engineer moon and firefighting bear

happy birthday, my sweet micah moon!!!!!

i can't believe you are four years old. you mean everything to me. you are my soul-mate, and i am eternally grateful that you chose me to be your mama. i love you!!!!!!!!

we've been in the process of packing for weeks now, and all my pictures are on my laptop. i can't figure out how to download pictures to the new computer, so until we move and get everything set up at our new house, i will continue to be REALLY bad at uploading pics on my blog. : ) but... check out this incredibly beautiful picture of my mama. isn't she awesome?!

i can't believe my baby turns 4 tomorrow morning... at 7:24 am, to be precise.

we had a fun, educational day today! we spent the first part of the morning at the pediatrician's office for micah's 4-year-old well visit (she weighed in at 29.5 lbs, and is 3 ft 2 in tall!) and shots for both, so that was neither fun nor educational... but then... we went to the richardson fire station for a fire safety talk with wesley! our neighborhood friends joined us, and we learned all about fire safety in the home, deciding on a place to meet outside your home if you have to use different exits during a fire, etc. we also got to tour the fire station, and see inside the ambulance and fire truck. but the coolest part, i thought, was getting to see one of the firemen in full gear, with his mask, helmet, oxygen tank and all. the kids got to listen to him breathe like darth vader through his mask, and talk through the little speaker attached to it. this was all to make them comfortable with the ominous-looking uniform, and the scary-sounding mask, so that if we're/they're ever in a situation where a fireman is there to help them, they'll run to the firemen instead of away from them! we also each got a free dual-chamber smoke detector out of the deal.

after the excitement at the fire station, we got home and micah promptly fell asleep on the couch, so after samantha left with lina i ducked out with rowan for some groceries. we got back, rowan gently woke his sister by pouring ice water onto her from his sippy cup (gotta get ones that work), we quickly fixed and ate dinner, then the kids and i were back out the door for a dallas symphony orchestra concert in the park, at the fretz recreation center in dallas. except that we did not plan for approximately 2 million people being there, so instead of parking a block away and hiking across a big field of grass to sit way in the back of the crowd to hear the music, we parked a block away and walked a short distance to a little playground by an elementary school, where we spread out our picnic blanket, ate some cashews and dried fruit, and could hear the music just fine! we enjoyed the playground and the sunset, and the kids grooved to the long-distance performance. the air was nice and cool, and micah and rowan were so cute and fun. it was a heavenly evening, though not quite what we'd planned. : )

tomorrow, for micah's birthday, my mom and maya are joining us for lunch at kalachandji's (i pray they have burphee, it's all micah wants!), then we might go get micah a bicycle helmet for her birthday, then go to dinner.

the kids have both had low-grade fevers over the past couple of days. micah really seemed to feel under the weather, but rowan is running around the house like normal. they're both asleep right now... which means it'll be a late night. but i don't mind, on the weekend.

we went for a walk around the neighborhood earlier today, because due to the fevers we've missed out on several planned activities, and we all needed some fresh air and a change of scenery. while we were out we passed my grandparents' house, and my grandmother gave me a flier for some free kids classes they're offering at my church this summer. i think micah will really enjoy them, if i can get her to participate! they're free, so even if she spends the whole session watching from my lap, at least we won't have spent money.

after our walk we went to target for some odds and ends. i found a fun toy for our friend joshua, who turns 4 on monday and whose party is on sunday; it's a truck with a trailer attached, pulling two motorcycles. i took it out of the bag at home to go ahead and wrap it for the party, and rowan saw it and went nuts! he hadn't seen it at the store, when i put it in the cart. anway, he got so excited about it, we decided to give it to him and go back to target tomorrow to get joshua a new one. he's been playing with it nonstop! it says 3 years and up on the package, and i suppose that's because he can't get the trailer on and off without help - and also because of small parts that could come off and present a choking hazard.

