauren would argue back, "NO Emma, go home get apple juice."
That went on for several days and we did our best to keep routines the same and to give her plenty of apple juice so she would start to like our new place. :)
Saturday night Dave had to take Emma into the Urgent Care because she was crying that her ears hurt. (Lauren, Emma and I all had colds so I was not surprised.) Dave took her and they were in and out of there in 15 minutes but our less than favorite pharmacy Walgreens :( took 45 minutes to fill the prescription. Rediculous!
Monday, (Christmas Eve) Lauren was sick and running a temp to luckily we were able to get her into her doctor. Yep, sinus infection which means more medicine in the new fridge. Dave and I had to split up that day and run to the doctor and he had to finish up MANY last minute gift shopping. Thank goodness for gift cards. Anyway, again, we waited 45 minutes at Walgreens. UGH!!
We had mom, dad, and Brian over for lunch because I had gone crazy on the first grocery trip to Walmart and had tons of food. They helped carry things down to the basement and tear boxes down in an attempt to shove them into the dumpster.
Lauren was definately not up to going to church that night, so I took Emma to 4:30 mass. We got there at 4:00 and got one of the last seats, which put her on my lap for the service. The children's mass was nice and I quickly learned that Emma doesn't really sit still for more than a minute or two. That night we sat out cookies and milk for Santa and put the two girls to bed. Poor Emma could not go to sleep. She kept coming out of her room telling us that she saw something in the sky or that she heard jingle bells. I told her that santa would not come until everyone in the house was asleep including mom and dad. Then she got mad telling us to go to bed NOW!! We told her that we just had to pick up a few more things so santa wouldn't trip when he was trying to bring her gift in. With her hands on her hips, she decided that we were moving much too slow so she quickly grabbed things with us and moved them out of the room, muttering stuff under the breath the entire time. It was seriously so cute!

Santa did come over night and brought both girls "Baby Alive" and baby things such as a stroller, play pen, swing etc. We went to Dave's mom's house at 12:00 for pasta and salad which is always yummy.

That night we had mom, dad, Brian, Stacy, Ted and the twins over at our place for our Christmas. Thanks to mom and Stacy for bringing ALL the food for the yummy meal. I probably would have had to have picked up pizza if I had been in charge of food. Well that night before bed I nearly "lost" it, or Dave would probably tell you I did. :) Anyway, I had to go back to work the next day after being off for more than a month and I felt as if I didn't get a chance to sit and relax or for that matter sit and play with the girls and their new toys instead of telling them, "hold on a minute, let mommy just get this put away." I knew I had to go back but whew was I exhausted.
The first day back was ok, everyone "introduced" themselves to me as if I was a rookie! I still have the same cases sitting on my desk that I had in November! I quickly deleted 580 Emails and only had one voice mail message.

Saturday we enjoyed having our Kaup Christmas (well half of them) at our house for chili, snacks, and tons of candy. We played our famous gift game and I was lucky enough to get a Beta fish. EMMA WAS THRILLED because her poor little Hannah passed away a couple months ago. No one had the heart to steal it from us, which is good. We had goldfish food but were a little nervous that that could poison our newest addition to our family, so Dave ran to Walmart and got Beta food for "Andy." He is doing very well but we had to put him on the counter and not the table to lengthen his lifespan.

As soon as we get our internet working I will post plenty of pictures that are on my camera. I am at work typing this so I should probably get to work.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a safe New Year. We plan to celebrate by sitting on our "you know whats" and watching football.

The Big Move....

This may be the last entry for a week or so, but that's not really any different than usual for me. I will try to post some pics though.
Our big day is Thursday when we "close" on the house and take possession. We are thrilled and exhausted at the same time.
The house has come together beautifully in the last week and we are SO THANKFUL to be in before Christmas!!!
There are probably still workers there now finishing up some things. The "cleaning ladies" where there for a little while today and will be back all day tomorrow to finish up.
It is hard to believe we are almost "done" with this whole process which for the most part was enjoyable.

The girls can't hardly wait although I know they will miss seeing grandma and grandpa everyday......(or maybe they'll come visit a lot)

We have a lot to do in the next couple days to get everything ready to move. It feels as if there are things scattered everywhere!!

Emma had her Christmas program last night which was quick and to the point. She was so cute in her "girly" skirt and hat.
Lauren seems to be finding her terrible two mode more and more everyday and always wants her "own" of everything that we have. Today when I got her up from her nap, she had stripped herself of her diaper and had peed the crib and all her Sesame Street friends. The first thing she said to me was, "look at this little butt." Yep, that is the cutest little butt, but we have to leave the diaper on. (I think she has been hanging around those twins too much.) :)

