Three Times the Fun

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Whirlwind . . .

Well, I feel like I have been holding my breath since March 3, 2014. That was the day I officially accepted a new position at the University of New Hampshire as an Assistant Director in Residential Life. Now, Curt and I weren't looking to leave Iowa City, but we also have talked about how we would like to live in NH again one day, pretty much since we left. When Scott called me in November and told me it was official that Shannon had taken another position at the university, i was floored, shocked, and frustrated that it was all happening after us only being in Iowa City for two years. Not because I had any big plans for more years in IC, but because if I applied for and got the job, we had JUST moved two years before and i had an easy job and our house was nearly "done" in terms of all of the rooms painted and how we wanted them and we were getting settled into the community.

But as Curt and I talked for the next two months about the job, we saw the many possibilities of this opportunity. The boys would just be starting kindergarten (more on that later), Curt had decided to stop out of the PhD program at Iowa, and we really missed outdoor opportunities that the boys were finally old enough to participate in themselves. It certainly didn't mean that being close to family in IC wasn't a really difficult part of the decision, but it was one that ultimately we decided was workable. We wanted to be able to take advantage of the things new england has to offer on a regular basis, instead of planning occasional trips. We will miss lots of things about Iowa City, but I know we will be back regularly, if only for a day trip while visiting with grandparents in Des Moines. I know the boys will need their hit of Pagliai's Pizza and Heyn's ice cream. :) And I will need my hit of the Iowa City Public Library and the Ped Mall! :)

Well, we decided on a realtor March 10, listed the house on March 14 (the day we left to drive to Houston for spring break) and had an offer on March 22. holy shoot! My last day of work at Iowa was May 15 and I flew out May 18 to begin work on May 19. We told the boys over dinner just before we listed the house for sale. Brady immediately said "are you kidding? we aren't really moving to New Hampshire are we?" when we said we weren't kidding he was like, "ok!" Aidan first said, "but I like Iowa City! I don't want to leave it!" after about a half hour of us talking with Gavin (more on his reaction in a moment) and the boys, Aidan and I were in the Jimmy John's bathroom and Aidan says, "Mom? are we going to bring the iPad?" I said yes and he says "I think i'm going to like NH. I think I will make a lot of friends there." Of course I told him I KNEW he would make new friends because he was a good friend and he was good at meeting new people, but it did make me laugh that knowing the iPad was coming with us made the idea more palatable. :) Gavin on the other hand cried and cried and CRIED when we told him. Like, INCONSOLABLE crying. He kept saying, "I don't want to leave Iowa City! I want to live HERE! I just want to VISIT NEw Hampshire!" MAN was that hard. at one point Brady says, "just tell him we will live in IC and we will visit NH". That definitely made me laugh. Both that he felt like it was OK to just make that up and that he could tell what Gavin needed to calm down.

It took a little while for us to even be able to talk about the move with Gavin around without him either getting upset, but after about a week, he would just leave wherever we were so he couldn't hear us talk about it. By the time we left, he was able to just say "we are moving to NH, I don't want to move, but we are" without being upset. The good thing was that we were able to plan a mini-vacation on our drive out. We visited with the Carr-Lechner clan (and Slabas and Raber) in Chicago, then the Williams family in Guelph, Canada, hit Niagra Falls and stayed a night in Albany, NY before arriving in NH.

I had been working for 5 weeks before we packed up the house and drove out as a family. I was able to come back for a weekend to see the boys, and Curt came out for a weekend to look for houses. Throughout the spring, we learned that we could only look to live in Dover or Barrington due to a MESSED UP state law that a kid had to be in a full day program if they were 6 by the end of September. Well, Durham and Lee only offered HALF DAY kindergarten. awesome. Ultimately, not know where curt would be working, we also didn't want to buy and feel like "CRAP! now we want to move, it's too far!" The good part of that weekend with Curt out by himself was 1) getting actual whole days of alone time together! and 2) getting to visit all of the elementary schools in Dover. Fortunately all of the principals were free when we came by and we got to meet with each of them. We walked away from that experience feeling COMPLETELY comfortable with any of the Dover elementary schools. We did not find a house, so I began the mad dash to find a rental in a limited rental market. There was one house RIGHT on central ave that was very nice and had a backyard, BUT it worried me that it was on such a busy road and that the owner was being a REAL jerk in the process of negotiating about the rent and the start of the lease and the possible sale of the property, AND the previous year had a one month high of $600 for heat! holy lord, that was scary. So I was able to find the house we are currently in. I was excited about it, but also knew it's not a new house. Curt was not impressed, and sadly his reservations have come true in some ways. We are having issues with mice and ants (well, bugs generally), and the landlords being nice but NEW to land lording, a refrigerator that quit cooling in our first week (but they replaced it with a new one!), no A/C, and just life half in boxes and half out. the good part (which was why i really liked this house) is that it has an AWESOME third floor totally open space that is the boys' playroom. They really love that part of it. Aidan has been sweet, especially as I have voiced my worry that people aren't happy and he has said he really likes the house. bless him. :)

