Just checking in here so that you can breathe.  I know you're all holding your breath, waiting anxiously for the next installment of the Z Show.  :-)

Carpet is being installed today in the basement and Noelle's room.  We had to pull up the old stuff to get the discount.  I do not recommend it ... and I didn't even do most of the work.  It's just way too messy and too gross to look at what is underneath old carpet.  What did they do, dump buckets of sand in the basement??  The current plan is to put the house on the market July 1st.  We missed June, and apparently we're all about round numbers, so we're shooting for that.  In the meantime, I'm both panicking and apathetic about our own house situation.  Matt is just not buying the renovation project I had in mind, and nothing out there seems perfect.  He is fairly excited about the prospect of building, which I guess I could go for, but it delays putting the house on the market.  Or does it?  I guess there's always moving twice -- moving into a rental until our house is ready and then moving again.

It would help if we had a plan, wouldn't it?  For some reason we just can't seem to make up our minds and settle on something because we're still holding out hope that we'll sell our house, and at that very same moment the perfect house on the perfect land for the perfect price will show up on the MLS.  I like to look at it as surrender to God's will  -- if we sell, then He must want us to move and He'll make it know where that should be.  If we don't sell, well that's another answer.  It's certainly an answer ...

Operation Potty Training is going great.  They still need frequent reminders when they're out playing, and there are a few accidents here and there if I forget to remind them, but that's not too bad in my book.  But there is bad news ... My boys have lost their ability to go No. 2.  They know they're not allowed to go in their pants, but they still have an aversion to doing it on the potty, despite their best efforts to assure me that today will be the day.  So instead of doing either, they're simply not going.  Great.  Oh well ... I never really liked the whole pooping thing anyway.  Glad they don't ever want to do that again.

My dear friend Traci had a baby and I got to see sweet little Jake Hudson last night.  Must say, I really have mixed emotions about that whole new baby thing (I mean in as much as it concerns me having another-- I've only got happiness for them).  I don't want to be preggers, but I just LOVE newborns, and have such good associations with being in the hospital with a newborn. At that point I'm so euphoric that I'm not pregnant that I'm not focusing on anything bad!  She and I talked about the fact that we'd be PERFECT adoptive parents because we could have our cake and eat it too ... but neither one of our husbands would ever go for it.  Isn't that a bummer?

 

Ok, floors to mop.  Gotta run.  Bye.





 

As I sit here at 7:20am on a summer morning, I am reminded why it is that I haven’t been very prolific lately.  Those boys are the loudest, most energetic pair you’ve ever met post sunrise.  They are just bursting forth with the joy of living [cue choirs of angels singing] … and I’m supplementing my meager existence this morning with a strong cup of the Good Stuff.  Yesterday, I tried to read … I barely made it through 3 pages.  I just gave up after Jonny interrupted me for the 256th time.  But how can I complain?  (Well, I’ll tell you how … I simply open my mouth up and it all comes pouring out.)  My little boy is talking, and he’s getting better and better every day.  Even Mia notices when he can say a word more clearly than he used to.

 

OK.  I’m warning you now.  I will be rambling a bit here.  If I have to think about what I’m going to say and organize it so that it comes out beautifully I won’t write at all.

 

So potty training is moving along very well.  Basically it goes like this:  if they have “Daddy Underwear” on, they potty in the potty bowl 95% of the time.  If they have diapers or pullups on, they potty in the potty bowl about 10% of the time.  That adds up to more than a 100% right?  I’m fine with those statistics, because they are improving all the time, and our schedule simply doesn’t make cold turkey possible.  Owen is farther along than Jonny, because he has so much more opportunity to go due to his small bladder.  But Jonny is really working hard!  Now if we could just make the jump to No. 2 on the potty before I completely lose it over No. 2 in the Daddy Underwear.  Worst.  Part. Of.  Motherhood.  Ever.  But we’ll keep plugging along.  We stay home most of today, so hopefully we’ll make some progress there.

 

As for other updates … the house situation is going at a snail’s pace.  We ordered carpet, and Matt wants to wait to have that done before we put it on the market.  Until that happens, I should just stop looking at houses because it’s torture.  Either I’m doing contortions trying to make a bad house on good property work, or there’s a BEAUTIFUL foreclosure – super good deal – on land that’s too far away and possibly not great for horses.  Whatever.  It feels like if I stop looking for a while then it will be all new again when I come back to it.  Trouble is … I’m addicted.  J

 

 

 

I was supposed to have pictures of my house up by Monday, and I've gotten one taken.  Ugh.  That's how my life is lately ... I think I have so many hours in a day and all I have to do is get a few of them done, but heellloooo ... that's all you can GET done when you're also trying to keep seven kids from boredom and mess making.  Mess-making would end the boredom, for sure, but then ... well, you know.

