The Amazing Rescue Pet

The Easter Bunny brought Camdyn a Rescue Pet this year, and it has helped greatly by waking her up in time to get ready and get to the bus. The Rescue Pet Wake Me Up Dalmatian is a barking alarm clock. Before Rescue Pet, Camdyn would be woken up and then told repeatedly to get up and get dressed. Usually this resulted in delays that resulted in a shorten breakfast, a cranky Camdyn, and sometimes missing the bus. Now she greets us promptly each morning already dressed. She still has difficulties staying focused on what needs to be done, but it's a lot less difficult with the good start she gets. Who'd have thunk that a furry alarm clock would be so helpful.

Thank you Rescue Pet. I hope they come out with the one that helps make the bed and clear the table next!

For Aunt Jennifer

Daddy's about to get Kasey Kahne's autograph. He's a NASCAR driver.

New Bunkbed

Camdyn: I want a bunkbed because I love sleeping with my sister. I like the new bunkbed. It is fun. I love sleeping in my bunkbed. I really love my sister sleeping with me.

McKenna: We like bunkbeds. We want to climb on bunkbeds. We love bunkbeds!

A New Playset!!!

When we purchased the new house we were excited that there was a swingset for the girls to enjoy as soon as we moved in. They really enjoyed it from day one, but it was beginning to become dangerous and need repairs. As new members of the swing set class we also became educated that our swingset was dated and lacked a number of features that appeal to the modern day kindergarten and pre-k set:

Marcey began a quest to locate a replacement and found out that the do-it-yourself swingsets were a lot more affordable but most DYIers soon learned that this simple little project took several folks, several days, and usually involved several curse words. She eventually found a swingset that she thought would be nice, and just this week got a friend's referral on two men that would be glad to take on this project (they put the friend's swingset together). Finally on Friday, she made the discovery at Home Depot of the ultimate set:

It took almost 17 hours, but that was probably influenced by my "help". The girls found quickly that they could not be patient and somehow managed to go to sleep despite the excitement that was keeping them up. I admit that I was anxious to try the super speedway slide and it did not disappoint. I also have pictures of Marcey re-living some of her past swingset memories, but she won't let me post them. Anyone care to make a bid for them?

One Year Ago Today...

We watched our worldly possessions being loaded into a semi. Who knew we had that much stuff?

We vacuummed, dusted and scrubbed until our house shined. It was never that clean while we lived there...

We locked all the doors, closed the windows and left our keys in someone else's possession. It was a lot harder to leave than I thought.

We picked up the girls (at the time, there were only 2! and 3/4 if you count the one in my belly) from daycare and said goodbye to their daily caregivers who were like part of our NOVA family. That was a lot harder than I thought, too.

We began caravaning down I-95, Don in front, the girls and I tailgating... 5+ hours later, we reached our destination -- Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I was exhausted.

One year later, I still get overwhelmed thinking of all we had to do to make this move happen (and all that has happened in the past year). Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!

What do I miss?

Our friends

Going to work every day to see people I call my friends (let's be clear though, I don't miss working full-time) and being respected and rewarded for what I accomplished

The neighborhood pool 3 houses down from ours

The scrapbooking stores (the scrapbookers in NC have no idea what they are missing!)

Being part of the "nation's capital" and all its glory

My kitchen and light filled family room

What have I gained?

Keeghan! (most significant accomplishment of this past year!)

More time with Don and the girls -- he has more time with us, too

A great house in a great neighborhood

A warm and welcoming church

A place to call home...

And All They Got Was a T-Shirt

Daddy left behind the girls on Thursday to travel first to Washington DC where he meet up with his group that left early Friday to see the sights in New York (once in college he saw the city from across the river in NJ, but this was the first time actually venturing into Manhatten and Brooklyn.) The trip's purpose was to tour the Grand Lodge of NY, but also had time to see Ground Zero, Wall Street, and Times Square/Broadway along with seeing many other sights while traveling around on the bus and in taxi cabs. (I didn't even have to say "and step on it" to see the town at a very high rate of speed in the taxi.)

One particular highlight was standing on the Brooklyn Bridge and calling home on Saturday morning to see how things were going. The girls must have watched too many episodes of the room renovation show "While You Were Out", because the talk centered on the changes they wanted to make including who was going to sleep where on the bunk beds they wanted to get.

On another note, Camdyn's class studies a different letter person and each student is to give a word that starts with that letter. On Friday it was Mr. "N" and Camdyn was disappointed when she found she could have given "New York" instead of "necklace".

I arrived back home before midnight on Saturday to offer Marcey some relief from being the 24/7 mommy. It sounds like they had almost as much fun as Daddy did. Other than that, all they got were some lousy t-shirts...

Just as cute as they can be...

Friday was McKenna and Keeghan's preschool's "SpringFest". The children were to present a short program and then the families would picnic together. Here are the girls in their "costumes":

First, the girls paraded around the church's fellowship hall (big enough to hold a full size basketball court). Keeghan and her friends were pushed around in the "baby buggy" that is big enough to hold six babies. McKenna's class walked around with McKenna holding her finger in her mouth, looking anywhere but where the parents were. Then each of the classes had their performance. Keeghan's class sat in their baby buggy while a song was played on the piano. McKenna's class shook, clapped and jumped their sillies out. McKenna ate it up! She just loved being front and center and participated in most of the performance.

Words cannot express how precious this was! I encourage you to ask Don to show you the video when at our house -- it is priceless! Makes this mama cry.