We have made LOTS of efforts to introduce the boys to the area, so we went to the beach the first day we were here. we had NO TOYS and they were completely entranced by all of the things the ocean offers for a solid hour. They were bummed we were leaving, but enjoyed our second trip back (also short, but this time they had toys - next time we will spend a day), a day in Boston with FREE TICKETS to the Boston Science Museum and Body Worlds, as well as a free bus ride down and bag lunches. Curt and I spent less than $10 on ice cream that day. awesome. :) The boys had their first hike on Rattlesnake Trail up overlooking Squam Lake this past weekend and they LOVED it. Before we had even hit the top with the beautiful view or had our GORP for snack Gavin says to me, "Mom? I think I like hiking more than Angry Birds Star Wars." Now THAT is some high praise for Gavin! They were asking to go hiking again the next day while we were at the top. Curt looked over at me while we had our snack and said "Is this what you were thinking of?" (meaning regarding moving back to NH) and it brought me to tears. My heart was so full having Curt and our children there doing the thing that Curt and I love to do so much, it was wonderful. I am looking forward to this fall, for sure!

So, why is today the day I feel I can finally stop holding my breath? Curt was offered a job at UNH in the student union. Now, he was offered a job on my birthday (happy bday to me!) at SNHU, but it was for an online academic advising program that he was not really excited about. It would have been in Portsmouth, but it definitely was not a traditional student affairs job that he would have preferred. Even though this position is several steps below where he was previously working full time, it will be doing work he enjoys with people he enjoys. And he might not be completely stressed all of the time! :) That's not a bad thing!

So the boys will begin their first day camp the week of August 4th for two weeks. We then have some child care lined up with a college student for the week after that, my parents will come to watch them for the week they begin school (since they only go 2 days), and then we need to figure out some after school childcare! Woohoo! So this is what the rest of America has to think through!

Anyway, I will share pictures later, but I am up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. Here is to hoping this move is good for our family for many years to come!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

My boys . . .

Rootbeer tasting (GBA)

at least a few times every day, I think to myself, "MAN, are my kids great!". I am blown away by how much they have grown up and some days how far they have to grow up. A few favorite things I want to remember:

We love root beer! (me and B)

We read at least a couple of books every night before bed. The boys like to be the one who sits in the middle of us when we are reading the book they chose, so it usually ends up being a merry-go-round in between books. For some reason Brady has recently decided that he prefers for the door to their room to be closed while we read the books. So if he hasn't done it before we start a book, he will get up and close the door to their room quietly and then sit back down in his spot. Sometimes, when it is the other parent's turn to read, one of us will lay their head down on the floor listening. Brady has done this since he was 3, but it seems more poignant to me now. He will get up quietly in the middle of the book, go and get his puppy and then put it under our head as we are laying in the ground. It is so thoughtful and touching. Brady also regularly asks for time to snuggle after dinner, which i just love, especially after being gone at work all day. within a few minutes of he and I snuggling under the quilt, Gavin and Aidan are usually right there on top of us too. Some times they will say "let's hide from dad!" and we will all get under this quilt on the couch while Curt is cleaning up from dinner and act like we aren't there. Of course, Curt plays along and "goes looking" for us, which then we will go and hide under their bunk beds until Curt will come and find us and grab them out from under the beds.

Gavin - the note (that Brady wrote) says it all!