i've found so many things on craigslist tonight! first of all, i found a new, clean-looking white fridge for sale for $75 in mesquite, and i am really hoping the lady calls me tomorrow so we can go get it. the lady and her husband bought it, then decided what they really needed was a deep freezer. i also found a lawnmower with a bag (so josh can put the clippings in the compost) for $65. hope they contact me tomorrow, too. then i found a wooden swing set for sale in lewisville that looks awesome and perfect, and if that person gets back to me soon, i'm going to ask all the family members to pitch in for it for micah's birthday gift. then i found a red bike and a trailer for the kids that i really want. : )

yesterday was sort of a long, demanding day for me - micah, rowan and lina were all in needy moods - so when josh got home from work, i put rowan down for a nap and micah and i went out for some one-on-one time. first we went to the park - i walked, she biked - and played for a while. then we walked back home, got in the car and went to braum's for ice cream cones. we had a blast. i love going out with just her, and talking with and listening to her. while we were at the park and she was on her bike, though, i had a funny thought. you know how when you're little, some things seem really huge, and then you revisit them as an adult and you can't believe how small they really are? there's a very small, gradual little hill in the pathway that goes over a concrete drain pipe, next to the baseball diamond at our park. micah loves to ride up one side of it and coast down the other. she calls it "the hill." and as i was watching her gleefully ride down it yesterday, i wondered if she'll see it when she's older and say, "man, i used to think that hill was HUGE! i used to be so proud that i could ride over it by myself!" i wonder if she'll even remember...

the only thing i'm sad about regarding our move next weekend is the fact that we won't be within walking distance of my mom, my grandparents, some of our friends, and terrace park and pool anymore. this summer, on thursday mornings, my la leche league group is planning on meeting at terrace pool. i wonder if i'll be able to join them, with my kids and lina. my kids really enjoy that pool - i have the fondest memories of taking them there last summer - but i'm not sure how samantha and christian will feel about me taking lina to the pool. my friend kim reminded me that i could use a water sling with her, but i still don't know if her parents will be comfortable with the idea. it's worth asking...

there is a playground and a pool within walking distance of our new house. it'll just take some getting used to, because it's... different. : ) i don't like change. but i am so incredibly excited about our new house.

moving day is getting closer and closer! today i arranged for our utilities to be turned on at the new house on may 29th, and disconnected here on june 1st. we are continuing to pack things up slowly, but it's still proving a little annoying - i was just looking for the laptop to upload some pictures onto my blog and FB, but can't find where josh put it.

we were supposed to go to a birthday party for one of micah's friends this morning at a really cool playground downtown, but micah woke up with a 99.0 temp. we went to the zoo with friends on monday and had a blast, but micah got in the little wading river in the children's zoo and got her clothes dripping wet, then wore only a shirt and her socks and shoes for the rest of the visit. i saw her wet hair sticking to her face and the goosebumps on her legs, and felt the cool breeze that day, and thought... i know she's going to get sick. and she may not have gotten sick because of that; we have been playing at various parks and playgrounds nonstop lately, and she could've picked something up anywhere. she's been laying around all day long, snacking lightly and wanting to be held a lot (which i love). she says she feels "a little yucky."

food moment: i love, love, LOVE mandarin oranges. i could eat a can of them every day. they are so juicy and sweet and bite-sized and PERFECT. i wonder how they would taste baked into a pie, or made into homemade marmelade.

if micah is feeling better by this friday, we'll meet with friends at amigo's, the yummy neighborhood mexican restaurant, for a surprise birthday party for dustin, my friend temple's fiance. they're getting married at the end of july. i can't wait!

i also cannot wait to move. i can't wait to plant three rosebushes on the east side of the house, and i'm already thinking about what i want to plant in the front beds. i also want to make a corner bed next to the driveway in the front yard, and there's a small shelf outside the kitchen window that we'll line with potted plants. the backyard will be the kids' zone, except for a small patch at the far end of the yard, in the southeast corner, which will be a vegetable and herb garden.

we enjoyed playgroup so much friday morning. the air was warm - almost hot - but there was a nice breeze. micah and rowan wore themselves out in the sun, then we went home and had a nice lunch and spent the rest of the day indoors. josh had planned to spend saturday night at his friend, brandon's house learning how to paint with oils... but, my dad decided at the last minute to join my stepmom, vesta, the kids and i in madisonville, tx for a bishop (that's my stepmom's maiden name) family reunion. originally just vesta, the kids and i were going to go, but vesta really wanted daddy to join us, so he decided to come along, but he needed someone to take care of callie. my brother already had plans, so josh was nice enough to switch his saturday-night plans to friday night, and he spent last night at my dad and vesta's, keeping callie company.

