Day 300 ~ Home Sweet Home Version 2.0

We got our keys to the new apartment today!  I'm really excited that my kitchen counter and bathroom floor, and dishwasher racks aren't boring white anymore!  We have two doors to our walk in closet, with enough room for us each to practically have our own closet.  We also have a big mirror in our dinning room and a different light!  The best part is since it's the corner apartment, it all opens up to the right when you come in, instead of the left!  AND we have an actual hallway now :)  Ah the little things that amuse me so!

Day 299 ~ Kitties boycott the decision to move....

We have decided.... for many reasons, some logical, some not, to make the move over to a two bedroom apartment.  It's spur of the moment and may take a lot of work, but we're young and now is the time to do stuff like this, or so we think!  Nate's sister, Mercie, has decided to join us for at least a year we hope, using the second bedroom.  Once we decided for sure, the cats seemed to be laying in random spots as if to boycott leaving the first real home they've every known!

Day 298 ~ A work of Art!

Paul's playdough turtles he made for art today.... he thought it was funny that they made me so happy!

Day 297 (Wednesday, May 25th) ~ Keepin' the vine alive!

Had no idea what these were supposed to grow to be until now!  It's one of those plants that grows a bean that says I love you on the bean...  but I didn't know what to expect from there.  This plant lives in Brad and Veronica's dining room windowsil and Kateri and I give it water every other day or so and it just keeps growing!

Finally after a few weeks, it got some little flowery things on it!

Day 296 (Tuesday, May 24th) ~ What to do on a day off....

Kateri is still in Texas until tomorrow, so I had the day off.  Unfortunately I had to have a hermit crab funeral :/  Harrold went to Crabby Patty heaven last night.  I was very sad as I went to bed and this morning when I took him out.  He was a good crab and a survivor... three months in a planters pot, and then he got to have friends and sand to dig under and climbed the infamous lego taj majal.  A fullfilled crabby life! :)  Then to celebrate the first Tuesday that Suzanne did not have school, and the day off.... she, nate and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On stranger Tides.  I liked it just as much as the others before it!

Harrolds funeral.... he is burried next to Murphey the robo hamster, Penelope and the poor baby birds we found last week!

Day 295 ~ Who's that face??

Ivan loves to look in the mirror!  The kids also got a new toy kitchen that makes it very convenient to sit Ivan on top of it to look in the mirror!

Day 294 (sunday, May 22nd) ~ Air Show

The Andrews Air Force Base air show was this weekend and we were able to take some time out from our busy routine and spend the day there!



Day 293 ~ A tough day :/

I woke up to find Harrold out of his shell just sitting in the cage.  According to research they really only come out like that if something is wrong.  Every night if I get up to use the bathroom I always check on the crabs and this is one of the reasons why... I always thought it was just an irrational habit of mine though and never really expected it to happen.  So we're doing everything the internet says to do when that happens, which is pretty standard accross the websites, but he's still not back in a shell and this is uncharted territory for me so I'm slightly spent emotionally.  Ask me anything about cats or hamsters and I'm good with that, but hermits, not so good.  So right now he's in the bowl with water and clean boiled shells, but I'm still very worried because if this doesn't work I won't know anything else to do for him :/

Day 292 (Friday, May 20th) ~ "When Daddy let me drive"

Ok so he never let me drive his car, because it's a stick shift and I had no interest in learning... that's a line from a song.  Regardless, when I got my first car, I knew it had to be a Saturn.  I loved my daddy's blue Saturn and I wanted one just like it.  So I got one, just a little newer and green instead of blue! 

Now, our matching Saturns face a possible seperation :/ 

Someone hit my dad's on his way home from work and since it's not worth very much, they may total the car if repairing it will cost more than it's worth.  I hope this doesn't happen, but it's had a good long life if it does.  Poor Saturn!

On a happier note... the sky cleared up today when my sister and I went to the gym!  Kateri is in Texas with her parents for a wedding and so I had a day off and we had a family dinner while Nate looked at the computer for them.  My dad and I got creative picking out dessert! :)



Day 291 ~ Piglets!

I took a break from Farmville for lent since my family wasnt playing, but we're back in the game now and we are breeding our pigs.  How silly.  I couldn't figure it out at first because I wasn't allowed to breed anything, but that's because I didn't have a boar.  But my mom gave me her boy piglet to raise and here we go!

This is Ferdinand!

And a day later, Ferdinand and my hot pink girl pig had their first piglet, I named him Phil!

Day 290 ~ Dark skies and Gagaville...

This is the third depressing day in a row that I've rounded the corner on my way to the gym just to see the same depressing sky!  These clouds seriously need to take a hike!

As a promotion for the new Gagaville, which I could care less about, they have you do stuff in Farmville.  We wanted to see what a field of crystals would look like.  I thought it was pretty cool!



Day 289 ~ Something seemed different...

We finally, after 4 weeks, got to grocery shopping tonight.  We often get subway after we're done and this time when we got the bags we couldn't figure out what seemed different, but after staring a few seconds, we realized they changed the design on the wrappers, napkins and bags etc! I like these better than the old ones!

