It's kind of like fall in July here...

Because the temperature is hanging out in the low 60s, but last time I checked, it was July 30th. Am I right? Well, it doesn't help that we're over 6000 ft. above sea level and that if the clouds cover the sun, we get no warmth whatsoever. Elisabeth is outside in pants, a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. Brr...

Yesterday, Elisabeth's little friend came knocking on our door announcing, "Elisabeth got hurt." So, I go out to see what happened, and here hobbles Elisabeth with blood running down the bridge of her nose. She's definitely been crying and her other friend is helping to walk her home. When we asked what happened, Elisabeth replies, "I fell when I was chasing my friend." Yep, she totally face planted while running. The girl is such a klutz!!!! Well, we wiped her up and nothing was broken (thankfully) or in need of stitches (again, thankfully). See, we're trying to go the whole month of July without an ER visit. It'll be the first month in a LONG LONG LONG LONG time where we haven't been to the ER (please see other months' postings). She does have some major road rash on her face. While eating dinner (with an ice pack over her face), Evan asks her why she didn't use her hands to catch herself. Her response--"Because I fell on my face." Of course. So, later in the week when I get around to posting more pictures, that is what happened to Elisabeth's face.

So, the other day I happened to get upon the scale in our bathroom and almost had a severe heart attack. What is up? Oh, just my weight. It's not anything that hasn't been up since I had Elisabeth, but you know what, I'm finally sick of it. I'm finally sick of dealing with this weight. The other day Elisabeth said she was bored and headed straight to the pantry. Um, not good!!!! And I know I totally do that. It made me really sad and self conscience that I'm showing really poor eating habits. So, Monday I did something about it. I joined Weight Watchers (again) and am not kidding around this time. So far, I've lost 4 pounds in 4 days, which I know isn't going to be my every week and is because I'm actually watching what I eat and exercising twice a day, but it's a nice incentive to start out with. I did not realize how often I was heading to the kitchen to graze until I had to count everything in my food journal online. I also started walking twice a day, once in the morning with the girls and once at night when Evan gets home and lets me go by myself.

Now, I'm not good with really long term goals. I tend to get frustrated and forgetful about them. Right now, my goal is just to be 1o pounds lighter by my birthday (Sept. 23). Then we'll take it one step at a time. And now that I've told you guys, I'll feel even more compelled to meet that goal so as not to let you people down!!!

Wish me luck!!!

Good-bye, feathered friends!

After waiting a few days to see if they came back (which they did not), it was time to tear down our bird nest. Evan was very excited (as pictured below), but I miss seeing their angry little faces stare me down as I walked in and out of my own home. See you next year, our fine feathered friends!




This weekend we (finally) painted Elisabeth's room! She'd picked out a light purple color and was intent on helping us paint. The finished product is awesome! The color looks great with her curtains and furniture. And we were able to put things on the wall!!!


Elisabeth made her bed for the pictures. :)



And she has played in her room every day since we finished. Poor baby, I think she didn't feel like she could play in the room because it was so piled and not finished. :( She's always been proud of having her own room and would show EVERYONE who walked in our door in DeKalb her"big girl" room. I have a feeling that she will be doing the same thing here too. Plus, now that we don't have to keep all of her toys in her room, she's having a much easier time keeping her room clean. (Now, the play area in the loft is completely trashed, but, baby steps)

Next weekend--Julia's room!!!!

Last week of summer break :(

Well, for us at least. Elisabeth starts school on August 5th and she is one excited first grader! We went school supplies shopping last week and decided all her supplies should be purple (which her Aunt Kyle whole heartedly approved of). She's sticking with her Star Wars back pack from last year, and we found a Star Wars lunch bag at Pottery Barn for Kids and a Star Wars thermos at Wal-Mart. She is such a goof ball. Purple sparkly school supplies; Star Wars everything else. Anyway, she should find out her teacher any day now and we have her open house on the 3rd. I can not believe she's going into 1st grade.

So, we've been hanging out and making the most of what's left of her summer.

Julia's been making these kind of messes all around the house...
Thank you Julia.

She also enjoys her chips dipped in salsa when we are out at Mexican restaurants.
And insists on playing with the cat toys as if she herself was the cat.


Elisabeth wanted a couple new outfits for school. Here she is modeling her Wizards of Waverly Place ensamble.
And her other favorite outfit. The girl has turned into a clothes horse!

