Laying Seige to the Shackteau

We had a pretty good trip up to Idaho. The weather was decent and the kids were good. It was tiring of course, but all in all not too bad. It was crazy getting things ready to go and honestly, our packing job was such a mess I have no idea where anything is.
But the real news happened when we were about an hour outside of Missoula. I called our agent because she hadn't dropped of the key the day before. Turns out that was because the woman was still in our house. We did a rent back to her for a couple days because she said that she needed some extra time. I guess she decided she needed more. We tried everything to get her removed, but the cops couldn't do it because they said it was a "paperwork issue" and not trespass and since she had been our renter, technically rental law would apply. It was amazingly irritating. Eventually, after lots of aggravation she had to pay us an extra $60 and be out by noon today. Whoopee. The house was a complete sty and the yard hadn't been weeded or mowed since we did the contract. She took our curtains but left her junk. And she padlocked both back gates and did not leave keys. We're behind on our renovation schedule and Charles leaves tomorrow. When we finally got possession, we went at it. Changed the locks, started prepping to paint, and took down the awful curtains. We made an extremely spendy trip to Lowe's, got the Uhaul unloaded, took down one giant ceiling fan and ripped up the carpet. All of it in the entire house. It was DISGUSTING. Like one of the grossest jobs ever. Both her dog and cat have continuously peed all over it, some of it very very recently. Like today. Huge wet stains in the subfloor. Dana, Jeff, and Dad helped unload the Lowe's booty and we all toasted the new house with champagne. I'm taking picts, just didn't download today.

On the Sea of Pee

I am inundated in excrement. Potty training has officially begun and it was not my idea AT ALL. But this is what they are wanting to do, so I'm going with it. Griffin has greeted me twice this week with a crappy diaper in his hand when I go to get them in the morning. Both twins strip their diapers and clothes off at every single opportunity. Griffin pees in the pool--like those fountains with the boy peeing. Yeah. He runs up to the edge of the pool and pees into it. He also pees on the floors. And he took a crap on the kool-dek today. I'm not kidding. Kenna mostly does little tinkles every once in a while, but she's got a lot more control and we go to the potty regularly. She insists on going to the potty. A lot. But mostly doesn't do anything there. I think she just likes my undivided attention. To add to the excitement, Laney is working on not wearing a pull up to bed anymore. Occasionally that has been resulting in laundry.
But enough about body functions, right? We're working on all the logistics of moving. Like lighting a fire under the butts of the mortgage people and figuring out how to find a notary. We're doing something new--both houses will be closing via mail. So I sign everything and mail it off. Weird. I've got lots and lots of ideas for the new house. I think Charles is starting to get freaked out. But I did set a budget and plan to stick to it. It's actually sort of fun to figure out how to do everything I want to do within that boundary. Hello Craigslist! And family basements. I'm feeling really creative. Hopefully my energy level stays up with my plans. I realized today that we have a lot of parties this summer. The twins birthday, Brianna's graduation, Lynda and Curt's anniversary/birthday party, Dana's birthday party and family reunion. And Charles' birthday too, but he refuses to celebrate it. Fun fun fun!

The Shackteau

I'm returned from the frozen north and I've seen our new house. We decided to call it the Shackteau. Let's just say that when you say "I'm going to my second home for the summer" or something like it, it conjures an idea that is in no way in keeping with the reality of our humble house. The house was in sort of poor condition, but then again it is almost 20 years old. It has lots of potential to be really cute one day. The current owners wouldn't leave and I felt weird taking pictures of them and their stuff, so I don't really have many pictures. I am really excited to see the house empty. I'm sure it will seem really different. It is certainly packed to the gills right now. The current owner has two room mates. And a shizhzou (?) dog. That isn't potty trained yet. I'll be plenty busy for the next few summers with home improvements. Which is actually kind of cool with me. I think it will be fun.
Hmm. What else to say? We have fruit trees and raspberry and strawberry bushes. And a two story building in the backyard that looks a little like a grain silo from the end.
The weather in Idaho was (and still is) nasty. Cold and wet. In general, it was so nice to have a few days off. I did my own thing and went shopping at thrift stores, had coffee, that sort of thing. We also went out to dinner at the White House on Friday night and that was great. We went to Enoteca for a wine tasting first. It will be nice to get up there for the summer.

