Sorry friends

I feel like a bum for not posting in (gasp!!!) 2 weeks but I have good reasons! First we went on vacation, then we moved, and then moving in has been delayed. I'm only online now because of the kindness of random friends and family letting us stay with them until we can move in. Don't worry, the house in Idaho is NOTHING like the house in Indiana. The previous owners took longer to move out than expected so we moved everything into the garage and stayed with Jesse's grandparents in Rexburg. We aren't there tonight because the water isn't on yet and being 6 months pregnant I didn't feel like living without a flushing toilet. The water should be turned on tomorrow, Thursday morning at the latest, and then we'll be in the house until further notice. We have some boxes in the house, but most are in the garage still. Jesse did get Rosalee's crib together but sadly she's still snuggling with me in the big bed for now. We should also be getting the Internet hooked up on Thursday so I will FINALLY be able to post all 185 (okay so I won't be putting all of them online) pictures I have on my camera. Most of them are from Hawaii, but I also have some wonderful ones of Jesse at graduation. We took a few shots of us moving but we were so focused on leaving Indiana we didn't take many. So stay tuned and hopefully, hopefully I will be back to blogging by this weekend!

Fun with Grandma

My mom flew in on Wednesday and Rosalee has loved having time with her. Tomorrow Jesse and I fly to Hawaii tomorrow and my mom will stay in Lafayette with Rosalee. So far they're getting along great but I'm still nervous to be away from my little girl for 6 days.

On Thursday the day started out sunny so we played outside for as long as possible before the rain came in. Then we went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. This is the largest children's museum in the nation AND the 1st Thursday night of every month is free admission so we had to go one last time. I encourage everyone in central Indiana to go every free Thursday night and enjoy having a crazy fun time with your family!

Playing outside in Rosalee's sensory box

Scooping sand over and over with a HUGE grin on her face!

As soon as she heard music she dropped her sand toys and ran over to find the music. She held the small bell rattle and rocked back and forth to the music.

She loved playing in the water area! She walked around and collected all of the rubber ducks. I think at one time she had 5 of them in her arms.

The museum has a Chihuly display that is BEAUTIFUL! They have a rotating chair that you lie back in and can look at all the colorful glass. They had some statues with holes and plastic pieces for the kids to create their own designs. Rosalee had fun passing the plastic pieces to Jesse and putting them in the holes. It was funny to watch her walk on the glossy tile because she was so cautious! She would run on the carpet but as soon as she would get to the tile she'd walk slow, look down at her feet, look at us nervously, and then tiptoe across it. Even after she walked on the tile several times she still was cautious. It was funny to see her run on the carpet and then come to a halt when she'd hit the tile time and time again.
On our way out of the museum Rosalee was walking near another girl, about 3 years old. They kept smiling at each other and then the other girl ran ahead, turned around, and stuck her arms out. Rosalee ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug and they both started giggling. The little girl did this a second time and Rosalee again ran up to her and hugged her. The smile on Rosalee's face was fabulous and it made me so thankful for the innocence of children.
Rosalee was SO tired after we left the museum! She could barely walk and kept lying her head down on Jesse's head. On the drive home she was rubbing her eyes and saying, "sleep". When we got home Rosalee didn't want her cup, her toothbrush, a book, ANYTHING! All she wanted was to go straight to bed. So we put her in her pajamas and laid her in the crib. Within two or three minutes she was passed out for the night.

Today our friends came over for what could be the last time we see them. :( Rosalee was VERY excited to see her friend Mia. As soon as she saw Mia get out of the car and she started screaming, "Mia! MIA!!!" The two ran around the house playing together and even shared a snack in Rosalee's chairs. It makes me sad to be leaving our friends, but especially to leave Rosalee's friends. She loves other children and it's nice to have a group of kids for her to spend time with.