Gavin has really started to get into playing tricks on us. So, he will say something like, "The basement is REALLY dirty, mom. You should come and see it!" and then he will drag us downstairs, all the while we are saying, "oh! A dirty basement?! I guess we are going to have to clean it up if you made it too dirty!" and then as we turn the corner, "Oh! It's so clean! You tricked me!" And he will giggle wildly. He has also recently taught himself to pour half gallon containers of his most FAVORITE thing - Almond Milk. I swear he could drink a half gallon all to himself if we would let him. Anyway, he is very proud of himself. He is also our "Trouble" boy - he LOVES playing the game Trouble that they got for their birthday and he is pretty good at it too! He is working strategy for which piece he wants to move on a roll and finding ways to get less upset when he doesn't win or if the rolls don't go his way right away. It's actually really fun. Whenever he rolls a "1" (which means he can't move, but we can get one out of "home") he says "I am so GENEROUS!" which makes me giggle every time. He also lost his second tooth on Feb 8. Aaaaannnnd promptly swallowed it. The night before he says his tooth is loose for the first time (well, he has been telling us they are loose since he lost his first one in Nov., but they never are) and the thing was holding on by a THREAD. Then at dinner the next night he had been messing with it a ton and all of a sudden he goes "(gasp!) It's gone." and points in his mouth. We had hoped it might be in his milk, so I poured it through a strainer, no luck. He was so upset because he wanted to SEE IT, and he was a little worried about the tooth fairy, but he didn't cry for a few minutes. His brothers were SOOOO kind to him, trying to make him feel better, and when he was too upset to write the tooth fairy note, Brady offered to do it for him, so all he had to do was sign his name. Too sweet. :)

Aidan - How you doin'?

Aidan has developed some good friendships at school. Curt was co-oping in their class when they were playing reverse musical chairs (they take a chair away, but no kids are out and they have to sit on people's laps) so he got to see first hand how lovely dovey Aidan is with a lot of the girls. He said when one little girl who Aidan says "is HILARIOUS!" sat on Aidan's lap, he reached right around and hugged her from behind. He did this to several other kids too who were like "what is this kid doing?!" but she would just laugh and giggle with him. Aidan has also been particularly generous with his compliments for me and my cooking lately. The other day he had drawn something and cut it out and set it on the table. When I asked him to tell me about it he says "It's a trophy!" and I say, "Oh I see that. What's it for?" and he says "For you, for being the best cook in the whole world!" How awesome is that kid? :) Aidan loves playing Wild Kratts and Angry Birds Star Wars (well they all do), so much so we had to put a moratorium on dinner time talk about the Angry Birds Star Wars games, we had heard ENOUGH! At least when the boys talk about Wild Kratts they are always sharing interesting information about wildlife and animals! I am amazed at their capacity for memory with things like this! Aidan also says to me last weekend, "Mom, is summer EVER going to come? I don't feel like it will EVER be summer." and then it snowed 3 more inches. Me too kid, me too. :)

The other day the boys had asked Curt and I to come down and see the cool thing they had built. They had run ahead and were SUPER quiet as we turned the corner to our basement. They had built a fort with spaces to shoot guns in between the cardboard bricks and all three were hiding behind this wall and had their storm trooper laser guns pointed through the spaces right at us. So of course when they started shooting at us, we had some dramatic death and dying scenes for them and they eventually piled on top of the two of us. MAN, I love those kids.

BGA - Sledding at West HS

Kings of the mountain!

Silver fox!

Gavin's sweet snowman!

Aidan made a snowman - finally warm enough to play outside!

Brady's winter friend!

Driving a car at the Auto Museum in Coralville - AAAOOOGAH! (AGB)

Thursday, February 6, 2014

2014 - time to get back on track

Now, i can not believe it has been over four months since I have updated this blog. I figured with working, I would be far more productive, but for some reason I have not been.

Grandma and Grandma V visit us in October - we had so much fun while mom and dad went out of town for their 10th anniversary! (BGA)

Aidan and Brady actually got into cleaning out the pumpkins for Halloween this year

This was about as close as Gavin got to cleaning out his pumping. No, really.

Our three superheroes (GBA)!

Poor Gavin came down with a fever that morning, so he only went out for about an hour with dad and his brothers, but he was a super helpful and polite candy distributor!

