What a day

Wow!! What a day, I think this picture pretty much sums it up for me yesterday. This was Landon at 6:20 last night. He was in the kitchen asking for a pop tart since dinner wasn't quite ready. It was clear that he was not going to last 10 more minutes to eat with us so I gave him a pop tart. I went upstairs to get his jammies and talk to Jeff for a second while he changed and just as I walked around the corner to the living room, I saw him close his eyes and lay down like this and go to sleep. I hurried and changed him, he never woke up until 4:40 this morning. I am going to get a nap out of him today YEAH!!! I put him in our bed with us and he layed there while I took a shower and got ready. I guess since it was still dark out, he didn't think it was time to get up yet.
So our day yesterday was very busy. I normally only have Landon and one baby here all day, so my days are pretty quite and relaxing, nothing to get too excited about. Yesterday I watched my neighbors little girl for her while she went to the dentist with dry socket from getting her wisdom teeth out. OUCH, just another reason I now have to keep mine right where they are. Earlier I had my friends baby here for a couple of hours. He had never stayed with anyone so, of course momma was all nervous. Silly girl, I am a pro at this. Well the baby did fine only cried once when he saw me walk in front of him. I had two interviews yesterday for new clients and ended the day by signing four contracts. I don't know what I just got myself into. One is a 2 month old, only for about two months then his mom is getting out. A two year old little girl, who I thought was going to just be on hourly basis but ended up deciding to go full time and a set of four year old twin boys. The twins are on the waiting list at the center, so really they shouldn't be here for more than a month, I think. I went to bed exhausted last night just thinking about having to work so hard. I haven't worked like this in four years. That is OK, I can just be tired all the way to the bank! Now I need to get my stuff together so I can keep everyone busy all day and stay sane. I told Dustin last night that I may have to resort to drinking every night. I guess he thought that was pretty funny, but I was only half kidding.
How can I forget to mention AI! I love these first shows, I was laughing so I hard I had tears rolling down my face. What are some of these people thinking? Although, my prediction is they wont show these auditions to much longer because someone, after seeing themselves on there, and knowing that the whole country is laughing their butts off at them, is going to commit suicide because they were so humiliated, and the family is going to sue Simon. Sometimes he is a little cruel, but come on, these people know that before they go in that room and sing to him. I could watch auditions every night.

Living the Japan way

So it took me awhile to get to this post, but finally it is here. I have had several people ask for pictures of vehichles mostly, but a few for the house. How could we forget the potties here! Corri and I took this picture at the Botanical Gardens. It was late and they were about close so there wasnt anyone else in the bathroom. They only had one Western style toilet in there and Cheara didnt see it. She was spinning around looking at all the holes in the floor and she said "Mom where is the human bathroom at?" That kid comes up with some crazy stuff. It is just like it looks, flush with the floor. I have not attempted to use these out, I just wait! If you had on a dress it wouldnt be that bad, but I would pee on my pants unless there was somewhere there to hold me up like when I was little ;)

Then is my lovely van that I drive. This isnt a very good picture but I guess you can tell where the steering wheel is. The back has curtains in all of the windows and the middle seats turn around so they can see the people in the backseat.

The house. Ahhhh home sweet home, for another 28 months anyway. We live in 4-plex but are lucky enough to be on the end. I will try and get some pictures of the inside. It really isnt that bad, the layout is pretty good so we have enough room. We could use more, but we will manage. That just gives us something to look forward to when we go back I guess. The house is about 1600 SF with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. All the bedrooms are upstairs with two full baths and there is a half bath downstairs (thank goodness!) The downstairs is just the living/dining room, kitchen and a room in the front that is another dining room but we have it turned into a toy room. We have lots of light from two sets of sliding glass doors and I think that helps it to not feel so small. We have a good size kitchen, biggest one I have ever had. It is quite outdated with the stainless counters and I am not really sure what the cabinets are made of. They are yellow with air holes in the top and peach colored tile. It is a gem, but it is really not to bad.