Chuck E Cheese

Why going to Chuck E Cheese at 9:30 am is a great idea~

*Your child will take a 3 hour nap

*No one else is there so your toddler can run wild and you don't have to worry about them being run over by big kids or being snatched up

*The baby you bring can roll around the floor on a blanket and if he so chooses he can sleep on the floor without being stepped on

*The workers check the machines every day to see if they're working properly so there are a lot of free tickets hanging out of the machines. If your child is like mine you will find that they enjoy ripping the tickets out of the machine and you will have more than you can imagine by the end of the day

*You will get to play some of the games while your child dances crazily to the weird background music

We went to Chuck E Cheese with my friend Tina and her toddler Michaela. Rosalee pretty much hated all of the rides but loved playing the games with balls. A few times she would grab the ball and run off so I had to chase her down and get them back. I thought we'd only be there for 45 minutes but we ended up staying for just shy of 2 hours! The baby I watch enjoy rolling around the floor looking at the lights and ended up taking a short nap. It was a fun time and $10 dollars well spent!

The picture of Rosalee was taken the third time I put her on the ride. The first two times she cried the whole time... But at least Michaela enjoyed herself!

Rosalee liked this game because it was a giant bulldog head and you had to shoot balls into the mouth to win tickets. Rosalee kept saying, "eat Trouble eat" and laughing. We seriously played this game 7 times!

A friend of mine criticized me for not taking pictures with me in them. I'm usually the one with Rosalee so there isn't anyone to take a picture of me. Tina was nice enough to take some pictures of me so I can show off the ever growing Zeke.

After playing I took the kids to the grocery store and realized that I won't be shopping for several years to come. The kids took up more room in the cart than the food and they took turns fussing or grabbing at random items. People gave me the weirdest looks being pregnant pushing a cart full of little ones. But the best part came at the end of my shopping experience. I was feeling EXHAUSTED and starving and without having to say a word a nice man brought an extra cart over to me. He started loading my groceries into the cart and then proceeded to follow me to the car. While I loaded the kids into car seats he loaded the food into the trunk. It wasn't until I thanked him and said good-bye that I realized he was the co-manager of the store. (Seriously the guy could have been a hobo and I would have excepted the help!) So for those of you Indiana people reading this- SHOP AT MARSH! :)

Later that day the blessing poured in. Lately I've been feeling so burdened and upset that I just needed a day where things went better than planned. First the kids slept for 3 hours which meant I got to eat a nice lunch, clean the living room, and pack a box. I even got to work on some of my crafts I've been putting off because of my never ending to-do list. The next great thing was I decided to go shopping at a discount store (Gordman's) because I had some cash and a coupon. (Okay, so I wanted some shorts or capris for our trip to Hawaii but I want to sound frugal here!!) On the way there I saw a "going out of business" sign on the Sportsman Warehouse. I thought, "hey Jesse would like some new fishing stuff" and decided to go. It was the last day for the store so everything was 80-90% off. I decided to get Jesse some jeans, a belt, and some fancy wading/fishing boots. He's wanted the boots but they cost $60ish dollars so I figured now would be a good time to get them. In my head I figured my total would be around $25 and I had $28 in my wallet so it worked out. At the register the saleswoman rang me up and then hit a button. The magic button which took an additional 75% off of my total sale. So I got 2 Carthart jeans, a belt, and some $60 fishing boots for $6.89. I about fell over and actually asked her if the total was correct. Next I went to the original store I wanted to go to and found some toddler summer pajamas on sale. Rosalee also found some Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse (her two obsessions) books for $2.99. At the end of my shopping experience I still had $1.75 left and I got a lot more than two pairs of maternity shorts/capris!

When I got home Jesse was VERY excited about what I got him. When I told him how I didn't get anything for myself he laughed at me. According to him I do that a lot... He said the next time I sell some of his knives or our furniture I could go shopping. Two and a half hours later our friend came over and bought several of Jesse's knives for $47! Woo hoo mama gets a new swimsuit and some shorts this weekend!!!

Come back sun!

