Undone

"Paxton, what are you doing walking around with your pants undone?"
"Um, they keep undone-ing"

Popcorn and Cutie Pie

I haven't had a chance to put up many pictures lately, so here's a few of the two littlest chaos makers.

Paxton loves the bubble machine that he got for his birthday. He especially likes to shoot bubbles in the house when Mommy isn't looking.

Miss mischief.

Lately, Anya has been very interested in trying to put clothes on. She usually succeeds in getting one leg stuck in a random opening in whatever she's trying to put on. We caught her yesterday with a pair of Paxton's underwear and two of her shirts pulled up on one leg, and a pair of sweats on the other leg. Classy!

If at first you don't succeed, try switching legs...

She's always seemed to like shoes. She's not too good at putting those on either, nor can she tell the difference between her shoes and Paxton's (or mine, for that matter), but that doesn't stop her from trying.

I love that toddlers sleep like they play. Full bore.

Cheesy-face from Paxton, full of barbecue and happily dissecting an Oreo.

Big News

We're feeling a little bit overwhelmed this week with various activities piling up and me being bounced hither and yon (see the previous post), but we've got some big news.

We have a new roof.

Wait, that's not it. Although it is true - the roofers banged away all day and gave Andrea a headache. Also, Kenrick and Anthony started soccer. With two different teams and two different practice schedules. And the second septic inspection reported a clean (so to speak) bill of health - certainly big news, but not groundbreaking (thank goodness!). I think I told you already that we sold our house. No? Really? Well we did, a whole week or so ago. To the first couple that looked at it.

But that's old news. Here's the really big story.

We found a house!

It's in Monticello, a little town about 30 minutes east of Decatur. It's along a quiet, curvy little road, on a 1.3 acre lot in a forested little subdivision, a simple rectangular 70's ranch, with white brick and a walk-out basement and room for a shop. It had been on the market for a whole three days when I looked at it on Monday after work. We made an offer on it that evening. The owners countered like we expected them to and we finished signing the papers on Tuesday. We've got inspections scheduled next week and if we can get our financing ducks in a row quickly enough we may be able to close as early as the first week of May. Yay!

Okay, so here's the entertaining side of the story: Andrea hasn't seen the place yet.

Really. She saw the listing of course, and a few pictures, but there just wasn't going to be a way for her to come down to take a look any time soon, so she listened to my description and said "Let's go for it." Brave girl. That's one of the reasons I love her. I hope she likes it.

Commuting Stinks

After a couple months of making the three-hour drive down to Decatur once a week to work with my new group there, I can definitely say that commuting stinks. I've been able to work from my old office here a couple of days a week, so it could be worse I guess. I'll be glad to be done with it anyway. The guys at the rental car place know me by name.

This week was particularly bad. I had to go down to Decatur on Sunday night, stayed Monday and came home Tuesday. Then a small group of us drove to Ann Arbor, MI, on Wednesday to meet with a supplier there and drove back today. Tomorrow morning I've got to drive down to Bloomington for a meeting with another group and a different supplier before I can come back and drop the car off, a week older and 1250 miles wiser. Ugh.

Genetics

On Saturday I was working on installing a new roof vent for the bathroom fan and realized that I had forgotten to buy the short piece of pipe that connects the flexible hose to the vent. Not wanting to go back into town, I dug around a bit and found an old coffee can that I thought might work. I cut the bottom out with the can opener and proudly showed my wife.

"Looks like you've got some of your dad in you after all", she said.

I think that's a compliment.

Whooeeee!

Its windy!!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Happy Birthday Anthony

It's a new month, must be time for a new birthday at the Pandemonium house! Anthony turned eight on Saturday, right on schedule. Buddies Oakley and Ronan came for the afternoon and night to help celebrate. Look, a table full of boys!

Anthony wanted a roller-coaster cake. Mommy delivered. The kids are certain that she should be on one of those cake-decorating shows on TV.

I was looking at a bunch of pictures last night from when Anthony was just a baby. He's changed a lot from that chubby little ball of happy energy, but the look of mischievous silliness stays the same.

Time for presents. Oakley handles the obligatory rabbit ears.

A fun book from Cliff and Mary. More rabbit ears.

 Legos. Really, who would have guessed?

Number eight is the Year Of The Bigger Bicycle. Anthony picked out a snazzy orange one. Looks good, bud!