Marching and Moving

We attended the March for Life again this year.  It's great that we get off school to go.  We always go with our church, and we have a good time.  It wasn't supposed to be too cold, but we bundled up anyway.  
We start with 9a Mass, and then the church takes a picture of everyone.  We got off to a late start this year because we were waiting on people that were running late.  We wanted to get down there earlier than normal to try and catch Trump speaking.  We arrived at the tail end of his speech.  He said some pretty strong statements, so I guess we'll see how those pan out.
The church leader forgot our church flag, so everyone got separated.  It was a mess, but we all knew where to meet up at in the end.  Our group is normally at the middle or end of the march, but this year we made it close to the front.  It was a different experience because it didn't feel as long as in the past years, probably because we weren't waiting for everyone in front of us to get going as much.  
Kevin made sure all his ducks stayed in a row for the most part.  Rory walked with her friends.  Marz walked with her friend, and Logan walked with me.  My eye stayed on Marley, and when I had to weave the crowd to get her, Kevin brought up the rear making sure Rory's friend group stayed up with us too.  Everything went off without a hitch until the end.  Since we were all separated, we had to wait for everyone to get there.  Then the bus wasn't there because it was stuck in traffic.  We waited an hour and a half outside for the bus.  Luckily, it was at a coffee shop, so everyone got to get beverages, snacks, and a pee break if they wanted.  We packed enough drinks and snacks for ourselves, so we didn't need to purchase anything.
The bus finally came after witnessing an accident with another bus!  It was just a bumper accident, but it was still entertaining as they took up the whole intersection.  Everyone was so grateful when everyone showed up and the bus came.  There was leftover coffee and donuts from that morning.  The donuts ran out quick, but cold coffee isn't wonderful.
We got home about 6p and all got in comfy warm clothes, ate dinner, and watched tv.  It was a great time.  MY KIDS ARE THE PRO-LIFE GENERATION!

On the bus.  Rory was back behind us sitting with her friends.

 The bus dropped us off outside the wax museum, so I called the kids to come get a pic with Trump with me.  :)

 Marz has to do a project for religion on attending the march, so we snapped lots of shots of her.  She didn't wear her jacket the whole time!

 Rory is the burgundy hooded person at the bottom of the pic.  That's her friend in front of her looking like she's giving me the stink eye.  

Sitting and waiting outside the coffee shop.

On to other news, today was a busy day of house hunting.  We started out with sleeping in and having a good breakfast.  We headed out to the area we're moving to and attended the church we like out there.  It was a lovely service, and we headed to our first house appt.  The house was a log cabin with a pool and 11 acres.  It was beautiful but would need a lot of money put into it, plus we're not sure about the internet service there.  Keep in mind that we were just looking at areas today.  We're trying to figure out neighborhoods and such.  We're not selling in time to get anything that we looked at today.

The next house was a brand new construction on an acre.  The house was BEAUTIFUL and had that new house smell.  Unfortunately I didn't think the layout would work for us but also, the yard was on a slope.  Since our house now is on a slope and water is an issue, I didn't feel too confident with that.  

The house after that was down the street from the new construction.  This was the neighborhood that everyone LOVED.  The house is on a cul-de-sac and each bedroom has it's own bathroom, and they're all on the same floor.  As we moved into looking at the unfinished basement, we saw water issues ALL AROUND THE PERIMETER OF THE BASEMENT.  That was a big red flag.  The realtor said that we could ask to have it fixed, which they would probably do, but again, we're no where close to having our house listed yet.  

Speaking of prepping the house, Kevin made huge progress this weekend.  Remember when we put in a wall in the basement to make a bedroom for me and Kevin?  Well, that wall came down since we moved Rory in with Marz.  This will be a selling point for the house.