Kenna on the Mend

Kenna is officially on the mend. We started antibiotics yesterday and she's much better this morning. Our trip to Target was a nightmare. I had two kids running away from me up and down the aisles and a sick one clinging to me. It was Laney's turn to be a troublemaker on that trip. On the up side, they have all been much better about playing together and sharing lately. We haven't had a major biting incident in a while. This may be because K has been to sick to be feisty. I'm not sure.
I'm heading out tomorrow for Idaho. Charles comes home tonight. I think we're going to have tag team parenting for the next week or so. Once I get back, we'll really need to start rockin' and rollin' on the preparation to go to Idaho at the end of the month.
Time to get my kiddos dressed and head to dance class. No swimming today. I think we still need to arrange to finish Kenna's lessons and do another couple days with the G-man. I wish my camera took little videos too. It's pretty cool to see them swim.

Mondays

What a Monday. Charles left at 4ish this morning. Kenna woke up screaming at 5. She and I "slept" in my bed for a few hours. She's had a fever for about 4 days. We were supposed to do their clothed swim tests today and since K had a fever she had to skip it. Griffin still won't roll. Little bugger. We all went to Costco after swimming and had lunch afterwards. Griffin has been feeling his two-ness coming on lately, so he was cute and sweet until he wasn't. He stuffed his mouth with pizza and chewed it in to a glutinous mass then drank some pink lemonade to make a slurry and started spitting it out. I was not amused. I took away his drink. So he spit everything in his mouth all over me. So I took away the pizza and he had a massive hissy hissy fit in the middle of the Costco cafeteria wherein he tried to fish his pizza plate out of the garbage can and snagged a finger and a lady came and freed him. I carried him bodily to the car since he refused to walk. He fought getting in to the car seat and screamed for the first 10 minutes of the trip home. Then he passed out. They all took a nice long nap, but when I got the twins up Kenna was burning up. I took her temp and my thermometer read 104. So I freaked out. Then we all went to the dr in a frenzy and Kenna of course was about 100 by then. They hooked this weird bag to her to catch her pee. Their initial testing indicated that there might be a urinary tract infection but they are sending the specimin out to the lab tomorrow. So we may or may not make a trip to the pharmacy tomorrow. I'm going to go have a glass of wine now.

Picts of the House

I think I'm going to need to give the Idaho house a name so that we can refer to it easily. Any ideas? I received pictures courtesy of Michelle (as neighborhood stalker I hear).

Isn't the tree pretty? Sadly, we'll probably never live there while it is in bloom, but others can enjoy it. I hadn't seen detailed photos of the front yard (or really anything else) yet, so these were sort of a suprise. Not sure I'm completely on board with the green trim detail on the house.

Ok. I need to put the camera battery in and take some pictures of the kids. They've made a nest of my couch cushions and are playing with a singing letter thing. So cute. I love it when they are sweet and play nicely together. They aren't always the spawn of the devil. I've been a slacker on the picture taking for a while now. Time to get back in gear.

Swimmin' and Stuff

We're in week three of swim lessons and I'm getting a little tired of it. I'd hoped to complete the refresher in two weeks but Griffin won't do his roll. It's cute to watch them though. The twins started out with the attitude that we were definitely trying to kill them and now they take a running jump into Pam's arms. They also tell her that they want to go swim to the bar a lot. I got in and swam with all of them last week and it was fun. I'm not completely sure how I'll manage to swim with the twins though. Laney did her swim test fully clothed last week and I went all out this time (I didn't want to bother with wet shoes and the like last year). She wore jeans, long sleeves and heavy tennis shoes. It was hard work but she did it. Over the weekend we were working in the yard and in and out of the house. I left the kids inside, went outside quickly, came back in and noticed Kenna was missing. I found her outside by the pool! She must have slipped out behind me when I went back inside. I had that little heart attack moment mom's get but then I was really glad that we've invested in the lessons. Hopefully the pool will heat up and we'll be able to swim in it before we go to Idaho. I'm determined that next year we'll invest in a pool heater. If we don't, we'll never swim in the pool since we'll be gone over the summer.
Charles went to school with Laney yesterday to do their Donuts with Dad day. Sounds like he had fun. Oddly Laney didn't seem to have a lot to say about it. Then again, she never really has much to say about school. I try to get her to tell me about it, but nope.
I met with a landscaper again today to get a bid to remove our rocks from the back yard. We're replacing it all with rock that matches the front. It was a little awkward since he didn't speak English. I felt sort of bad that I didn't know Spanish.