Day 288 (Monday, May 16th) ~ Spring Concert

We didn't have handbells tonight because it was Jamie and Ms. Jeannette's music student spring concert.  My sister usually plays, but she has decidedto take a break from piano.  I of course volunteered to help regardless because I love to be part of things.  We had to set up down stairs quickly because there was a meeting going on at the same time as the concert so both were ending at almost the same time.  I couldn't have done it this time without the Pontzer kids.  The boys all play different instruments, but Jesse was finished and offered to help me.  He and his little sister Gianna were a God send and we got everything done just in time for the last performance to end.  Joy helped as well wehn she arrived. 

Jesse and Joy

And also much credit to the women in the background who helped Jesse set up the tables and chairs while I ran around putting finishing touches on everything!

Day 287 ~ Baptized and Communioned

A special day today.... baby Ivan was baptized and Lucas had his first communion.  Nate and I went for the mass and then later to Mandy's sister's house for a celebration.  The sun even came out for us so it was a beautiful day!

Mandy holding Sofia, John holding Ivan, and the boys in front Paul, Joel and Lucas

Day 286 (Saturday, May 14th) ~ Nearly New

Today was bargain bag day at the Nearly New sale at GBMC hospital.  It's basically like a twice yearly thrift store they set up and proceeds go to the hospital.  My uants and grandmother often work the cash registers and are always raving about it.  We went for bargain bag day which is the last day for the season and you fill $5 paper bags with anything you can fit in there!  I got to see my aunts that I don't see often and we got some really cool stuff, filling two bags for a grand total of only ten bucks!

The blue egg that's sitting on the table was my treasure find.... both Mandy and Veronica (the women I work for) have one and I had really been wanting one but never thought I would find one!

Day 285 ~ Organized due to Emptiness!

We have very much not felt like going grocery shopping for the last month, so we've literally cleaned out our entire kitchen and fridge out of food, which is actually a good feeling to actually really need to grocery shop instead of just doing it out of routine.  Tonight we ate the last meal we had, which means shopping tomorrow.  But this is the most empty and organized our fridge and freezer have ever looked!

Day 284 (Thursday, May 12th) ~ Balloon Wars

The boys and I had a particularly awesome morning.  They had a package of balloons you use to make things like swords and dogs, but they obviously weren't blown up.  We had a great war using handfulls of them as swords and trying to get them away from one another.  I don't usually have that much energy or interest in doing stuff like that, so it was surprisingly fun!  We eventually had to call peace when Ivan started to get fussy and we got so good at smacking each other that the middle of the balloons kept getting all tangled up!

Day 283 (Wednesday, May 11th) ~ And with this, goes the last of my sanity...

I was driving to Nate's parents and this is the first gas station I've seen over $4 for regular.  I have to get gas so it's not like it matters all that much, but it still made me gasp when I saw it. It feels like just yesterday we were waiting for it to come down back under $2... we've been waiting for weeks for this and it's finally happened.

Day 282 (Tuesday, May 10th) ~ Be Barefoot....

Another pretty day outside and I had to craving to go play outside barefoot.  Kateri is not a big fan of barefoot in the grass, but I got her to run around and finally be happy with it.  We did cartwheels and kicked her princess ball around.  This is Kateri putting her feet on top of mine laughing because I was telling her I was "teaching her how to be barefoot!"

Day 281 ~ Purple Tree Flowers

Ivan and I found these in the back yard while we were swinging.  I don't often go to or look towards this side of the house so I didn't know they were there, but I thought they were very unique!

Day 280 ~ Day of Mothers

Today was a bitter sweet Mother's day.  I went over to Nate's mom's house to help her plant some of her summer plants.  It was fun and I learned how to master the topsey turvey!

Then I went over to my mom's house to say happy day of mothers to her, and enter the bitter sweet part.  When I got there Suzanne told me her hamster had passed away.  Penelope Jane was the sweetest hamster ever and she wasn't even very old :/  We will miss her very greatly (we often pronounced her name like canteloupe... pen-e-loupe)  This is a picture I took just last Saturday when we accidentally woke her up by being suddenly loud.  She really loved Suzanne and we loved her!  I went with Suzanne the day she picked her out... so we are sad, but she is with all the other many of our beloved hamsters from over the years!

Day 279 (Saturday, May 7th) ~ Yard Sales & Whales

Today was a community yard sale in my grandmoter's neighborhood.  Nate and I went early and found some great stuff and only spent about $8 on everything!

These "12 days of Christmas" glasses have potential to be worth so much more than we payed for them, but we walked away with them for only $3!!!

Suzanne and I went to the dollar store later in the afternoon to stock up on new flip flops.  And since we had been talking about my Killer Whale phobia, we bought these in jest (they're just like gold fish) to see if I could get over my fear... our efforts were for nothing as I am still afraid, but they are really good!

Day 278 ~ In Plain Sight

My show was on today... still just as good as the last two seasons!

Afterwards I took Kateri to my mom's so I could do laundry.  And that's where I met Humphrey!  These little things are all over the front of my parent's house, I named them all humphrey but this is the original Humphrey because I was looking at him when the wind blew him onto my shirt.