The Mall

If any of you have read Stacy's blog yet for today......I too visited the mall today with Lauren. I didn't know whether to post again about "the mall" but since she did, I have to add to hers a little.
I'm glad she took some pictures because truly one could not adequately describe the memorials there at some of the entrances.
I was not nervous because we ARE safe in Omaha and yes at the mall. I was more aware of my surroundings and people which means I was VERY aware because I am a huge people watcher anyway. Lauren and I went early around 0900 and visited Dave who was working off duty at JCPenney. We bought a couple things, then made our way to one of the indoor entrances to VonMaur.
As I can relate to Stacy, I have never cried in a mall but after seeing all of the notes and flowers etc. one could not help it, and I too wasn't alone. As you can see on her blog there were thousands of notes from strangers/family members/children/and other mall stores. There was a huge one that read, "your friends at JCPenney care and support you" or something like that.
I was glad I got to see all of the "visual" support from our community.
But, like Stacy said, I was totally out of the buying and shopping mood after that. That 10min. I spent there was draining, so Lauren and I left to go pick up some carpet pad adhesive. :)

I'm not sure getting out of bed will be so smooth tomorrow as I spent a good two hours shoveling our driveway at the house in order to prepare for next week's move, (hopefully). Thanks to dad who was "in the neighborhood" and happened to stop by with his shovel. And it is nice to have great neighbors. (Thanks Tom for letting me raid your garage again.)
The hickory flooring is going in now and is Gorgeous if I do say so myself. We are anxious as we finish out this last week here.

a great accomplishment

For the last month or so, Emma has been "warning" us that the teachers at school will soon no longer be tying any shoes so we should have been practicing more than we have. Anyway, grandma took her out yesterday to get her some cool snow boots and that's all she wants to wear especially to school.
She woke up this morning and put them on first thing. BUT, it's PE day and she had to pack her tennis shoes cause you can't wear snow boots all day anyway. She was so nervous going to school so I very loosely tied her shoes so she could slip them on after taking her boots off. :(
I assured her everything would be fine yet she was nervous.
When I picked her up from school today and asked how her shoes were, she said that they were ok except she walked around with her laces untied today but during "centers" she practiced tying with one of the teachers. (they are serious when they want the kids to be independent)
Anyway, we practiced and practiced tonight and she "got it." WHEW! Course then she had to demonstrate to anyone that would watch and then we had to have shoe tying races.
Glad that's overwith.

Lauren has been battling a minor stomach bug that Dave had last week. Today when I got her up from her nap it looked as if she had been rolling in the mud, except it wasn't mud. She will even tell you in her cute little voice, "I have yellow diarrhea!" What a mess. So, everything including the two Ernies and Curious George got TWO rounds through the washing machine. She is so good though, doesn't even complain.

I worked at the house today, still varnishing doors and doorframes. Our basement cabinets will be installed tomorrow (pending the weather) and Dave will be putting the tack strips down for the carpet and padding. We are getting SO close that it makes it even harder to wait. The paint looks great, especially the chocolate in our bedroom. They are doing the fireplace and then the sinks and deck! The lighting fixtures are almost all in and the wood flooring will go in on Wednesday followed by the plumbers and trim carpenter again. Hopefully the ice and snow tomorrow won't slow things down. We are tentatively closing on the 19th, so say a prayer that the weather is ok for those next few days. Can't wait to have a couple Christmas parties there.

Everything else is great, we are slowly healing from the emotions of this past week and have stopped watching the news and talking about it in front of Emma. She had so many questions that we decided enough was enough on exposing her to everything. The other day in the shower she asked me is God still loved the "shooter." "Yes, God still loves the shooter."

Obviously we are so thankful for everything and everyone we have this time of year and especially after last week. Please continue to say prayers for the victim's and their families as they bury their loved ones.

"Senseless"

I am at a loss for words tonight as I write this blog entry. As I'm sure most everyone here has heard of the unspeakable tragedy at one of our malls today. As I listened to the coverage over the radio and tv, I am at a loss to even express anything but how horrific for all of those involved.
As one TV anchor asked a woman today, "Can you make any sense of all of this?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Things like this DON'T MAKE SENSE. That's why they are called "senseless acts" because that is just what they are.
We are all trying to deal with this tragedy that occurred in "our" mall. I have always felt as if the Westroads was an OK place to walk around with the kids and shop. Heck, I worked there for 4 years. I still believe it is an ok place because this could have happened anywhere in Omaha.
Please pray for all of the families affected by this and please pray for the "shooter" and his family. Please say a quick prayer too for all of the firefighters and cops who ran into danger when everyone was running away. Pray for what they had to witness and pray for those who had to speak with the families of the deceased. That is the worst part of our job sometimes!!

I have crabbed for the last month about how slow our house is going. I understand that everything has to be put in perspective and that the perspective can change day to day. To get to the point, (because I feel like I'm not making any sense) is that "it" is JUST A HOUSE. We will be in there sooner rather than later and after today's incidents I realize that my little problem is nothing compared to what others are going through. SO, with that said, we are doing well at the house. Basement is almost ready for carpet. The painters are in there now (upstairs) and thanks to Stacy talking me into being a little brave, our master bedroom will be a chocolate color. :) We were told that our appliances will be delivered on Monday, so maybe this thing will go quicker now.

The girls are doing great, I have been way to lazy/busy to take the time to take some current pictures but I will try to get that done soon.
I'm done for tonight as my brain can hardly function correctly (as you can see), plus I have another coat of varnish to do on several things. :)