We'll be replacing the carpet and having someone come in and patch the walls once we move into the RV.  We made a list of what we need to get done by when to get the house on the market.  The sooner the better we're finding out.  The only problem with that is the pipes in the RV.  We can't use the water if the temp is freezing for more than three days in a row or we'll bust the pipes.  I guess we'll see how it all works out.  For a planner like me, this is a nightmare, but I trust that God will lead us where He wants us when He wants us there.  

CATS!

Before Christmas, K'lyn asked if I was busy some day in January.  I replied that I wasn't, and she invited me to see CATS (the play) with her.  Apparently her boss has season tickets to the theater and wasn't going to be able to make this show and gave the tickets to K'lyn.  I've seen CATS before, but it's a favorite, so I was stoked.
Unfortunately the play was on a school night and in Baltimore.  Ugh.  I try to avoid that death trap at all costs.  K'lyn met me at school, and we went and had dinner first.  We killed time at the eatery because the show didn't start until 8p, and we weren't sure what time the doors opened.  We arrived at the parking garage, and the attendant advised that we were to take the elevator to the bottom floor, and we would be at the theater.  Yay!  No walking outside!  
Our seats were fabulous.  They were right by the door, and the bathrooms were a short distance away. We had the end seats of the row, so I was next to a pole, and K'lyn had no one beside her.  There was a single seat between her and the others in the row.  We joked about who would be going to see a play by themselves and prepared for the show.  People were dressed in all sorts of cat gimmicks from cheetah prints to those cat ear headbands.  It was crazy.

The theater went dark and the show started.  I don't know if you've ever seen CATS, but the stage is a junkyard.  The stage is completely dark and then cat eyes start to appear in the dark.  While this was happening, the side door opened and in walked the silhouette of a person.  I thought to myself that it was the single person that was going to sit next to K'lyn.  Then I noticed that he was dressed completely as a cat.  All of the sudden, he busts into a pose (think a surfer on a surf board).  The theater was completely quiet, and I turned and hit K'lyn on her shoulder and screamed, "THERE'S A CAT NEXT TO ME!"  It was one of the actors from the stage.  We were in row Z.  I was not expecting them to come offstage that far.  By the time I yelled at K'lyn, the cat was moving down the aisle and then went back out the door.
When we got to intermission, K'lyn said her favorite part so far was before the show started when I screamed that there was a cat next to me.  Apparently I continued screaming saying that I thought it was the single person next to her.  Then I saw he was a cat and thought, "that's why you're coming to the show by yourself."  All of this at the top of my lungs and in a high pitch voice that tends to happen when I get excited.  I hope I didn't bother everyone around me too much!
It was a great time, and we got home really late.  It was nice seeing it with K'lyn again.  I took her when she was younger, probably too young to appreciate the show, but I think she liked it this time.  I had a wonderful time.  Thanks, K'lyn!

We get clothes from a good friend whose kids are the same sizes as Rory and Marz.  Marz got this shirt and since I had just been to Cats, she modeled it for me.

Remember when...

Remember when I did that blog about perspective, and I posted a poem about children growing up?  Marley was looking through the blog the other day and started bawling.  We comforted her and asked what happened, and she pointed to the blog that was up.  I sat down remembering the blog, but I read through the poem again.  I started crying.  Logan wanted to see, so he read it and started crying.  It was a cry fest.  Here's that blog again in case you want a good cry today.  I think reading it again now that the kids are older and more of those things have happened, especially with regards to K'lyn, it was even more gut-wrenching.  

Marley got a Doodlecrate subscription for Christmas. She loves these things!  This was a cork board she painted and designed.  She did all the little pins for it too.  She's packing it away for her new room at the new house.

This was another Hello Fresh meal.  This one was SO GOOD.  The sauce was great, and I can make it AIP.  YUM!

Since I'm on a roll with this Hello Fresh advertisement, this is another one we made.  Rory actually cooked this one.  I helped a little.  She's the only one who ate it all together like this though.  

Let's just get all cooking things out of the way.  This is my first attempt at Nomato sauce.  Since you don't eat tomatoes (they're a nightshade) on AIP, this sauce fills in.  It's made with beets (color) and carrots.  It was really good!

