How Quickly Things Change

Remember how I told you I was working on a post for Sister's sixth birthday? It may be a while before you see that post. Most likely it will appear around her seventh birthday.

The day after my last post (that would be Thursday), Big Daddy came home with the news that there was a good chance that we'd be moving to Louisiana. Soon.

I consider myself a pretty experienced military wife and I've heard this "you may be moving" story so many times in the past year with no results that I've grown numb to the announcements. (I do realize that terrible run on sentence. Trust me, there will be worse grammatical errors in this post and I won't have the time or energy to correct them.) Anywho, I kept it in mind but really thought it would never happen. You know, since we just signed a lease on a house here and are scheduled to move in there in two weeks.

God has such a sense of humor.

By lunch time the next day, we had official paperwork saying we are on our way (SOON) to the beautiful (I think) state of Louisiana. As an aside, if you consider yourself an expert on this particular state, please feel free to click that link over there on the side and email me all the details you can spare.

I'll be flying out before the sun rises tomorrow to visit our future city and look at houses and schools. I'm on a short schedule there and hope that I can pack a ton into this trip since we are going SOON! Apparently, school starts down there way before it does here so I need to be an expert on the area by the end of the week.

Whew.

I hope all of that makes sense because I'm flying out in 10ish hours and I haven't even started to pack so I'm thinking proofreading may not fit into the schedule tonight. If you have a moment to spare a prayer for my safety, sanity and searching, please do so. I'd love you forever. Not that I don't already love you forever.

Instead Of Explaining Or Apologizing, How About Some Big News?

My, my, my. Look down there are the last time I posted.

June 2.

I'm so ashamed. I have a million excuses. Really, I do. The biggest of them is that hello? It's summer and I'm not sick and couch bound anymore so I am out of our leaky and smelly house as much as possible. Also? The kids are all done with school and they actually want to like do stuff. I should be telling you that packing for the move that is rapidly sneaking up on me is the reason I've been absent but that would be a lie. I haven't packed the first thing. I have given some thought to where I'll put furniture in the new house and that has to count for something. Right?

Today is Sister's sixth birthday and I have this whole sappy post in my head as a tribute to her and her loveliness but I'm thinking I may share that another day. She won't mind because if there is anyone on this Earth that loves to stretch her birthday out to last a whole month, it's her. Instead, I got her THE thing she's been asking for since she could talk.

What? You actually want to know what it is?

We got her a baby SISTER. Yes, we had an appointment yesterday with our amazing doctor (who, by the way, is moving soon and I'm trying to come up with clever ways to make his whole family stay here because I love them too much to see them go!) and he assured us that Baby #3 is a female type.

Both kids were very excited since they were both hoping for a girl. Sister's first response was to ask if we could leave right that second and start shopping for pretty pink clothes for the baby and perhaps a matching outfit or twelve for her.

Brother's response was a little different but no less excited.

"Oh boy, I'm going to need two mouths now!"

"Brother, why in the world would you need another mouth?"

"I'll need two so I can tell them both to be quiet!"

See? You can't fake excitement like that, people.

Displaced

Right now, we are on vacation. One mile away from our house. At least, that's what my children think. I'm not going to be the one to tell them that we are really just staying at the hotel on base for several days while the plumbing is fixed (FINALLY) in our house. I've learned so much while we are staying here.

1. We don't need toys. We didn't bring any toys except their one stuffed animal to sleep with and you know what? They have been just fine. They are using their imagination and putting on singing and dancing shows during the day. But the highlight? Spinning in circles for hours in the office chair. Good times, folks.

2. If it wasn't for all of our junk stuff, we would be able to live in a 500 sq. ft. apartment. I'm thinking this would be ideal because I always know where everyone is and they can hear me from anywhere and I have less space to clean. Awesome.

3. Adding to the above, it would even more awesome if the 500 sq.ft. apartment came with a super sweet lady to clean daily and make the beds like this hotel room does.

4. Hotel internet connections aren't very reliable (especially when they are free) and they are super s-l-o-w. My Google Reader is bursting at the seams as is my inbox. I did read a book in less than 24 hours and have watched numerous live talent shows from an adorable 4 & 5 year old in all of the time I now have.

5. I have fallen completely in love with those room darkening curtains in hotels. I am thinking about getting some for the kid's bedroom at home. Mine, too.

6. If anyone knows a magic trick to open a front loading washer/dryer combo once the thing has locked up tight for eternity, let me know. The one in our room is moody and once we put clothes in there, we never know how long until the thing decides to give them back. I almost had to go to Target in my jammies yesterday.

7. I do miss blogging and hearing from all of my buddies here. Y'all miss me too, right?

You Guys Are Good

I can't get anything past you! So, yeah. I'm pregnant! I'm 12 weeks now and starting to come out of my couch coma. Seriously, I've been on the couch for so long, I almost forgot how to walk. I'm not complaining, just pointing out why I've been so scarce!

This pregnancy is going pretty well and I'm so close to being out of the "Oh my gosh, I'm about to puke" stage so things are looking up! Brother and Sister are both very excited and hoping this turns out to be a sister. They've been so adamant about it that I made them both swear that they'll still love the baby should it be a boy. They half-heartedly promised.

Big Daddy is excited about the baby although I think he's more excited that I'm nearing the end of this first trimester. The man deserves a medal for all the extra work he's been doing around here. And because he's so fabulous, he says things like, "Honey, just lay right there! You're doing exactly what you need to be doing...taking care of our baby." See? AMAZING.

