Kitten Update

We took one little kitty cat home from the convention grounds shortly after we moved to Big Rock with the intention of getting her fixed so that we would only ever have one. But we never got around to it and so our little kitty had five little kittens about a month before we were to move to Decatur. Lovely.

The kids were thrilled, of course. Anya's one "ditty" became "ditty! ditty! ditty!" and she enjoyed watching them grow and play.

And they got lots of love...

 Anthony in particular enjoyed gathering all the cats together and just letting them climb all over him.

They were still too young to give away when it came time to pack up and move, so we cut a few holes in a cardboard box and took them down to Monticello with us. Momma kitty immediately escaped out of the box, but found a spot to sit looking out the back window and seemed content to ride there. Everyone made it safe and sound.

So we enjoyed having the kittens around as they grew and started to play as only kittens can.  But we really don't need six cats, so last week we had the kids pick the one they wanted to keep and then put up the "Free Kittens" sign at the end of the drive. Sure enough, someone stopped on Wednesday and picked out one of the grey ones, then two ladies stopped on Friday and took all three orange ones.

And we haven't seen Momma Kitty since Thursday night and suspect that the coyotes got her.

Which, sadly, leaves us with just one little grey kitty.

His name is Mouse.

Forget the heels, Dad!

I like boots :-)

One Last Look

Thursday, May 26, the moving van is full and our little house on McDermott Road is empty. We didn't get a chance to be here as long as we first hoped, but we enjoyed our time and made some good memories during the last eight months and so I'm a little sad as I take one last look around. Farewell little house. I lock the door and get in my truck and head south.

South is where our new home awaits. Complete with a new garden shed, which dad built for me last week. Mom and dad flew out while I was in Tucson to help Andrea take care of the kids and to help alleviate the storage shortage at the new digs. Mom juggled the three boys while dad and Andrea came down to the new house to paint and to put up the shed. I can't thank them enough, it was a huge help.


I got a few pictures after the old house was all packed. This one in the kitchen pretty much says it all: we've got too much stuff.



Twenty thousand pounds of stuff, to be exact, and it all fit on that big truck there at the end of the driveway. Barely. I'm sure glad I didn't have to lug it all into the house.


Wait, you want me to do what, honey? Okay, I can move the dresser from the boy's room into ours, but are you sure you want these boxes of books downstairs? Groan...

Spring Soccer

Both Kenrick and Anthony played soccer this spring. I got some pictures a few weeks ago.

I think Anthony enjoyed playing more than he thought he would. He hasn't been as enthusiastic about it as his big brother, but he did well for his first time out.

 

Kenrick goes a hundred mile an hour. For the whole game. He was among the youngest in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade league, but he held his own against the bigger kids and even managed to score a few times.

I'm proud of my two little athletes. We're sorry to leave Hinkley/Big Rock in part because the school's soccer program is so strong, but it was fun to get involved for one season at least. We'll have to see what Monticello has to offer.

Translation Please?

This evening in the car everyone was talking at once as usual. Paxton, as he's been prone to do lately, had launched into a long, rambling story about his "school" and his "friends in his class" and how they would miss him when he moved and how his teacher was going to give him gum, but finally the competing noise from his big brothers got to be too much. "Anthony!" he hollered, "quite ripping up me!"

He meant interrupting.

Tucson

As if things weren't crazy enough for the month of May, I spent the first two weeks of the month in Tucson, Arizona for work. We have a proving grounds there, and my current project is going to require some travel, especially this summer.

The middle of May isn't generally the best time to hike in Arizona, but that's what we did anyway. Saturday was a burner, but my colleague, SeeChew, and I found a likely trail up the mountain north of Tucson (on recommendation from some locals) and gave it a shot.

We lost the trail, but still managed to get a good hike in. We're about as far as we can go up the canyon, looking back at the city below. Lots of cactus.

On Sunday afternoon, we met up with a couple more people from work and went up to Madera Canyon, south of Tucson. It was much cooler, and a much different environment. Very pretty. Very dry this time of year, but there were a couple little springs with some water and we saw a couple of deer.

We got to the top of the loop trail we were on way later than we intended, so our decent was mostly in the dark. Fortunately, I had a small head lamp and SeeChew had a little flashlight so we made it, but I wouldn't recommend that approach in the future. Here we are, heading back down.

Progress

Sorry for the drop in posts here, but the Pandemonium Fam has been creating chaos at a crazy rate and I just haven't had a chance to sit down to try and record it.

Life continues, of course. Anya is growing like a weed and starting to talk in grunts and truncated words. Of course mommy understands her perfectly. She loves to be right in the middle of everything. Paxton is wrapping his three-year old head around the prospect of moving again. It seems like he's taking it a little better than six months ago - mostly just understanding what it means I think. Kenrick and Anthony are doing excellent in school. They are in the middle of soccer and are enjoying that. They should be able to finish out the season before we have to move.

 Last night we stayed in our new house in Monticello for the first time. We pushed to get the closing done as soon as possible and got everything wrapped up on Friday. We won't actually move until the last week of May, but Andrea will be able to do some painting and Dad is coming to put together a garden shed for me so that I have somewhere to store the lawn mower and tractor.  And I have to be in Tucson, AZ for the next two weeks. Lovely timing, huh?

Anyway, we do seem to be making some progress. Things should level out a little bit once we get moved and settled in here. It will be nice to not have to travel between Aurora and Decatur once a week, although I will be back and forth to Arizona a couple of times this summer. We'll probably try to bring the family along for at least one of those trips, so that will help. And Andrea will have a new house to decorate and a new garden to plan and plant. I'll try to keep you posted...

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!