we had fun at the reunion! the family had rented a small recreation center on lake madisonville (a very small, manmade lake) next to a cool little playground. the kids (mine, plus about 4 other young ones) were only able to enjoy the playground for about an hour before it began to rain - and it proceeded to rain and thunder and lightning for the entire remainder of the day. we had fun indoors, though. we got to meet many of vesta's family members about whom i'd heard plenty of stories, but had never even seen any pictures of, so it was nice to see everyone. the kids amused themselves by running/crawling/skipping around the rec room, watching the rain through the windows, and spying on a nest full of baby birds in the eave around the building, right outside one of the windows. we watched the mama and papa birds (really pretty - some kind of swift, i think) fly back and forth with bits of food. as for what the people had to eat, the event was catered and we had BBQ, beans, chips, dip, etc. some folks brought dessert, and there were these incredibly yummy lemon shortbread cookies with lemon creme sandwiched in between. i ate sooo many of those!

after spending the day in the rec room with all the family, we adjourned to our motel rooms at around 8 pm last night. it took forever for micah and rowan to settle down, but they finally did, and we all slept like rocks. we woke up early the next morning, had mcdonalds and coffee for breakfast, then hit the road! we were back home by noon. we took some cute pictures, which i will post here (along with the long-overdue pics from our weekend trip to wichita falls earlier this month!) as soon as possible.

we are slowly but surely getting packed up around here and ready to move to our house! although, i'm finding we packed some stuff a little too early... micah is asking for some of her dolls and toys that we've already boxed up, and i needed a band-aid earlier and it took a little while to find one. but i'd rather be mildly inconvenienced now than in a mad, hectic, stressful rush at the end of the month!

i am having a heck of a time trying to figure out when and where to have micah's birthday party! a lot of our friends are going out of town in early-mid june, and i can't have it the last weekend of may, because that's when we're moving. i don't mind pushing it farther into the month of june, but i'm still not sure where i want to have it. i don't know that i want to have it at the new house, because we won't have anything fun to play on in the backyard yet, and besides, i don't really like having parties at my house... it's too stressful, and i work myself all up beforehand because i have this fear that no one is going to have fun, or everyone will think my house is messy and dirty, or that everyone will be bored... i don't know why. i really want to have her party at the little splashground at heights pool in richardson, but i don't know if we'll be able to afford it. we'll see... if anyone has any suggestions, let me know! this is the first year i've stressed out about this; maybe we'll just end up at a neighborhood park as usual. : ) that's always so fun and relaxed for me.

seriously? 5 days since my last blog post? i don't know why i'm doing this. i love my blog. facebook takes up all my time.

my night owls are asleep early tonight; rowan went down around 7:45 pm after eating his dinner, then josh, micah and i sat down to our dinner. after we ate, micah and i took a bath, then got in bed to nurse, and she fell asleep around 8:30 pm. we had such an enjoyable day today; this morning we went to my friend laura's house for a mother's day brunch for the la leche league group i'm a part of. we ate delicious food and sat around a chatted while the kids played. micah and rowan had fun, but not as much fun as lina had - she absolutely loves to be at social gatherings like that! she napped for a bit in the mei tai, but other than that, she was awake and happy. after we left the party, we went to target to buy some sodas and things for the house. when we got home, we cleaned up around the house a little and played, and i fed the kids some lunch (they were both too busy playing at laura's house to eat anything). lina got picked up around 4:30, and micah and rowan and i played out front until josh rode home on his bike. when we're playing out front when josh arrives home from work (which is most days), he and the kids have a fun routine: josh rides up to the curb, scoops one of the kids up and gives them a ride around the cul-de-sac, then comes back for the other one. it's probably not very safe and it makes me nervous, but the kids squeal with delight the whole time.

moving day inches closer and closer!! two weeks from this saturday, we'll be in our new home. i know we're just renting, but i still like to refer to it as "our new home." : ) i can't wait.