Let's see, there's so much more that I've been too tired to type out. We heard a few weeks ago that we may move to Arizona on very short notice. Turns out it was just the Air Force playing a joke on us so we're still staying put for another year. This is actually fine with us and we decided that since we were staying, we needed two things to make this next year more crazy fun for us. 1) More space for a baby and all of the baby stuff. 2) A better school district for Sister to attend 1st grade. (This school thing could be a whole series of posts all on it's own.)

We solved both problems by signing a lease on a house we love in a great school district with an extra bedroom. See? I have been doing something besides laying on the couch!

Also? If you have had a baby in the last few years, I could use some recommendations because I haven't had a baby in over 4 years and also? We have to throw out all of our baby gear because our garage flooded and it's now gross and moldy. Hang on.

Sorry, that gross and moldy part made me a little sick. I'm back now. It's all good.

At any rate, I'll try not to turn this into a pregnancy blog but I'm not making any promises because, people? I'm in a fog and need the assistance of you able minded folks. Thank you so much for all of your congrats and sweet words. Y'all are the best. Seriously!

A Clue

Just a little clue about why I've been such an absent blogger for a couple of months now:

Yanni Voices...AMAZING!

Thanks to the beautiful ladies at One2One Network, I recently got to attend the Yanni Voices Concert when they passed through my area. How was it? In a word, PERFECTION.

Ya'll this is saying a lot for a girl who considers a perfect concert to be more along the lines of Jimmy Buffet. He and Yanni aren't exactly in the same category, know what I mean?

Yanni has been working for over two and a half years with four very talented vocalists who have written some amazing lyrics to his music. Nathan Pacheco, Leslie Mills, Chloe and Endor Thomas are above and beyond any talent I've ever heard. Let me tell you, when Leslie Mills sings "Before the Night Ends", the world stops and pays attention. Since the concert, I bought the CD and I listen to that song over and over. My five year old has proclaimed Leslie as the most beautiful voice she's ever heard.

This concert was honestly the best I've ever been to. While there, I experienced just about every emotion possible thanks to the most amazing musicians on the planet. I left with a greater appreciation for music than I've ever had and wishing that I had an ounce of talent that the people on stage possess.

One of my favorite things about the show was watching all of the musicians on stage interact with each other and with Yanni. It was so apparent that these are not just people that work and perform together. They are family. They seemed to have such genuine love for each other and I think that's part of why the music was so moving.

After the show, I was able to go backstage and meet the four "Voices" and they were as beautiful and gracious off stage as they were on. They were all so thankful that we were there and willing to share their music with our readers. I nearly fainted from how beautiful they all were. They were all so sweet and I got to talk shop with Leslie and Endor for a bit about blogging and Twitter. Leslie is a Twitter guru and had just introduced Endor to the dark side wonderful world of Twitter.

If Yanni Voices is coming anywhere near you, you must go. I mean it. You will remember this concert forever as one of the best. If they aren't coming to a city near you, I'm sorry. But, you can try to watch the show on your local PBS station and it will almost as good.

Leslie, Endor, Nathan and Chloe, thank you so much for your graciousness and I really do believe that you are the four most talented "Voices" on the planet. If Yanni needs a blogger to follow you around and tell everyone how great you are, you know where to find me.

Below are a few pictures from my evening. I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting a couple of these. Before the show they announced no flash photography so I was snapping away without my flash and a few minutes in, the picture hounds security folks came around telling everyone to put their cameras away because no photography was allowed. I didn't get great ones anyway because apparently I cannot operate a camera above a third grade level.

PS. Before I show you these, I have to explain that I normally wouldn't post a photo of myself in which I'm grinning like a mule eating briars or where I look like I have seventeen chins (I promise I don't but I can't get that pose from Arianne down) but I had to post the picture of me with Endor because his beauty is enough to make up for my chins and apparent abundance of teeth. Thank you and good night.

PPS. Thank you so stinkin' much to One2One Network. I'm also your biggest fan.

Seriously, stop looking at my chins and enjoy the view of Endor.

Text Speak

Ever have one of those things that just drives you absolutely crazy and everyone around you seems to be doing it? That's how I feel about text speak. You know, the shorthand that people use in text messages to make it easier to type but a pain in the you know what to read?

(As an aside, I was going to link to a site I found with both a definition and a list of examples of text speak but when I started looking at the list, several of the things made me blush. Apparently, there's a side to this text speak that's just creepy.)

I love to text message as much as the next girl. It's quick, easy and saves me from making a phone call for something silly like making fun of my family members when their team loses.

What I just can't get into is using various shorthand versions of words to get my message out. I have trouble not capitalizing where I'm supposed to and using proper punctuation in my text messages, too. You call it an illness, I call it the right way to do things.

I can usually overlook when other people use text speak in messages to me but I can't bring myself to use it in return. I throw that in there because I don't want you feeling bad if you send me messages using your made up cute little language. However, there's one person that I'm having trouble overlooking and seriously, it's about to cause an issue.

I have a person on my friend list on Facebook that updates her status on there frequently. That's not the part that makes me want to poke my eyes with a sharp object scream. Her status updates are very long and she uses her own version of text speak rather than using real words. Let me give you an example.

Goin 2 the store 4 sum sketti. pray 4 mi baby boi cuz he is struglin wif skool. don no y. i lik to pik my noz n boogers r awesum. hav u sen my new har?

I have to stop there because my eyes are bleeding. If you add another seven incorrect sentences about nine times per day and you will see why I'm just about to abandon Facebook. It's making me crazy.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who is driven to the point of insanity by this? Next thing you know, people will start talking like they type and then you can officially call me crazy.