We had a lovely fall with Curt taking a class, teaching a class at Kirkwood and being the primary stay-at-home parent and co-oping at the boys school. Well, I had a lovely fall, I know Curt was a little more stressed out than i was. :) I will tell you that the boys have absolutely LOVED having dad at their school. It makes me really happy to see them interacting with Curt in ways they haven't before because they are getting so much more time together. It also makes me a little sad because I am out of the loop in many ways. It's a bittersweet pill to swallow, but overall I know it's for the best. Brady and Gavin regularly tell me they wish I was "fingerprinted like dad" so that we can both come to their school. I got to do my first co-oping so Curt could do some last minute prep for his class on Monday and it was GREAT! OK, so cleaning the toilets wasn't my favorite part, but on the whole, it was great! For the most part all three boys ignored me, and I thought they might be a bit more clingy, especially since they have been asking me to do it. The teachers told me, however, that when I would leave the room, one boy would come up and say "where's mom?!" so that made me feel good. :) It was so fun seeing them learning spanish and sign language and listening during story time and playing with their friends.

Daddy turns 40!(AGB)

That afternoon we took them ice skating with a friend since I had the day off for MLK Day. At this point, Brady is the most into ice skating and the most interested in gaining his own balance and making his own way around the rink. Gavin wanted to hold my hand or have me hold him up the entire time, so he ended up taking some LOOOOONG breaks from skating. Aidan was also tired (turns our he has strep throat - but never complained of a sore throat - WHAT?!) but somehow was able to make friends with some little girl who was there and she proceeded to help him skate around the rink by pulling him. So ridiculous. :)

Ice skating in Des Moines over winter break - Aidan is one cool kid!

Look, mom and dad in a picture TOGETHER!

Mom and Gavin!

Grandma and Brady! He went around the rink 11 times that day!

Gavin's new smile!

Gavin lost his first tooth the day before Thanksgiving. It had been loose for a few weeks and he was SO funny about it. He would just sit there in the car and wiggle it back and forth. As Curt and the boys were getting ready to come and get me from work to head to Des Moines for Thanksgiving, Gavin SAYS Brady hit him in the mouth while they were in their car seats (Brady swears up and down this isn't true) and the tooth just popped out! On the way to Des Moines that afternoon, he just rubbed his finger back and forth on the spot. There is nothing that feels more weird than the space where your tooth USED to be. Now his adult tooth is coming in rapidly and taking up more than the original space! uh oh! Better start losing some more! (*Side note: Tonight after shower as i was getting ready to help him with his teeth Gavin says "my tooth is REALLY loose!" Now he has been saying this about his teeth since he lost the first one and none have been loose. So I say "Oh really? which one?" and he shows me the lower front tooth right next to the one he lost and the dang thing is moving like, an INCH in either direction! I will be surprised if he DOESN'T lose it overnight and swallow it!)

Decorating our Christmas tree! (BAG)

Mom and her boys (BGA)

Brady and Santa - once again, he was at a loss for words. :)

Gavin however knew JUST what to say!

Aidan wants a drum set this year! Not sure if Santa has room for that buddy!

At the Festival of Trees 2013 - the whole family! (GBA)

We LVOE cousin Noah! (GBA)

We had a fun Christmas with the Kenoyer's this year. The boys loved being around their cousins as much as they could be, we did ice skating one day, saw Frozen with grandma K, and just played with their new toys a lot. I still can not believe how PATIENT the boys were with the whole christmas thing. Now, we had let them open gifts from my side of the family the sunday before christmas so i'm sure that let a little steam out, but even on christmas morning, they had woken up around 6 AM (after going to bed around 930PM - WHAT?!) but STAYED IN THEIR ROOM playing with their cousin until 630 AM. oh. my. goodness. and then, after breakfast it was taking the adults FOREVER to get around, luckily they had already opened their stocking stuff, and the boys were waiting patiently for the bigger family gifts to be passed out. When the family gifts got passed out they were sitting with 4 gifts in front of them, just sitting, while the adults were still not all settled. I said it looked like dogs whose owners put a treat on the tip of their nose and just make them sit there. Even after that we had asked them to NOT actually tear open the Lego boxes they got as gifts because we didn't want them getting mixed up with the other Legos Peggy and Larry have at their house. So Gavin would say "are we going home TOMORROW?" and we would say "no, not for 3 days, sorry kid." and he would just stare at the boxes, but never threw a temper tantrum or got upset or angry, just wistful. We did let them put their Legos together the day before we left because they were just being too sweet, and we figured they wouldn't want to take them apart the first day they were put together.