How are the cats? Well, Figaro loves the tutu that Jana brought out to us.
And Roosevelt likes to sit as high up as he can jump.
But, mostly, the love hanging out together.


Here are some pics of us on our weekly Mom's Walking Club trek.
Notice my child (in the blue hat), hanging out with everyone but me. Not shy.



And lastly, here's Julia's current favorite game...playing peek-a-boo using our bedroom door.

A watched pot never boils...

but I can't seem to stay away from my phone or my email account!!!! I have sent resumes out today to 7 different places; from day care centers, to a school for autistic children, to The Little Gym. Some of the positions are full time/director type all the way down to part time instructor. So, now I wait. I did get an email back from the autism school saying they'd be getting a hold of me soon, so that's promising.

Here's my thing, though--I want a job that meets my needs as a professional educator, but isn't totally full time so that I can still take Ebeth to school and pick her up, not have Julia in day care all day, and still be home in plenty of time to make dinner. Is that asking too much?

Evan was saying how none of the wives of his co-workers work at all. They seemed surprised when he said I was job hunting. Actually, all the wives I've met are stay at home moms. I do like being home, but I really miss working too. I like how Evan put it--even if I work a job that just covers the expenses of putting Julia in day care with little extra, but it makes me feel better as a person and helps me feel balanced, then who cares. If staying home all day everyday is going to make me depressed and unhappy, then I need to find a job, even if it's just part time. And that's why I love that man.

So, be thinking of me in the next few days as I stalk all types of electronic devices waiting for responses.

Oh, and I signed Evan and I up to volunteer for Special Olympics in our area. His job requires that he has to put in volunteering hours and I thought this could be something we could do as a family! I think that Elisabeth and eventually Julia will also gain from the experience of volunteering to help at Special Olympics. So, I'm also waiting to hear back from the director in our area to find out when/how much we can help! Once again, stalking.

The great outdoors.

Two nights ago we had an awful storm around midnight. Wind, hail, rain, lightening, etc. It woke up Elisabeth (which is really hard to do, but the way the wind was blowing, the hail was pounding on the girls' windows) and then after we got Ebeth back to bed, it woke up Julia. When we woke up, we found a nice little pile of hail in our yard...
Oh, Colorado weather. You are so weird.


Evan and I have been talking about buying a hiking baby carrier to put Julia in so we could go on more trails as a family since strollers aren't always possible in some of the parks. I found one on Craig's list and we rode out to the boondocks to get it and went to Garden of the Gods to do a little hiking. It was kind of raining off and on before we went out, so we weren't sure we'd get to actually go for a full hike, but it ended up clearing and turning beautiful.


The back pack can also serve as a seat when you need a break. Ha!

Too cool for us.



We also walked to the park. Julia is all about walking while holding your hand, which is super cute! She could totally do it on her own, but if she even thinks you're about to let go of her hand, she plops down on her padded bottom. So lazy.

Elisabeth ended up playing some sort of freeze tag with some older kids, so I only took this picture as not to embarrass her. She is easily embarrassed these days, being almost 7 and all.




And here's a video of Julia stock piling the wood chips we so meanly never let her munch on.

Why do I love my doorstoop birds so stinking much?

I don't know why, but I really do! Anyway, the latest is that they are currently taking flying lessons from their parents and the nest is usually empty during the day. Evan is very eager to knock that nest down, but I told him to wait until they aren't coming back at night (which'll be very soon since they are excellent fliers).




I have been frantically getting Elisabeth ready for school. She starts on August 5th and we registered her this week and stocked her up on school supplies. We find out next week who her teacher is and she's very excited. Since I am still jobless, I'll be taking her and picking her up every day. We seriously have an 11 minute walk to and from the school, so I see us walking it a lot. And then it'll just be me and Julia....hm. I better start job hunting more.

Seriously, though, finding a job is not easy. First off, I don't know the area, and I don't want to have to drive over 20 minutes to get to my job. So, I've been trying to find things closer to us. Also, I'm being picky. I don't want to work at just any school with just any age. I'd like to work with 3-4 year olds at a school where I'm not surrounded by morons as co-workers. But, it's hard even going to fill out applications because I have the girls with me. I don't know. I'm very frustrated. I'd like to be working, I miss working, but it's just not falling into place for me right now. I've considered branching out and doing something besides teaching too. What? you ask. I have no idea.

