Goodbye Naps

I can hardly believe that this day is here: Grant has dropped his afternoon nap! I thought he would make it all the way until he walked into elementary school, but alas, it's not to be. I still make him lie down for an hour (listening to music, books on cd, etc), which seems to refuel his tanks, and I am loving the extra one-on-one time we get in the afternoon while Grace sleeps. He dropped his nap all at once; there's nothing "gradual" about Grant! He's going to sleep earlier now, and he often sleeps to about 8:30, so he's still getting plenty of sleep.

It's just another indicator that I've got a full fledged little boy on my hands, one who is rocketing toward full kid-dom without looking back. Queue: tears.

Fish in an Igloo

A few weeks ago, I made an aborted trip to Jackson, Mississippi. It snowed. A lot. In Mississippi. Prior to that trip, I asked our good friend Georgette for some restaurant recommendations, knowing that she was a Jackson native. She passed along a few ideas...a Japanese steakhouse here, some barbeque there, and an igloo that serves fish.

A few weeks after that, I actually made a trip to Jackson, but I wasn't in town for my nightly feeding. So when I had to come back down here this week, I decided to revisit Georgette's list, focusing mainly on the fish igloo.

I punched in the location on the GPS, drove 20 minutes, and then lo and behold, I was staring at an igloo on the side of the road, announcing itself as Jerry's Catfish House. What the?

I figured the igloo had to have a hook of some kind. Was the catfish "ice breaded?" Was the iced tea "cold as an igloo?" Nope. Jerry just decided to build his restaurant so that it looked like one of those DPW salt/sand storage facilities you see along the highway.

I went inside and got seated. The menu had a plethora of options that mostly looked like "catfish and sides." I ordered the all you can eat catfish, and within 90 seconds, I was eating.

The waitress brought me about 2 pounds of fish, 20 hushpuppies, a bowl of coleslaw, and a basket of greasy french fries. It was heavenly. The breading on the catfish was nice and light, leaving plenty of internal storage for the pound of hushpuppies.

About 10 minutes later, the waitress asked if I needed more fish. I laughed out loud and said, "Uh...no." in much the same way that I suspect Jonah did while toweling off on the beach. She smiled, gave me my bill, and I was on my way.

So Georgette, your fish-gloo was a hit. Next time I'm down here, I'll be sure to checkout another of your Mississippi fine dining establishments.

Renting our House

It looks like we might try to take the plunge into landlordville. We know it is plagued with all kinds of pitfalls, but we are hopeful that we can find great tenants.

If you know anyone who would like to rent a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house in Brownsburg, send them our way. If they turn out to work, we'll reward you with a referral of $300.

Hey, it's worth a try.

Glorious Spring

So, life's pretty busy right now. We're up to our ears in lenders, home inspections, and such. We spend every available minute trying to figure out what to do with the new house (oh, the work that needs to be done!), the new land (did we mention it is 3.5 acres with woods and a creek?), and the soon to be old house (sell or rent?). So, thankfully, the weather has been nice enough to get out, which means that our house isn't destroyed, Grant and Grace are generally over their winter grumps, and we can put them in bed completely spent at the end of the day.

Thank goodness we finished all the adoption paperwork before we started all the house paperwork!!

Major Decisions Come in Pairs, Right?

Adoption #3 underway? Check.

So what else can we do to make sure that my stomach stays as unsettled as possible?

Yeah, I think we just bought a house. More to come.

I swear, we're still here...

We took off on a little vacation last week. Actually, Bret was on business, and the kids and I just followed along with him. It sounded fun when we were in the planning stages, but we moved four different times, which just amounted to tired kids and a tired mommy. We did get the see family, and Grant adores his cousins, so that was swell. And, we got to visit with dear friends, and Grant is already swooping in on one of them as a potential mate, so he was in heaven. But, the road to recovery, combined with daylight savings time, has us a wee bit tired.

Plus, we've been a little busy with something else lately. We can't quite let you in on the secret yet (it does not involve baby #3), but we will shortly. Needless to say, when that post comes, it'll explain why this blog has set dormant.

Until then, here are a few pics of the kids (swimming, Huntsville science museum, and such). I don't have pictures of Grant and Grace with their cousins or friends (read: the most important part of the trip), mainly because they were running around too much to even snap a pic and also because our camera broke (Madeline, do you have a pic or two?). Such is life.

We'll keep you updated... life is a changin'.

Stress Reduction Theory

Since I took my new job in fall, I've been looking for ways to reduce stress. (While appreciative of being employed, this new gig is wearing...me...out.) I discovered that the quickest path to stress reduction for me was to cancel my gym membership.

I can't get up at 5am to go to the gym. It just makes me feel like I'm going to vomit to work out in a sleep deprived stupor. I don't want to go after work, since that's my 15 minutes a day that I get to spend with the kids. And I don't want to go on weekends because, well, what's the point if you're only going to go on weekends?

So what do I do? I stress over the $50/month I'm giving away to the gym. Therefore I canceled my gym membership and allocated an additional $50/month to our "eating out" budget. Stress reduction on two levels!

Now what to do with "the chub..."

Going to do Better

Between being sick and being sick and tired of the weather (not to mention all the adoption paperwork--yeah, we are officially done and active!), we haven't been around this blog much. I took about two pictures in February (lame).

So, even though I am feeling pretty lousy today (a fever and a headache will do that to you), I'm going to get some pictures up (even if it's the kids in pjs), and I'm resolved to do better in the weeks and months to come.

Now, for the cute kids in their cute hats.