Happy Trails!!!

Life has a crazy way of throwing a curve ball when you least expect it. This is certainly the case for us right now as we have exactly 2 1/2 weeks to pack up an entire house, host a moving sale and get it all to Maryland from North Carolina!! Not to mention this emotional rollercoaster I am on now as a result! There are so many positives to moving such as:
1. I will be back with my family and where no matter where I have lived I have always referred to as "home". When I was little, I thought all that "home is where the heart is" stuff was just some sappy crap some sissy made up to put on cute plaques to make a couple of bucks. I thought home is where your stuff is,,,,,,DUH......now I am realizing just what that means and that sissy was actually right and probably got rich as well in the process!
2. I get to be there for my nephew and he will know who I am and not have to "get used" to me everytime he sees me, I will watch him grow up and my kids and him will be tight whether they like it or not. I fully expect that i get asked for him to spend the night or them to spend the night after family functions like we all did when we were kids. And Chad and Holly.....hope you don't have any plans for halloween because I already have plans for the three of them to go trick or treating together and of course Kenzie if she is available ;).
3. Chip is taking a really good job!! This is what got all of this started in the first place. I am so proud of him! He will be working for the university of maryland making a good salary and will get to finish school for free as well as our children will get to go to any university of md school for free as well!! Having two girls, we have always figured one could get married and one could go to college due to the expense of each.....well look out men, both girls can be on the "market" when they are 40 years old!! :)
4. All you can eat crabs!!! -enough said there!

So as you can see there are lots of things to be excited about. However, people have such an impact on your life and I have met so many wonderful people down here!
1. My neighborhood people!! I absolutely love my neighborhood and will truly miss the "farm crew". I will miss our fun fridays which was the perfect end to many long work weeks, I will miss scrapping nights....which by the way never did any crafty stuff until here...huge thanks for that!! I will miss walking and bunco even though I didn't get to too many of them, I will miss yard sale-ing, and so many other things. There has not been anywhere else that I have lived that I made so many wonderful friends in the neighborhood and had so much fun on so many levels! Where else can you drink a beer, watch a chick flick, then bust out some scrap book pages, while watching the kids play, drink some more and then wake up first thing in the morning and go to yard sales!! LOL. However, I will be down for visits, and will attend any functions going on at that time, plus there is facebook and email and the phone!! Hoping I can get down for the southern xmas show and we can do that again....hmmmm...pencil that in ladies!! :)
2. My work- yeah I know, at times, it is so frustrating, but I have met some really great people there also, and I have learned a ton!!!
3. Of course we go to one family but leave another, that is always the hard part of marrying someone from another state....though I will say it makes the whole "whose house do we go to first and when on holidays a whole lot easier" hee hee. They have been so supportive and I know they will really miss the girls. Though it will make our visits down "extra special" just like our time in Maryland has been the past 7 years.

So as the Johannes family starts a new chapter, I assure everyone that the book will not close, we will be down to visit whether you like it or not, we will bug everyone to have fun friday when we come down or hang out, we will be down for certain holidays and we will always be just an email, text, call, or facebook post away. It is so bittersweet as I look forward to memories to come, look back at memories made, look forward to the people I left once before and sadly back at the ones I will leave behind. Happy Trails to everyone and we WILL meet again!! Love you all!!

Summer is on it's way!!

Summer is about to begin which is my crazy time at work! It is pretty ironic when you think about it, because just a couple of years ago, I was off every summer. Sometimes I think back and say, WTH were you thinking girl! LOL. Kylie is about to finish the first grade, and I am soon to have a second grader on my hands!! YIKES!! She has already started all the "so and so is my best friend today, but then the next day she was rude so now so and so is my best friend". Her "best friend most days" actually slapped her across the face yesterday at after school!! Let's just say mommy and daddy don't have the same perception of a best friend that my child does. We finally got her in summer camp though which is a huge relief!

This weekend, my mom is coming down and her and I are going to see Wicked which I am really excited about! I will let you all know how it is!! For the 4th, we are going to see our best friends the Jarrett Family and I cannot wait!! We miss them! Then, we will end the summer with our cruise....and I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am about that!

I will finish my internship this summer (end of July in fact) and then I have one more semester and I will have my master's degree ;), . That means I actually may have free time come January....hmmmm what in the world am I going to do with that, never had that before! I must say, I could never have done any of the semesters if it wasn't for Chip. He put up with my stress and frustration every time and helped me out by taking the girls so I could do assignments and encouraging me to stick with it every time I talked about just forgetting it. He's such a good guy :).

My little nephew is growing like crazy and I am pretty sure he is the cutest little blonde hair/blue eye boy in the whole world! The girls adore him and every baby we see is compared to baby Dylan.....I think even though he is going to turn one in July, Kiersten may refer to him as baby dylan for the rest of his life...poor guy! Time definitely goes faster as you get older and even though there are days that I look at the couple with older kids and think, "man that will be nice as we are settling an argument over who got more mac and cheese than the other", most days I look at them and think .....stop growing, let's just stay like this forever!

