Blasted Kohls

I have such a love/hate relationship with Kohls. Today it's much more hate and not so much love. I always think I'm going to find something I love at Kohl's at The Biggest Sale of the Season! Every week! But, I often find myself irritated with some part of my shopping experience and vowing not to return. But I always do.

So today I pick the girls up from school and we continue our Quest for Lily's New Comforter. First up is Homegoods, where despite the dirty/sympathetic looks I got from people for dragging 4 kids around Homegoods, we have a nice, peaceful shopping experience but no comforter. So, I think...Kohls is around the corner...let's stop there. The kids not so excited but whatever I've promised The Pool after dinner if they are good. This Kohl's happens to be our fancy schmancy store that's multi-level (this very important detail will matter in a second) and of course the home department is upstairs. Kohls does win points with me for having a double stroller-cart available at the front door. I load the little ones in the stroller-cart and we head for the elevator (which earns points from the girls). We press the button and the elevator comes right way. Yes! And up we go. The door opens and good grief, there are tons of abandoned carts in front of the elevator doors. How rude! Like so many the girls have to go push them out of the way. So we get through that obstacle course and head over to the bedding. We're doing fine and even find a bed set that suits Miss (picky) Lily....i.e. it has enough pink. So we go back to the elevator to go down and pay for our goods. The button is already pressed so we wait. And wait. And wait. No elevator comes. Finally we see a guy who works there. I ask about the elevator. He gets on his walkie-talkie and says oh, the elevator is broken and rest assured, the manager knows. I replied that we just came up the elevator 10 minutes ago. He said that yes, it brings people up and goes back down but it won't come up for people on the second floor. Lightbulb - this is why there were so many abandoned carts at the top of the elevator. So...I'm stuck on the 2nd floor with 2 walking kids and 2 in a stroller-cart. (Thank goodness it wasn't my double stroller or I'd have been really ticked off ) Seriously, would it have killed them to put up a freaking sign? Especially since "the manager knows the problem." How many people, with little kids, got stuck like me. Argh! So I leave my bedding, pick up Jacob and Julia and head down the escalator. I just couldn't phyiscally carry everything down the elevator. Kohls was so not getting my business. And as we head to doors I realized it's pouring, absolutely pouring outside..great...just my freaking luck.

Still Cleaning

We close on the new house on Friday. As in 4 days from now..Yikes! Thank God that we hired packers because I'd never be ready! I've been cleaning out closets, drawers and cabinets. Finished the attic this morning (thanks Aunt Mimi for watching the little ones) and I'll finish the kitchen tomorrow hopefully. I have found a ridiculous amount of trash and several boxes of stuff for Goodwill. It's nice to have things cleaned out and organized. Now if I could just get rid of more toys and stuffed animals we'd be all set...

Let the Cleaning Commence

So the big move is scheduled to take place next week. No one around here wastes any time. Clearly Paul's doing..not mine. Because my husband loves me a lot he's trying to make this move as easy as he can (and since this is the 6th move in 9 years)...he hired packers. Call me spoiled. The last 2 times we've moved we've had packers and I think they are the best thing. Ever. Honestly they walk in one morning and your whole house is packed up and ready to move 7 hours later. And...they have insurance so if something gets broken they have to replace it. Even though we are having packers there is prep work that needs to be done on my end. They move everything..literally..even trash...so I am trying to go through the whole house and eliminate anything we don't need. Nothing is safe from my trashbag...I figure the less we move the less I have to unpack.

I am actually enjoying the cleaning out..it's very cleansing. I figure even if something falls through and we don't move we'll have a very organized house and way less junk.

Clarification

Ok - so I didn't realize my last post was so cryptic and that so many of my FB friends actually read my notes! So, first let me thank you all for reading my notes - thank you! Second, I'll apologize for being so cryptic..I use my blog as an outlet sometimes for feelings and I didn't mean to come across so vague!! So, let me address some things:

No..we are SO NOT having another baby..4 is more than plenty..thank you..

No..we are NOT moving back to MA..though I loved it there and would go back if the opportunity presented itself...

Yes..Paul is STILL employed at Walmart and really enjoying is job...no changes there

The big change is that it looks like we'll be moving into a new house..in our same neighborhood...(we are still waiting for all the paperwork to go through so it could still fall through but don't think so..was hoping to wait for all that before we really said something). The house is literally right down the street..as in 11 houses down. The house is bigger than what we have now and with 6 people living in one abode that will be nice. I love, love our house but it is getting a bit crowded..we have plenty of space but the layout of the space may not be the best for a family with 4 kids.