(edited to delete the part about getting rid of our sweet dog, mia, because we came to our senses, thanks to a good friend who had all the right answers. i love you, wendy.)

tomorrow we'll go to playgroup in the morning, then visit with wesley, mama, maya and tita (sondra, wesley's mom) in the afternoon. tomorrow night i believe josh has plans with friends, so the kids and i will keep packing and cleaning and organizing. i'm so excited, we made it happen with the house!! : )

we went to terrace park this evening. i wanted to go to heights park, but micah really wanted to ride her dora bicycle, so we went to terrace. the night air was warm, but there was a cool breeze blowing. i had the kids in short sleeves and pants, and thought they could've used light sweaters. we had fun anyway, though. our neighbor rachel and her kiddos, mink (4) and lael (2) were there attempting to fly a kite, and we joined them on the playground. micah and mink are almost exactly 4 months apart, and they have a lot of fun together. i'll be sad to move away from our friends, but...

come may 30th, we're moving to the new house in garland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we got it, yes we did. : ) i can't believe we actually signed the lease. woo hoo!!

we had a fun weekend in wichita falls! pictures to come as soon as i get overcome the laziness that is preventing me from unhooking the internet cable from the back of the CPU and hooking it up to the laptop. laziness is a real problem for me lately... i need to do something about that .

anyway, we drove to wichita falls friday night, and got to the house that jill, her boyfriend richard, and his mom sharon share, in time for a late dinner before climbing into bed. we ate tacos and rice and beans, then richard blew up the air mattress for us in the guest bedroom/office. the kids and i slept on that while josh slept on the bottom bunk bed. saturday morning josh woke up and got richard out of the house so jill, the kids and i could start getting ready for richard's surprise 40th birthday party! (the main reason for our visit). once they were gone, we got out all the snacks, sodas and party supplies. around noon, as guests were starting to arrive, rowan and i ducked out the door to go buy bags of ice. josh and richard returned at 12:30 (rowan and i were still at CVS, so i missed their entance), and richard was totally surprised! a friend of the family grilled hot dogs and burgers, and everyone lounged around eating and chatting for the next couple of hours. someone else bought yummy chocolate and vanilla birthday cupcakes. jill and richard's neighbors came with their three young children, and they kept micah and rowan busy. it was a really fun, relaxed party.

once everybody left, josh and richard both took afternoon naps (they had both stayed up late the night before playing video games together) while jill, sharon and i cleaned up the party debris. there was a ton of food and cupcakes leftover, and we snacked around a bit for the rest of the late afternoon. around 5 or 6 o'clock, jill and richard took us to see this really cool, outdoor skating park near their house. micah enjoyed climbing and sliding down all the big bowls and ramps made for rollerbladers and skateboarders to zoom around on. we were hoping to get to watch some of those in action, but i guess it was a little too cool and overcast for anyone to be out. after that, we drove into burkburnett (maybe a 15 minute drive from wichita falls) to eat dinner at the feedlot restaurant, one of jill and richard's favorites - and i can totally see why. the food was delicious; it reminded me of the black-eyed pea. we all had an awesome meal, and jill and i split some homemade raspberry crisp for dessert - yum! after dinner we went back to their house, and i tried to get the kids to bed early so us four adults could play on the wii for a while, but that did not happen. they were all riled up from the excitement of being in a new place and seeing new things, so it took forever for them to settle down and go to sleep. by the time they did, i was too sleepy myself to get back up and join the others in the living room.

the next morning we all slept in, and had a late breakfast of party leftovers. after we'd all showered and changed, we drove a few blocks to lucy park, a beautiful bike and nature trail alongside the wichita river. we walked up the trail to where the official "falls" of wichita falls are located, but they'd been shut down due to a lot of mud and debris in the water that could clog the pumps. micah had a fantastic time, nevertheless, climbing on all the rocks with her daddy. and rowan had a blast finding sticks and scraping them around in the mud. we took lots of wonderful pictures, which i will post soon!

after our nature walk, jill and richard took us to a butterfly conservatory - but we got to see so much more than butterflies! micah, josh, richard and i (jill stayed with rowan in the car while he napped) got to say hello to a tarantula, two turtles, a toad, a millipede, a hissing cockroach, two quail, and about a dozen butterflies! everybody but the quail and butterflies were housed inside the conservatory building, in terrariums, and the guide was nice enough to let micah feel the millipede's legs and the hissing cockroach's back (she was so brave!). outside, in the glass-enclosed butterfly habitat, there were lots of native plants, a pair of cute quail named bonnie and clyde, and, of course, beautiful butterflies dancing all around above our heads. a black and blue one even landed on my hand. it was such a fun, exciting experience!

next, we went to diner at a mexican food place down the street. after dinner, we headed back home and josh and i got all our stuff packed into the car. we said our goodbyes and left for home around 6:30, sunday night. and that was our awesome weekend. : )