Sometimes you need to stop and ask yourself.....

What am I thinking!! That thought has crossed my mind more than once between all the uncertainty at work and trying to finish all my projects for school while also trying to spend some quality time with the family. It gets harder and harder to make myself sit at a computer at home when I feel like I do that all day at work, and it is so nice outside, who wants to be stuck inside!! I do know it will all be worth it and I am getting really darn close to finishing! So, I am done whining and will suck it up!

Enough about me though! Kylie is a little dancing queen, she is taking tap, ballet and jazz and loves it! She will have her recital soon and I will admit I am scared that she will back out and not want to go on stage come showtime. Let me tell you how mad I will be if that happens, after shelling out all the money for her to do it. She promises me that she is going to so here is her chance to prove it. She is really doing good in school also, it is amazing how much difference there is from even the beginning of the school year to now! She is full of deep questions still, just this morning, she asked me what cancer was. If only, I could teach her to be more grateful, we'd be set, she tends to want more, more, more ....... a good friend and wise mom told me that she is too young to really understand this concept yet....so I will give her the benefit of the doubt and keep doing what I can. I got so upset with her this weekend, I started reading her this book that I am reading about a girl who grew up poorer than poor.....as her eyes glazed over and she put up with me reading out loud, Chip secretly was making fun of me. So maybe that wasn't the answer, but it was worth a try!

Kiersten, is talking more and more and every once in a while, she points something out that amazes you. For example, last night I was playing mah jong on the computer and she correctly pointed out two tiles that matched and were open that I didn't catch......hmmmm, coincidence?? maybe, maybe not, but I wouldn't argue if I have the next doogie johannes.....LOL!! OK, so maybe that is a stretch but I think my kids are brilliant either way!

Sherry and Lawrence have moved into our neighborhood and that has been really fun, we get together on friday nights for happy hour. It is a good way to end a long week!! Plus I get to play with Baby Ben and then give him back to Mom and Dad when he gets fussy, it is wonderful! Noone let me do that with Kylie and Kiersten....imagine that!

I will try not to let it go so long till I post next time, but if it does take a while, I will refer back to paragraph one of this blog........ :), oh wait, I am not supposed to whine anymore about that....whoops!

When are you going to die.....

As morbid as this title sounds, this is the question of the day for my 6 year old. Kylie asks some form of this question just about every day. If it is not this, it is how old you will be when I am....., sometimes my answer has even been as high as 108 or 114, and she doesn't even flinch, it is just ok! Or there is the question of can she live with us forever even with her husband and baby.....my answer, is of course, you can live with us as long as you want to. Or the other one, can me, her, kiersten, chip and jake all be underground with her when we die........my answer is again, of course!

I have no idea why she is so obsessed with this or where this is all coming from, I do remember however when I was young, I couldn't stand the thought that me and my family were going to die and be buried in boxes in the ground....I don't remember being quite as absorbed with it as she is though. Hopefully, this is just a quick stage, because to this day, I really don't want to think about it that much! :)

Kiersten on the other hand just does her own thing without a care in the world. She has been moved up another room at her school since she is excelling class wise in the other room which is a relief because normally when they inform us they are moving her it is because she is too big and is knocking the small kids down......that's my girl! Chip may get his football player after all in her! ;).

But for now, I am just reassuring Kylie that she will always be taken care of and that we will not leave her and we will be around for a while. Though it is not of course 100% true, it is what she needs to hear right now, I think.......save the uncertainties of the world and all that tough to deal with stuff until she is old like me ;).

I hope everyone is well and holding on in this economy! We had 70 layoffs so far in the county...the latest word from the County Manager was that he is ALMOST certain that there are no more layoffs for at least 2 years....this would be more reassuring if he hadn't said before these 70 that he didn't ANTICIPATE any layoffs..... But for now, I have a job and for that I feel blessed!

The weather is beautiful, the sun has been out for more than 2 days straight and I am loving it!! Hope everyone enjoys the weekend and the weather!!

Been a while....

I know it has been a while since I posted, I don't have much to update, but here goes....
For those of you that don't know, my work has been a little stressful lately, lots of budget cuts and we lost 4 of our part time employees, meeting with them to let them know they no longer had a job was not a fun experience......I hope to never have to do it again. They are still analyzing the budget and the reality is that my job is not a "mandated service" so we are all just hanging on hoping to make it through!
Kylie has started dance class and loves it! She is going to be in her first recital on May 22nd at 1:00pm at the Wingate University in Monroe if anyone is interested in watching her dance....I think it is great that she is really into it and will fully support whatever she wants to do in life, but I am struggling with the recital requirements such as eye makeup, blush and lipstick.....HELLO, she is 6....what is the purpose for all of that!! I don't know if this is because I am more comfortable with requirements such as a mouthguard, special socks and cleats or what, but I find this a little odd and not necessary! She is my little girly girl though and I am thinking I need to get used to that. She is also quite the fashion critic. Last weekend, Chip and Chad were getting ready to go to a concert and Kylie looks at Chip dead serious, and says...."Dad, you're not wearing THAT are you?.....that is not what you wear to a concert....." Imagine this child as a teenager......scary thought!