I'm excited for the change but it's a big change (bigger house = bigger mortgage & more to clean)..when we move the girls will be split up and Julia will move to a bed (not so sure I am ready for that) and we'll have to paint some and make the home ours. It will take time. Also, the whole thing is happening so fast..as in we will likely be moving on Aug. 1! So..it's a whirlwind...I'll keep you posted and I'll some pics of the new house once we are totally sure it's all approved.

Ch...Ch...Changes

Change. It's inevitable in life..especially when you have kids. You think you have a plan and and something as simple as an unexpected dirty diaper can throw you off. Then there are the big changes that come with unanticipated job changes or moves. Big changes, little changes...some are easy, some are hard but no matter what you have to decide to accept the change and go with it.

That said our family may be embarking on a big changes. I'm not totally sure I'm ready but decisions have been made and there is no turning back now. So.. it's time to jump on the horse, embrace the change and move forward. Stay tuned..more coming.

First Day of Kindergarten

Lily had her first official day of Kindergarten yesterday. She did get Emma's old teacher which she was excited about. She claimed to have had a great day and that she really liked it. Her favorite parts of the day were looking for Brownie the Bear (I think it was some sort of scavenger hunt around the school) and lunch. She's so different than Emma...Emma will give us a play by play of her entire day while Lily will simply say "it was good and I don't really want to talk about it."

Emma got her first bit of homework yesterday..a math worksheet. She was beyond excited about it. I hope her enthusiasm will continue as she gets older!

The Potter Inn

I haven't posted in a few days - recovering from nonstop company from Thursday through Sunday. The first guests we hosted were some family friends from MA who were making a pit stop with us before heading to the Outer Banks. The Gables brought 3 of their 4 kids (the 4th drove to the beach with an aunt) with them and a great time was had by all. The sun finally did come out Friday afternoon and we were able to enjoy some time together at the pool. They left early Saturday morning to head to the Outer Banks.

Saturday evening our friend Amy and her daughter Eve came over. Amy & Eve live in Hawaii but are temporarily in NC because Amy's dad is in the hospital. We offered to have Eve stay over with us on Saturday so Amy could get some rest and be at the hospital on Sunday. (Can I just add that I am so NOT ready to be at the point in my life where friend's parents are getting sick and need medical attention but.. I guess you never are) The girls had a big time with Eve..we went to church then to my mother in laws for brunch and swimming. Eve left on Sunday evening and then it was time to get ready for school on Monday...

Chunky Monkey

Jacob had his 9 month appointment yesterday and would you believe my little monkey is almost 21lbs! My girls didn't weigh that much until probably 15 months! He's got thighs you wouldn't believe but oh, So. Darn. Cute!! He's crawling everywhere now and gaining speed like crazy. He pulled up yesterday for the first time. I can't believe how fast it's going....

4 + 3 = A Lot of Kids

So our good friends from MA, the Gables, are visiting us for a couple days en route to the Outer Banks for vacation. They also have 4 kids but one stayed behind and will be meeting them at the beach. So we currently have 7 kids at our home - 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 1/2, 2 and 9 mos...5 girls, 2 boys. A lot. Loud, a little chaotic but fun..lots of fun. Even though it's been 2 years since we've seen our friends it feels like we saw them last week. Don't you just love friends like that...where you just pick up right where you left off? We've had such a nice visit with them. I do think they brought the clouds with them..I've been hearing about all this rain they've had in New England while we can't buy any rain around here. Go figure that the only cloudy, cool days we've had since May are when they are here. I'm hoping the sun will come out this afternoon and we can hit the pool..though I fear the water will be freezing. Though being they are from New England it will probably be warm to them. Being with them makes me really miss our friends from MA. We had some great, great friends there...I sure hope we can make it back there sometime!

In school news Emma has had a great first week. She loves it and loves her teacher. Yes..she's one of those kids. Lily also had a great first day and we found out today that she will have Emma's teacher from last year. We're excited about that as we loved her teacher. I'm sure Lily will have a different experience but I'm glad to know what to expect and glad to already have a relationship with the teachers.

Off to pick up the house a little..as you can imagine 7 kids leave quite a trail!