Rory was trying to be AIP, so I was scrambling for things for her to eat because she didn't like a lot of what I ate for snacks on AIP.  I found a banana bread recipe, had enough ripe bananas, and made it one night feeling like a rockstar.  When I took it out of the oven, I realized I had forgot to put the flour in.  What a rookie mistake?!!?  Even more, now I had no snack food for Rory at school!  Kevin and I ran out to three different grocery stores looking for ripe bananas to make it again that evening.  We were unsuccessful.  The next evening, we went out to more stores farther out.  We found some that were looking to ripen soon that I was going to put in a bag to quicken the process.  We had to go to Costco for some things and ran into some friends.  We ended up talking to them in the middle of Costo on our "quick banana run" for at least a half hour.  It was great to see them!  Anyway, we checked out Costo's bananas, and Kevin like a particular batch that I was't sure about.  Yesterday I woke up and baked all the banana bread.  Rory decided to just go back to gluten and dairy free instead of AIP, so I made her banana muffins.  Then I made Kevin, Logan, and Marley's Bread, and finally the AIP banana bread for myself that started this whole mess.  I used all the Costco bananas and still have some leftover from the other batches we bought.  That's a lot of bananas!

In our diocese, youth are usually confirmed in their sophomore year of high school.  I was confirmed in the 8th grade, K'lyn was confirmed in the 10th, and Rory was confirmed in the 7th.  I think each kid is different, and I wanted Logan to be confirmed in his 8th grade year.  This is after Logan asked Rory to be his confirmation sponsor.  Isn't that so sweet?!  Rory was honored.  It's coming up quick, so pray for them please!

While we're on the subject of Logan, he had his annual eye exam.  He failed.  While he doesn't need glasses all the time, he needs them for distance more often than not.  His one eye isn't as bad as the other, so they're working together to where he doesn't need them for the most part, but the doc said, "If he was driving, he would need glasses all the time."  He thinks Logan is one to two steps away from full time glass wear.  And to think, this is the boy that felt left out cuz he was the only one in the family without glasses.  During his eye exam, the doc told him to follow the light and cross his eyes.  Logan did it fine. The doc took the light away and told him to cross his eyes again, and this happened.  He only crosses his left eye.  His right eye just stares at you, daring you to make a move.  :)  He wanted to know what that looked like, so I took a pic for him AND ALL OF YOU.  The doc said some people actually try to do that to their eyes (only cross one), but he just has it naturally.  Lucky guy! (???)

After many failed attempts, and even coming back the next day, we finally settled on these.  He got to pick the color and frames and everything like his sisters, so this is just the shape of the glasses.  He chose a black/gray slate design with maroon ear handles or whatever those things are called.  He only needs them for distance, so hopefully, these will get used more than the others.  I think that's why his eyes got worse.  

Well, I think that's it.  You're all caught up.  See you later!

Back to School

It was bound to happen.  The dreaded going back to co-op.  Since this is our last year there, I seriously considered not going back at all for the last half.  But I'm nothing if not a stickler for the rules, so yesterday was our first day back.  There were reports of snow moving in, but for the most part, it was supposed to be wet roads around evening traffic.  We don't get out of school until 5p, and I was mentally prepared for the long drive home.  At about 1015a, we were told that we would be leaving for an early dismissal at 1130a.  The first day back canceled early for snow was WONDERFUL!  We made it home right when the first flakes started to fall.  We all kicked back, relaxed, and watched TV.  It was a great evening.  Here are some pics about things we have been doing as of late.

 Remember that time when I painstakingly stickered Rory's whole wall of her new room while she was away at church work camp?  And then she painted over it with white taking the stickers off to reveal the blue paint?  Well, Kevin and I moved back into the room that was originally ours.  The wall is coming down and the basement will have a living room again making it more sellable.  We've packed along the way, so it's been a good move.

