The Royal Bus Ride

I'm going to write about it, I'm not ashamed.  Today was Will and Kate's wedding (we're on a first name basis) and I watched it, and it was beautiful.  A big thanks to my husband for not making fun of me, and even encouraging me, when I got up at 5:40am to watch the wedding... that was big of you.  I really really wanted to watch it, there's something so cool about Kate Middleton being a normal girl riding in a car to her wedding, then walking out of the church as a princess.  Here are a few things I loved...

1. Her sister was the only adult bridesmaid and I think it gave a very intimate feeling for such a spectacle wedding. 
2. Her dress was very simple yet extremely elegant.  I heard some wedding "pundit" on TV say that they were disappointed that it was so "Kate".  Um, hello?  It was HER WEDDING!  And, with all of my wedding dress expertise (of two months), I'm willing to bet that train detaches and becomes more of an a-line skirt for the parties... that's coming back big time, trust me.
3.  The prince was so cute when she came down the aisle and he finally looked at her and couldn't stop smiling!
4. Prince Harry.  Enough said.


And the *very* few things I didn't love...

1.  Her flowers.  Blahhhh.  I know, I know, I should take my advice from #2 above, but really.  It looked like a bouquet of baby's breath.
2.  The Queen's Camilla-snub.  When she was coming into the Abbey and shook hands with a line of people, in order, then skipped Camilla and went on to Charles.  That was low.
3. The kiss.  I felt bad for them, such an awkward thing... "Ok guys, go on this balcony in front of all of England and the entire world and kiss eachother in.... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....."  No thanks, I'll pass.

Now G says her favorite princess are "Sleeping Bleuty, Cindelella, and Princess Kate."  Here are a few  pics of our very own princesses:

Princess C at the Royal Easter Egg Hunt

Princess G and the Queen

Princess G and her Prince (aka Curious George)

Crap, how did that get in there...

I did other things today that were very un-royal-wedding-ish: I took my parents to the airport, cleaned house, cut grass, unsucessfully attempted to make a hair appointment, made chili dogs for lunch, and somehow managed to make the TV screen stop turning black.  Phew!

In D news, he took the bus to work today.  Using public transportation on a daily basis is something he's dreamed of for a long time... don't ask, just go with it... and today was the big day.  It took 8 minutes to walk from our house to the bus stop, then a 45-ish minute ride to work.  It probably took twice as long as it would to drive to work, but with the $10/day parking fee (ouch) and the $4.15 gas prices (double ouch), it was worth the extra time.  Plus, he fulfilled a life long dream- taking the bus to work.  He dreams big.  I think we might have to have a bus intervention, though, because he also took the bus to lunch- just because he could.  Such a funny guy, my prince!

One More Thing...

I wanted to thank you all for the kind words you had for D and I after my "Leap of Faith" post.  I got lots of emails and messages on facebook, and one in person comment (thanks Mom!), it's nice to know that so many people are happy for us!  And no, it wasn't a pregnancy post... maybe next time- NOT!

Accident Prone Is An Understatement

The girls are running around like crazy people, my house is just this side of trashed, and I'm on the computer... what's wrong with this picture?

Our move took us about 35 minutes from C's school, but she still had about six weeks to go in the school year, and while it's Pre-K and she doesn't have to go, it's important to us that she finish the school year with her class, so we're driving her.  Every.  Day.  While D wasn't working it was great, he would take her and hang out at the coffee shop or library near her school while I stayed home with G, or I would take her and sit at the library and read for two glorious uninterrupted hours while he was home with G.  But those days are over.  Now I have to take G with me, and it's too far to drive there and back home again so we have to stay close to school, and it's her nap time so she's grouchy.  Not fun.