So, until I find my dream job here, I continue to work as Mommy. My job includes such things as...

keeping Julia out of the refrigerator...

turning the tv on for the girls to stare at blankly...
being proud of my 6.5 year old as she loses, yet another, tooth (bottom right)...
feeding Julia watermelon and watching her make a disgusting mess...

and trying not to take for granted the fact that my fat little baby is quickly turning into a fat little toddler who won't always fit into our random square cubby in the living room.

NinaPapa Visit Part 2

Here's our little bird friends!!! There really are three of them, but one of them is very shy and ducks whenever we come out the front door. They look very angry due to their coloring, but they are very quiet and interested in us (except that shy one). Now they're starting to sit on the edge of the nest. I think they're thinking about flying away soon, which'll make Evan super happy since he hates the mound of poop they leave on our front porch. Oops.



Back to our NinaPapa visit!

Tuesday was Evan's birthday, but he still had to go to work. :( So, we went to visit some more fantastic sites in Colorado Springs! We started with The Garden of the Gods. It was a gorgeous day and not too hot when we went in the morning. Elisabeth was excited about getting to climb some of the rocks again and going on a couple of trails.
Jana and Elisabeth climbing through a crevice in the rocks.
Keith pushing Julia in her stroller.
While Jana, Keith and Elisabeth climbed Balancing Rock, I stayed down below with Julia. Julia had a rather extensive conversation with this nice lady that lasted 15 minutes.






After The Garden of the Gods, we headed over to the Air Force Academy. The Academy is located right under the mountains and has some of the greenest scenery in the Springs. You can tour the chapel on base and there are a few trails that visitors can walk along.
The Chapel.
The chapel was very interesting. The first floor is a protestant chapel, which is gorgeous with its ceiling and stained glass windows and biggest organ ever. What I didn't realize, was that there are 4 more chapels on the lower floor--the Catholic chapel, the Jewish temple, the Buddhist chapel and the Muslim chapel. I wasn't sure how they could make the other 4 chapels as beautiful as the protestant one, but I was pleasantly surprised. Each one is so breathtaking that I had a hard time deciding which one I liked the most. We didn't get a chance to see the Muslim chapel because Julia started getting restless on the tour, but I will definitely be making a trip back.



We celebrated Evan's birthday with dinner at Famous Dave's and then presents and cake at home.

Here's my every day, folks. When I look down, this is what I see...
Keith and Jana got Evan a steam cleaner for the carpets. Look at him, he's the most excited carpet freak ever!!!
Keith is holding the phone so that Kyle, Matt and Ethan could sing Happy Birthday with us. I must also note that it was Ethan's half birthday, and now my little man is 2 1/2! (Oh, and look at Julia's face in this picture...she is only barely keeping her cool while she waits for her piece of cake. And, yes, she did scream when Evan got the first piece instead of her.)



Wednesday, we hung around the house a bit and relaxed. After lunch, we headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The cool thing about this zoo is that, not only is just half an hour from our house, but it's actually built into the mountain. So cool!!!

Oh, and also, you get to feed the giraffes. For $1, you get 3 crackers to feed to them. How awesome is that?!

Julia loved the giraffes. She kept yelling out in her Julia language for them to come see her.
She had a long talk with this giraffe who put his chin on the fence to listen to her. It was super cute.
Elisabeth loves meerkats.

Watching the otter exhibit. They were most active when we saw them.



They had 6 gorillas at the zoo. This poor baby gorilla was desperately trying to get one of his family members to give him some leaves. Eventually, one of them caved and gave him a snack.
This was the silver back. He was all business.


Jana and Keith left Thursday morning. We said a sad good-bye as they drove off to South Dakota to visit Mt. Rushmore before they headed back to Illinois. We had an awesome time with them here, and I had a rough day after they left. I realized that we won't have visitors until fall, and that is a long time from now. It's just still hard being here all alone. I've joined some groups and have a routine going with the girls, but I miss having friends and family at my disposal to visit and see on a regular basis. I still have to remind myself that I've only been here two months tomorrow. That's not very long in the grand scheme of things if you think about it. I mean, Evan was gone longer from us then we've been back together. It was very sad the next day because Julia kept looking up at the loft where Jana and Keith had slept on our futon. She'd point and jabber like she was asking where they were. :(

So, if you want to visit us, come on out! We have a futon now, so we have somewhere for company to sleep! And, we live in one of the most beautiful cities in America, so we'll keep you busy with sightseeing! :)