This morning we did dentist appointments and enrollment for Jonny in kindergarten.  Then we stopped home for quick chores, and now I get to go do the most fun thing of all: house hunting.  It's a hassle, yes, but there's nothing more fun to me than the prospect of finding my future home.

Here is the property ... I've walked the outside already.  It's in need of some work, but what's so exciting is the property and area.  It's beautiful.  And it's also kinda exciting to think of the possibilities in the fixing it up department.


http://www.sibcycline.com/viewlisting.asp?mls=401618&b=DTON&p=RESI&s=RESI&m=1&sender=SearchResults&a=6135-Lesourdsville-West-Chester-Rd-Hamilton-OH-45011


So since I didn't stick to my goals of picture taking, let me try to give you something else instead.  I love this quote, and I'm thinking it's pretty true.  I will try to post those pics soon!
 



Our self image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other." Dr. Maxwell Maltz
1899-1975, Author

 

So today was Day 2 in the Potty Training Saga.  Now I didn't say that the days were consecutive.  I just said it was the second day.  My schedule, life, and obligations lately are making it tough to do my usual Cold Turkey routine, but nevertheless we have been very successful.

Picture the scene. One cute little blonde boy with a Swim Trunks Tan (but minus the trunks) -- 2 feet tall and the roundest buns you’ve ever seen --walking around my back patio and deck.  Also with him is the bigger boy, totally simple and naive in his own lovable way, also walking around naked out back.  Lettin' it all hang out!  (If you're scandalized by this, see the note below.)  We gave them bubbles, water guns, WHATEVER it takes to keep them busy, and we gave them anything at all that they might want to drink no matter how much sugar it might have in it.  We want them to DRINK!  Each time we did it, there was quite a bit of waiting involved, but once the floodgates opened, there was pee from Owen every 10 minutes!  When it came out, I caught it in the Potty Bowl and viola! – there’s no such thing as an accident!

On Day One, Owen had 6 successes, and Jonny two.  Today they each had five!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Jonny had a harder time with both the concept and the adjustment, but little Owen’s success surely has helped.   Jonny seems to be having a harder time physically making it, but (bless his heart) he grunts and pushes until he gets some in that bowl.  Today they each also had a success on the actual potty.  Step 2 is to get Jonny relaxed enough to just empty his bladder, but for now I’m just thrilled with our little success.  This is way beyond anything we’ve ever gotten out of him!  J

Only a parent would understand what I’m about to say, but here it is.  (If you don’t have kids, you’ll just have to wait till you do to understand.)  There is nothing cuter than a little pudgy two-year-old standing there making pee come out of its little body.  NOTHING.  And the pride on his little face is undescribable.

Now for the naked issue … Because Jonny is so child-like, and because he’s in diapers/Pull-ups still, it’s very common for the girls to see him naked.  They don’t bat an eye at it, just as they don’t when they see their two-year-old brother.  It’s just a matter-of-fact way of life around here, and the whole clan is VERY involved and supportive of this potty-training endeavor.  So lest you think we’ve horrified our girls or Jonny, for that matter, let me assure you that it’s nothing out of the ordinary and has followed from having Jonny’s special needs in our family.  I like to think that because they see boy parts all the time in such an innocent, healthy way they will not be so curious later!  J

 

 

 

Seriously, I can't believe your still even checking this blog.  it's been nearly 3 weeks since I've posted and it only seems like a few hours.  Time is flying by because I'm immersed up to my eyeballs in all things moving and school and potty training.  Finishing school, that is.  And not actually moving but trying to, that is.  And gearing up for potty training, not actually starting the training, but it's crowding my brainspace.

Once we start living at the pool to avoid messing up the house, I'll have a harder time blogging but I've got a plan.  You see, my philosophy goes this way: if i had a laptop, then i could blog EVERYWHERE and ... and therefore I need a laptop.  Because you guys are THAT important.

But since I won't be getting a laptop, I'm just going to have to try to be a little more determined about regular updates.  What good is it having a blog if I'm not going to keep it up a little better?  I'll have to carve out a little time in between searching for new homes to say hello to my blog buddies.

First I'll start by giving myself a little accountability partner (that's you).  I'll be posting photos of the rooms that I photograph to put on the MLS, and I need a little deadline.  How about by Monday?  Done.

I'll try to see you around more often.