Yesterday is a perfect example of how not fun it is.  We dropped C off and headed to Bob Evans for lunch.  I thought that would be nice, just the two of us having lunch and chatting.  We got there and I asked for a booster for my little friend and as I was lifting her into her booster seat the menu she was holding poked her in the eye.  She was hysterical and people were looking and I was semi-freaking out because I was pretty sure her eye ball was bleeding (it wasn't), the manager came over and they got her a cool wet rag to hold over it and I was this close to taking her to the hospital because I was convinced she would never see out of her left eye again.  She finally started to calm down as she sat on my lap and we talked about what we wanted for lunch, she wanted two different meals: pancakes with macon (bacon) and the fruit platter with yogurt.  Normally I wouldn't cave and let her have two lunches, let alone pancakes for lunch, but she had just been impaled by a menu, what choice did I have?  She got both meals and ate every bite of food, and two glasses of milk.  It took almost two hours.

I couldn't wait to get out of that damn Bob Evans.  The waitress kept coming over and talking VERY loudly to G about her grandson who rides horses (G could care less) and showing her grainy cell phone pictures of said grandson.  At one point G commented on the poor quality of the photo, the waitress wasn't so chatty after that.  Once G had finished every bite of food on our table we went over to the library and read some books and visited with the little boy with no parent or shoes, then headed back to school to pick up C.  She's never in a great mood after school, very focused on what after school snack I brought her, and yesterdays Easter candy wasn't up to standards, so we didn't talk much on the way home. 

We did basically the same thing today, minus Bob Evans and the serious eye injury.  It's getting old.  How long until I can stop doing this everyday?

Now the house is really trashed.  I must get my priorities in order!

Leap of Faith

This is something that we haven't shared with many people, but today is the day to write about it.  In early March, D and I decided to take a leap of faith.  We hadn't been happy for a long time, and it wasn't because we weren't happy with each other or our family, but because the stress of his job had been making us miserable.  We talked a lot about looking for a new job and put a few resumes out, but nothing much had materialized and he was so stressed and angry by the end of every work day that job hunting in the evenings had become pretty much impossible.

He got his job while he was still in college, shortly before we got married, and it worked at the time but wasn't a "forever job" for him, and unfortunately that's what it had become.  After many discussions and prayers we decided that the best option for our family would be for D to quit his job and go after what would really make him, and us as a family, happy.  He had about three months of vacation time saved up, so we carefully planned our next course of action while keeping our theme of "do what makes us happy" fresh in our minds.  We moved to a smaller house to cut down on expenses, but we looked until we found the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood that we knew we would really enjoy.  Once the house decision was made, we knew it was time to take our leap.  He put in his letter of resignation and his last day was March 31. 

We knew that God didn't create us to be miserable people, He wants us to be happy and do good things.  If we're doing what we know is right for us, not for money or status but for what is really the right thing for us, we had faith that good things would happen.  D has been home with the girls and I for 24 days, and it has been great!  I worried that it would really throw a wrench in our everyday routine having him home, but it was so much fun for all of us.  He took C to school and spent a lot of time with her, he spent quality time playing with G, he got to explore the new park with the girls and started giving them "basketball lessons", as C calls it.  It has been great, and it has brought us to a great place as a family.

About a week into being home with us he got a call about a job that really would be the perfect fit for him.  It was the first job to come along so we didn't get our hopes up, we really didn't want to be disappointed.  The interview went well and he was called back for a second, and then exactly two weeks after his last day of work at his old job he was offered the job!  Today is his first day, and he left the house more excited than I've seen him in a long time!  The process of decision making and relying on faith to get us to this point has brought us closer together, and brought new possibilities into our lives.  We're so happy that we took this leap of faith together!

Please understand why we didn't share this news with everyone.  It was really hard for us to make this decision, and knowing that other people would be wondering if this was the right choice for us and worrying about the outcome would have been too much for us to handle.  I hope that our families and friends understand why we kept it to ourselves, it was the best thing for us.  If you have D's number, send him a text today wishing him luck on his first day.... although I don't think he needs any luck!  :)

Finally!

The computer is fixed! FINALLY!!  It took three hours on the phone with AT&T tech support (shout out to Collin), and another hour and a half on my own (Collin had to take his lunch break), but it's fixed!  I might post a couple of times today to catch up.

At last, here are a few pictures of the new house.  We've done a lot more decorating, and these are mostly from the first couple of days in the house, but you get the idea...

Our Bedroom

C and G's Room

Obviously there is more to the house than these two rooms, but those are all the pics I have for now. I'll take some more as soon as I get a chance.