Kiersten is going through a little bit of the twos/threes, she is great one minute and then she goes into her laboratory and drinks some of the serum and comes out as Mrs. Hyde.... the only good thing is after going through it with Kylie, you can ALMOST laugh about most of it... We went to the zoo on Saturday and it was so fun to watch her all fascinated by the animals....the really funny thing is every animal exhibit we looked at, she was bound and determined to identify the "family" unit....that was the mom, there's the dad....but where's the baby?? ....we came to the conclusion that they must be studying families in school.

So, even though, there is some uncertainty right now....there is one thing that is certain...we have two healthy, spunky kids that make our lives more interesting everyday and that is something I wouldn't trade for anything!

Supermom........?

As I am sure all Mom's do, I feel this pressure to be supermom. We all know that woman, hair perfect all the time, so put together, so relaxed, kids so cutely dressed at all times, has the kids at the playground and when they go home, fresh cupcakes are waiting for them. After eating the cupcakes, they go play quietly in the other room while Mom makes a mouth watering dinner. Dad comes in, the kids run and hug him and they all sit down to a wonderful dinner, talking and laughing.......Right? Well, I hate to admit it but that is about as far from our life as you can get. Instead, I feel as if I constantly race this huge clock that ticks louder and louder the later it gets. At our house, Dad gets off first, goes and picks up the kids from school, brings them home, starts on homework and calls me. We figure out what we are going to make for dinner and he either cooks it or thaws out the meat for me to cook when I get home. We hurry through dinner, run up to take baths, read Kylie's books for school, fight them to get them both in bed at 8 and then collapse on the couch before we both start studying or doing whatever else we needed to get done that day before coming home to the whirlwind. Now, we even have a wrench thrown into our hectic routine and that is called Monday night dance class. So now, after dinner, we have to rush Kylie out the door to dance class and she doesn't even get home until almost 8 so we have just enough time to freshen her up and get her ready for bed. I am really glad that she is enjoying dance but I will admit, me and the other "dance" mom's don't have much in common (I know, go figure!). While, I do like my job and what I do, I really wish that I could leave at 4 instead of 5.......this would really make my nights easier, as I feel this pressure to cook and be home when my kids get home, somehow that is what I feel would make me supermom, though I know that is not true.

The crazy thing is Chad and I grew up in almost the scenario I opened with. We got home from school, did our homework and then went outside to the giant playground which was right across the street from our house. Dad got home at 5 everyday, and called us in for dinner. We ran in to dinner but unlike our taco's or spaghetti or crockpot, we had .......get this.....roast beef, real mashed potatoes, real gravy.....on a weekday!! That's weekend food at my house now! The other amazing thing is I don't remember nights going so fast. They seemed like we had so much time and it was so stress free. OK, so maybe a kid's perspective is entirely different and if it is, I would love to hear from either one of my parents ;).

I have talked to work about leaving at 4 but I don't think this will be able to happen. I am not going to push it too much as there are layoffs happening and I need my job if we want to be able to even enjoy taco's and spaghetti...LOL. BUT, the good news is, there are still small moments in our hectic evenings that I do feel like supermom. All it takes is an unexpected hug or kiss from one of the girls and occasionally, Kylie will say, You're the best mom ever.....and though I know I am the only one she knows....who am I to argue with that!!

Cereal Letdown

This morning I opened up a fresh box of Cheerios. At the very top of the box was a toy car wrapped in plastic sitting on top of the unopened bag of cereal. I find it tragic that the cereal manufacturer is robbing children of this memorable expereince. The whole fun of the "prize" in the cereal is the thrill of the chase. I remember my Mom always had the rule...."No digging through the cereal with your hands to find it". That prize would be buried on the bottom somewhere and we would have to keep eating and filling our bowl to get to it. Chad and I would eat more than one bowl not because we were hungry but because we wanted the prize....because in those days, there was no sharing the cereal prize, if you got to it first, it was yours. I can see us now, looking each other in the eye with our sly smiles reaching for the box to refill our bowl while the other one thought the themselves.....please don't get the prize, please don't get the prize. A huge sigh of relief when the prize didn't come. The next one would pick up the box and pour their cereal but would lean it real far in all different directions to see if they could get that prize to surface to the top somehow. There could only be one winner and that person was the luckiest kid in the world for that day as they blew the cereal dust off their prize and figured out what it was. I still remember the magic coin trick prize, I believe Chad beat me to that, it was so cool, you put a coin in and there was a secret slot on the bottom that the coin slid under as you said the magic words.......SIGH, the good old day!!

So, General Mills, Kellogg's and all the other cereal companies out there, Enough of this handing it to children on a silver platter, it is things like this that are making children soft and wimpy. Man up, bury that thing way down there and get rid of the sissy wrapping, a little cereal dust never hurt anyone!!