Twas the Night Before Kindergarten

Again. Lily goes tomorrow for her first day of Kindergarten! Can you believe it? Seems like just yesterday Emma started Kindergarten and now she's successfully had her first day of 1st Grade. Lily is super excited about going tomorrow. She's sad she only gets to go one day this week but next week she starts going every day. She is so hoping that she gets Emma's old teachers but we won't find out until Friday. It's very cute how Emma tells her she'll help in the carpool line and that she'll see Lily in the cafeteria. Big day tomorrow! Big day!

Emma had a great first day of 1st grade. She seems to really like her teacher and she knows over half the class since they moved up together from Kindergarten. Thank goodness she just loves, loves school...I hope she'll always have that enthusiasm.

Twas the Night Before 1st Grade

Holy cow..Emma starts 1st grade tomorrow. How did that happen? When the kids are little you have days where you think they will never get older and that you'll be changing their diapers and cleaning up spit up forever. But, honestly, you blink and all of a sudden they are in school, wanting to do everything themselves, reading and losing teeth. Sigh...where does the time go? How did it move so slowly as a kid but so quickly now??

We went to Emma's open house this morning and met her teacher. A lovely young lady. Bless her heart she has 26 kids in the class and no aide! God Bless her. That's all I can say. I can't imagine being around 26 6 years olds for 7 hours a day. She's a saint. And a brave one at that. We got a few supplies added to the list, a nice letter from the teacher (which apparently has heard all the dirt on Emma from her Kindergarten teacher), got the carpool signs and added money on the lunch accounts. All set for tomorrow. But wait, as I get home double checking the supplies I realize that I bought the wrong folders. Need ones with pockets and don't have them. Crap. It's off to Walmart we go where we're told they won't have plastic folders this year. What? Only these reinforced cardboard ones. What? Those freaking folders are on every list. Oh and we also need 12 glue sticks. 12. Per kid. Seriously? How much gluing are they doing?

We found almost everything (though Walmart was out of all glue sticks apparently lots of other kids needed 12 glue sticks). Her backpack is packed, lunch is ready to go. The first day of first grade. Holy cow.

7 Kids, the Tooth Fairy and the Longest Drive Home

We took a little mini-vacation this past week down to my mom's condo at Myrtle Beach. Mom took Emma down last Sunday, the other kids and I left on Tuesday and Paul finally joined us on Thursday. Our good friends Frances & Steven and their 3 girls also came down on Wednesday. So, in case you weren't counting, that makes 4 adults and 7 (yes, 7) kids ages 6 and under at my mom's 3 bedroom condo. Can you say chaos? Actually, it sounds worse than it was. The kids did pretty well with the exception of a few screaming matches, an elbow to the mouth, a kick in the mouth resulting in a lost tooth (more on that in a minute), a busted lip and a scraped knee. The "vacation" was fun though I wouldn't go so far as to call it relaxing. It's a lot of work to get 7 kids to the beach each day and home and clean! We did some swimming, played in the ocean a lot, went to Ripley's Aquarium, took all the kids to a couple restaurants and went to the new Freestyle Music Park on July 4th along with 11 million other people.

One of the more exciting moments of the week for Emma was when she lost her first tooth. The dentist had told us it was wiggly a couple weeks ago (though I couldn't really tell). Apparently Julia and Emma were playing around and Julia kicked Emma in the mouth. That was all the tooth needed to really get wiggly. Emma was so excited the tooth was so wiggly that she totally forgot about Julia kicking her. We go to the beach that afternoon and before Emma even got into the water her tooth fell out. Amazingly there was not much drama surrounding that. And, if you know Emma it really was amazing! She was just so excited to finally lose a tooth! We put the tooth in a bag and she insisted we had to take it home so she could use her tooth fairy pillow to put the tooth in. Well, yesterday Emma was showing off the tooth to all the kids and of course it turned up missing. Drama ensued and she was so, so upset. She finally decided that the South Carolina tooth fairy took and gave it the North Carolina tooth fairy and there would be money waiting under her pillow when we got home. Seriously. So we get home and Paul promptly runs upstairs and puts $5 (the only cash we had on hand) under her pillow. She found it about 10 minutes after we got home and I can't tell you how excited she was. So. Darn. Cute!

I hope you had a great 4th of July! Apparently almost everyone was at the beach as evidenced by the traffic on I-40 tonight. It seriously took us 5.5 hours to get home (we stopped a bunch but still..insane). And now vacation is over and school starts in 2 days. Yahoo!