Kevin got me an apple watch for our anniversary (again).  It brings up a new pic everyday, and this was my pic a couple days ago.  I took a pic of the pic to send to my sister to show her.  :)

K'lyn got HelloFresh as one of her presents.  With that, she gets to send free boxes to other to have them try out meals.  This was one of the meals we got.  All of us (except Kevin) tried the taco as it was made with the sour cream and tomato, kiwi salsa.  It wasn't bad, but I don't think I'd make it again.  We made another meal today that was REALLY GOOD.  

And then because every snow day needs desserts, we had banana milkshakes.  My tummy wasn't happy with it, but my tastebuds were!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

We celebrated Kevin's birthday on the 3rd with dinner out with the fam.  He had to work that day, but he worked it from home, so we got to go to Mass at least.  I tried to make a cake, but it didn't turn out well, so I had to go buy one.  :(  We went to Texas Roadhouse.  K'lyn and Adam were able to join us even though we all feared for Adam's life (he's allergic to peanuts, and this restaurant lets you shell them and throw the shell on the floor and such).  He survived!  
The food wasn't bad, and all the kids behaved for the most part.  We came back to the house for cake and presents afterward.  A good time was had by all.  Also, so many people have the same birthday!  Two of our friends' babies were born the evening of the 3rd too.  Crazy!  Happy birthday, Babe!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Well, I guess it's about time I got back to this.  To start the year off fresh, I'll post holiday pics.  I was thinking of recapping, but I haven't posted since August and so much has happened.  There are many new adventures ahead for our family this year, so I figured I'd dust this blog off and chronicle them for your amusement.  :)

Marley got her ears pierced at the doctor.  Thanks Nana and Papa!

I was really trying to get my act together with Christmas cards this year.  Every year I get them addressed and everything and never mail them.  This year I took the pic early, and I was so hopeful.  Sorry everyone!

Normally I say that Rory doesn't look like me, but this pic makes me think twice about that statement.

 Our little broken tree this year.  A couple days of it up, and the lights wouldn't work anymore.  One less thing to store for the move.  Rory got to put the angel on top this year.  She's in rough shape though, so my parents gave us a new to us one to use for next year.  

This little girl wanted to try and see if the water would freeze outside in the container.  This is what she wore to check it.  I froze just taking the picture.

Date night: Kevin, me, and this guy!

Rory made a gift for her friend.  She's getting pretty good.  Even K'lyn commented on her neat lines.

Throughout the holidays Relic continues to display and relate to my feelings.

This was my biggest mistake of 2019.  It went something like this:"Hey Kevin!  We should do this thing where you make snowman out of the gifts.  It'll be so cute!"  Ten hours later: "Hey Kevin!  Let's NEVER do this again."

Logan has his eyes closed.  :(  We have a pic without Adam too, but I was trying to be nice.  

Christmas night and how it all turned out.  I think it looks exceptional especially since it's our first year with no one believing in Santa anymore. :(

Then we went to North Carolina to spend some time with Nana, Papa, Uncle Brian, Aunt Paula, Samantha, and their 7 dogs.

Meet Logan in North Carolina.  I'm hoping North Carolina Logan shows up more in Maryland.

Nana and Kevin

The gifts and headache of the year.  K'lyn texted me on December 20th and asked if I wanted to go in with her on doing gifts for the girls of the families.  I signed up for my DOOM.  "All" I had to do was choose pics for Grandma, Auntie Dita, Auntie, Riri, Nana, and Aunt Paula.  I would print them out small enough to fit on blocks and copy them on a library copier for their ink cuz ours would smear.  At least everyone liked them!  I didn't get pics of my mom's or Dita's, but they were a hit.

Logan got a light board for Christmas.  He hasn't been off it but to eat and sleep.

And Relic continues to get me.  This is his new bed he got for Christmas.  He LOVES it.

Still trying to encourage youth!

Happy New Year!  We woke the kids up and had a call from K'lyn shortly after.  Here's to 2020!