Pictures

They have the coolest parks here. This is a roller slide. The next park we went to, we took an old cardboard box with us and slid down on that.
Feeding the fish at the Botanical Gardens
Here we all are with Santa! Merry Christmas
This is one of the swings. This is so much fun! You sit on a little thing and hold on up top. Then you slide down the cable and hit another tire at the other end and bounce about half way back.
I am not really sure what a red bumblebee has to do with Christmas, but we thought he was kinda cute.

a few more pictures

Corri got lots of perfume this year

tracking Santa on Christmas Eve

Thank you

Checking out their loot

More pictures

I know it is sideways, I dont know how to flip it around but you get the idea!
Landon just knew Dustin would love it!

Pictures

WOW Thanks Santa!!

Look at that loot
HMMM, what is this?
Cool shirt, drums of course
I have to get this open

playing catch-up

I think I will just do one big blog and try to get caught up on everything at once. Catch-up reminds me of my favorite joke, are you ready for this?
Momma tomato, daddy tomato and baby tomato are walking down the street. The baby tomato keep falling behind so the daddy tomato turns to him, squashes him and says "catchup"
I love it!! You know I cant tell that stupid joke without tears rolling down my cheeks laughing so hard. I watch Pulp Fiction just to hear my joke. OK, anyway.....

The kids were out of school for 2 1/2 weeks and we got to get out and about quite a bit. Their last day was my birthday but by the time I took Cheara to cheer practice and Corri to tennis we just had some dinner opened bday presents and that was about it. They were so sweet though. Jeff took them out to get me something and the decided I needed a new robe, and then he took them to get a cake and ice cream and candles. They were so excited. The rest of that week, Jeff and I both worked but then it was a four day weekend. Christmas Eve the kids exchanged gifts and we went to candle light service at church, which Landon slept through then thought he should be up until 11. Christmas day we stayed home, it was so nice. I forgot to make half the food I had bought for dinner, but that just made it that much easier for dinner for the rest of the week. I still haven't made the pumpkin pie, they finally quite asking for it. We spent about two hours opening gifts, a little crazy but the two little ones are soooo much fun to buy for. Landon got a Buzz Lightyear and didn't want to open anything else after that. We finally got done opening gifts and had to get everything carried up to their rooms right away. These little houses were not made for big families and Christmas! We were opening packages for a week. They only opened stuff as they were going to play with it for the first time. Cheara might even still have something that isn't opened. Santa brought the oldest three an MP3 player and Landon a scooter. Stockings were overflowing and there was stuff everywhere!! I love it.

We made it to the Botanical Gardens where they had a Christmas light show. They had lights on everything and a laser show at the end. Until this point Landon did not want to see Santa, but he decided that he would go sit with him.

We did a lot of getting out over the last week. Everyone was home, no work, no school and no sports to hurry and get to. We went to 2 different parks and back to the aquarium. Jeff and I went to see a movie one night. While we were in line, some kid behind us started puking so that was really nice. For New Years we, again, stayed at home. We all played games, snacked and watched a movie. Precisely at 12:01 it was time for bed! I have to take a nap if I am expected to stay up that late. So now it is the second week of January, everything is back to normal. No more Christmas music or lights, no more worrying if I got everybody a gift, for a few more months anyway. Now I just have to figure out a birthday.

First Game

Cheara started cheerleading for youth football. She has had two games and is loving it! I wasnt really sure if she would get out there and actually do it or not but she informed me that she was a little shy at first, but would just have to get over it. She cheers her little heart out. This week is basketball signups. She had a hard time deciding if she was going to play ball or cheer for basketball. With a little pushing from her dad, she decided to play basketball. She went with me to one of Corri's tennis lessons and has decided that she would like tennis to. One thing at a time tho, tennis will have to wait until after cheer and ball. I am really kind of dreading basketball, just because I know how somebody can get :)