January

A light-box my Dad made for Galina. Isn't it gorgeous?! There is a tiny butterfly in the corner that the cat is pawing at.

January has come and gone. We have not stopped moving, yet it seems we have done very little. The last two weeks were spent in a concerted effort to get back into a routine after Christmas and family. As I type this Galina is taking a math test at the kitchen table and Brian and Johnny are taking the trash to the dump.

The kids are both sick...again. Every time we turn around there is a new cold. Brian brought this one home from school. Have to love public school.

We also started the kids in gymnastics during January, but we are already planning on stopping Johnny's class at the end of February and changing Galina to a daytime homeschool class then as well. Evening things are just not our thing. I like to be home before dark.

I wish that there was more to do around here. I cannot lie, I miss Hawaii's beaches and great hiking and Massachusetts great, free sight-seeing/hiking. Having a Wal-Mart five minutes from our house is not a good thing either.

We are not moving to the farm, as we had originally thought would happen. Gas is too expensive for Brian to drive to school from there everyday and he wants to stay with the Southwest Volunteer Fire Department a little bit longer. If everything goes well this semester, he should be on track for just one more year at Coastal and then transferring to a University. I've mentioned to my parents that we may move closer then, if he starts commuting to Wilmington. Who knows...if I thought they could sell this house tomorrow, for what they wanted to get for it, we'd move tomorrow.

Baby is fine. She is rolling and punching a little bit these days. We measured 34 weeks at my 33 week appointment. Probably just because I was not in fantastic shape before she came along! But we are down to appointments every two weeks for a little bit. They are quick appointments: urine sample, blood pressure, listen to baby's heartbeat - done. The kids love them. My sugar test was a few weeks ago and that was fine, as were my iron levels. This office combined the glucose test with an ultrasound. It was pretty great because you have to sit there for an hour anyways, why not have an ultrasound!? The kids do not appreciate them as I do. Neither does Brian beyond the first five minutes - then he gets stressed out by the kids wandering around a dark room filled with expensive medical equipment and by Johnny's constant chatter with whatever person is in the room, not related to us. I have no idea where his sociality comes from - it is not learned by example!

Speaking of Johnny, he is POTTY TRAINED! Several weeks ago we went to Target with a gift card from Aunt Lori and Uncle Alan and Cara. I had decided to try and find some sort of toy as an incentive for him to potty train. We had half-heartedly tried before with little success. I found a doctor kit on sale for less than $7. As I put it in the cart, I explained to Johnny that we would eventually start potty training and that would be his prize. It was a Friday or Saturday night, I was not planning on starting until Monday, when we would stay home all week. Well, as soon as his feet hit the ground that evening, he was in his room putting on undies and he hasn't looked back! That isn't entirely true...every once in awhile, especially when he has a cold, he asks to put on a diaper. Now, we are not potty trained at night. I am not ready for that. Changing sheets in the middle of the night is not high on my list of fun things to do. So, he wears a diaper at night and puts on undies in the morning. Works for us. Especially since we still have a gigantic box of size 6 diapers to use. Once those are gone...maybe...maybe one more box though...depends on when this little girl gets here and how she does!

Galina is doing good with gymnastics, when she's in the mood. She is doing a lot of "make-overs" these days: painting nails, putting colored chalk in her hair, just generally being vain. Luckily she still likes to play outside and read books just as much as she likes make-up stuff. She also loves to do cheers, thanks to her cousin Julia who did cheerleading for a season and has a memory like no other. There is no end to the cheers she teaches Galina, all personalized with cats for G.

Nesting is in full swing. There is nothing in this house that hasn't been touched, moved, cleaned by me in the last month. I'm hoping this energy stays (at least from breakfast to after lunch) for awhile longer and I can get the front door painted and the front living room sit-able. The furniture in there stays covered with jackets, stuff we want to give away to people, and just general nonsense to keep the dogs and cat off of the furniture.

Okay, enough from me. I have to go "encourage" Galina to wrap up this math test!!

*ADDED*

 I did a family photo shoot - first one in over a year not for my own family! My Dad drove the family to the back of our property, with all of his porch chairs, and then helped me position everyone so that I didn't have to do too much moving around :) Love him!

 Galina's box again, but the one on the right we made for a little girl that our family knows. We did fairies and it turned out pretty awesome!

 Brian's schedule this semester...full...

 Galina's cat loves her in the morning. He gets locked into the laundry room at night because he refuses to stop meowing next to my head around 1 a.m. By 7 a.m. he is ready to see people!

 I attempted a french braid...I am not good at this. 

 One of his last days in diapers. Can't believe how big he is!!

 Galina sitting at her "make-over station" that she wanted for Christmas :) 

 Me, very pregnant, with still a long ways to go...

 On sunny afternoons the cat will fall asleep on the beds. he chose Galina's this day, and when he is really asleep, he could care less what the kids do to him. 

 Galina's Sticker Story:

This princess is named Galina.

She is the popular-est.

Her favorite color is blue. 

We're working on spelling :)

 Brian sliced his thumb open with one of his very sharp knives. Typically he won't even tell me about it, just wraps it up and keeps going, but this cut was incredibly deep. 45 minutes and 4 stitches later, we were out of the ER and back at the farm. About 10 days later he cut his own stitches out, refused to go to his regular doctor. Hey, at least he has his tetanus shot now...

 We found a pig. Driving home from my parents one night, at the end of their road, Brian and I spotted this little guy eating trash. We tried to catch him but he ran off. It took my Dad three days to catch him, and that was just taking food to the same place and then luck. He is happily installed in the Pig Mahal that my Dad built. His name is Howie and we have it on good authority that he is a 5 month old pot-bellied pig. He likes to play soccer, loves to have his belly rubbed and is an all around fantastic addition to "the farm" that my parents live on. Next up: GOATS! I wish...

And, finally, Johnny's new rug. His room looks rather packed here, and it was. But NOW he is in a big-boy bed, the train table has been disassembled and put away for awhile (he just wasn't in to it) and his room has been completely rearranged. He loves his bed, especially with his new RealTree sheets that my Dad got him and his cars and trucks blanket. He, knock on wood, hasn't fallen off yet, and doesn't want his bedroom door closed anymore...of course, we still close it when we go to bed because the blasted dogs will click in and out of the kids rooms all night if we don't. 

Big changes around here...more big changes coming soon too...