Homeless...

So, yes, we are homeless.

  Thank you to all the kind people that offered their homes to us, I wish I could come stay with you.  Mark wants me to stick around to harass the builders, although at this point I am on the verge of doing more then that.

 We had to be out of our rental Sunday.  Saturday Mark and I stopped by the new place and realized there was no way we could move in, that night nor the next day.  We thought it would be just a day or two thing so we moved into my cousin's studio apt over her garage.  Don't get me wrong, I love my cousin and am so grateful that she moved her brother's girlfriend who was staying here into the house for us; and I am so grateful to have a place to stay for free.  But there is something to be said about doors.

So anyway, as each day goes on, it is still going to be another day or two before we can move in...

I don't know what we are going to do, I am trying to have a good attitude, but it seems to have escaped me at times.

Addy summed it up best; when we got here, after a long day of moving she just sat on the bed and started crying and said "I just want to go home."  If only we had a home to go to.

Limbo

So, building a house is not all it is cracked up to be.  The house was supposed to be done in June.  Our current landlord is making us leave at the end of this week, and we don't know if we have a place to go or not.  As of Sat our house had not passed final inspection, did not have carpet or appliances OR electricity.  But, we have movers for this Saturday, so we have started packing and things are getting a little chaotic around here.  We are trying to keep things as normal as possible for the kids.

I let Katie make dinner last week, she was so excited.  She studied her cookbook (thanks cousin Ella) and decided she was going to make bagel faces and a chocolate/banana shake.  We made a list and hit the grocery store.  She did everything herself (except for cutting with the sharp knife and getting the bagels out of the toaster).  Addy and Katie had so much fun making the faces.  And, Katie was so proud of herself.

 

Marcus was just focused on drinking his chocolate shake.

 After dinner the kids had a little water party.

 Addy didn't join in, she just wanted to do my hair.  Her new thing is to play with my hair and try to put it in ponytails.  She does it in church and distracts everyone one around us (because she is so cute).

 And, just a cute picture, I caught Marcus by surprise, I love that my kids love books so much.

Now the big question is...are we going to be homeless this weekend?

The summer of 2011

 We are a having the ultimate STAY-cation this summer.  We have been taking full advantage of everything around us.  We go to the pool almost every day.  I'm not sure I will ever be able to post pictures of this because it is almost always just me and the kids.  Marcus and Katie can swim almost the width of the pool.  They run and jump in, and can get things off the bottom.  Addy is the master of her float.  The first couple weeks of the pool she wouldn't let me put her down, now she won't let me hold her.  She wants to do her own thing and goes all over the pool in her float.

We spend plenty of time outside riding bikes and playing with the neighbors.  We hike some, but not that much lately since it gets hot so early here.  We have gone to some of the kid museums here in Charlotte.  We have also been enjoying the free movies at the local theater every week.  As crazy as my life is with 3 kids so close in age, it is nice  that they all love to do the same thing at the same time. 

We had Talia and Will spend one night with us, Katie was so excited to have a sleepover.

At the end of June Katie had an adventure camp at the Nature Preserve near us.  She loved everyday.  She learned about a different type of animal everyday.  On the day she learned about fish, they sent her home with a gold fish.  She was so happy, she named it Princess Fish and carried her everywhere (in the jar they gave her).  She cried so hard when her fish died the next day.

The week that Katie was at camp, Marcus and Addy got a little bored...I bribed them with taking them to the movies with their friends.  My neighbor joined us with her son John, Marcus' best bud, and we brought Addy's favorite friend, Kate.  It was very entertaining to watch a movie with 4 three year olds.

Marcus and John

The crowning moment so far this summer has been Katie's birthday.  There has been a countdown going on for the past month (we are now counting down until Sept for the twins birthday).  We spent the week before Katie's birthday celebrating--we tried to do something special each day.  We had a "mixed up day" where we ate dinner at lunch and then a picnic lunch for dinner at the pool so we could swim all evening.  We went for ice cream.  We went to a movie.  On Friday we went to the park and then on a hike.  We ended up at the lake because the kids wanted to throw rocks in.  

It started with this...Katie went in to get some shells and fell...then Marcus joined her.

Then Addy joined them.

And ended with this.   A full blown swim fest.

Grammy and Grandpa showed up Friday evening.  While we waited for Mark to get home we went to the pool, when we arrived some little girls asked Katie something about Marcus and Addy.  I'm not sure what they said, but I heard her say, "Some families are different colors".

Saturday morning was the big day.

Katie started the day with a yummy breakfast then we headed to check out the progress on our house.

For her birthday Katie asked to see Mark's office--his building has so much security that the kids haven't gone up yet.

She got her picture taken and got to wear a name tag

They are using dry erase markers on the window

After lunch complete with ice cream and then nap time we opened presents.

Emmie had this horse while she was at our house, her and Katie played with it everyday.  She was pretty excited to get her own horse, she just had to tell Emmie.

Our church always does fireworks the weekend of July 4th.  This year it fell on Katie's birthday, she decided the whole thing was for her.  We got there around dinner time and spent the evening hanging out with friends.

Talia, Katie and Addy

Katie getting her body painted--she wanted dots all over her arms and face.

Other kids kept jumping in front of Addy so finally I just decided to paint her myself.

Mark and Addy and Charlotte--Charlotte is a twin almost exactly 2 years younger then Addy.  She is so cute she almost tempted Mark into wanting another child-almost.

We were at a Native American Reservation in SC--meaning that pretty much anything could go with the fireworks.  It was quite the show.  Marcus wasn't scared this year, he just said what he always said about noise; "too loud!".

Katie trying to comfort Liam and Charlotte

The next day after church we had cupcakes and sang "happy birthday", my baby is getting so big!