Last weekend was FABULOUS! It was mostly sunny and warm. We had some strong wind, but we could still go outside. Rosalee got use to the idea of being outside for several hours in a day that when it rains (like today) she protests and stands sadly at the front door looking out the window. It got really pathetic when she climbed up the back of the couch, sat in the window sill, and talked the birds outside. Her conversation went something like this-
"Hi birdies. Outside birdies. Rosalee outside no. Rosalee cry. Bye bye birdies. Rosalee cry."

It was the saddest, yet cutest, thing I'd ever seen! We left her boots at my mom's house or I probably would have let her run around outside in the rain. To make up for being an evil, non-puddle playing, mom I'm going to take Rosalee to Chuck E Cheese tomorrow for a play date in the morning.

Here are some of our pictures from this weekend when we were outside enjoying the almost summer like weather. For Jesse's last fish lab they went out on the river and used electroshock techniques to conduct educational samples. This is the type of work Jesse hopes to spend the rest of his life doing.

A shovel nose sturgeon

A longnose gar

Sauger with a puffed out face (Jesse corrected me and said they are "gill flaps") because it felt threatened. It also does this to make it harder to be swallowed.

On Sunday we talked about what kind of things we do on Sundays to help keep it a holy day. Jesse and I realized what we do is try to have it be a day of family time with as little distractions as possible. We put off watching TV until Rosalee is in bed, don't do homework (I'm sure Jesse doesn't complain), and don't go shopping or spend money unless it's an emergency. (Say what you may but I won't let my vomiting child suffer!)


For our Sunday dinner we decided to enjoy the nice weather and use our grill in the yard. Jesse loves any excuse to use the grill so he was more than excited at the idea. In fact he was the one who bought chili and hot dogs on Saturday when I asked him to go shopping. One life law of Jesse's- if the sun is shining the grill should be out and being used. Rosalee found eating outside VERY fun! Plus I don't think she minded getting covered with chili...

The weather was still nice on Monday morning but the weather man said the rain/storms were coming and would last for most of the week. As soon as the baby I watch got here we packed the kids into the car and went to the local park. We met our friend Melissa and her daughter Mia there. The kids played on the toys and then when the zoo opened we went there. The zoo opened on Saturday for the season but we wanted to wait so we wouldn't have to battle the crowds. This is a free zoo right in the park and I love it! I am seriously going to miss having a FREE zoo just 5 minutes from my house. Especially now that I know they are putting in an otter exhibit. The baby slept the whole time in the stroller and Rosalee enjoyed running around seeing all the animals.

They have a few small fountains near the entrance that Rosalee had fun dipping her fingers in. The globe rolls around so Rosalee kept pushing on it and laughing.

Rosalee LOVES the monkeys! She was smiling and laughing the whole time. One monkey came down and started "talking" to her. This picture was taken while the monkey was saying something to her and she was laughing hysterically.

The porcupine was dancing with Rosalee. It would wiggle and bob back and forth. Then Rosalee would mimic the moves and the porcupine would start dancing again. As you can see by Rosalee's hair it was VERY windy.

Next we went to the farm petting zoo area. Sadly our camera battery died at this point or we'd have more pictures. They wouldn't let us bring the stroller in the pen because they said the goats would jump in it. Jesse decided to stay outside the pen with a sleeping baby and take some pictures of the kids playing. Rosalee loved the goats and they loved her! They would follow her until she would pet them and then she'd follow them until they let her pet them. She kept petting them and calling them "mommy goats" because the zookeeper told her they were pregnant and having babies this August. (Poor goats I feel for you!!!) They also have two miniature horses, a handful of chickens, and a llama. The llama was being spirited and didn't want to go back into the barn. Most parents picked up their kids because it was kicking and running. Where was Rosalee? Oh yes, chasing it saying "I pet you yama!" Mia and Rosalee were being really cute with the chickens but our camera died so those photos will just have to be stored in our memory. After the petting zoo we saw eagles, a vulture, an owl, and some prairie dogs. I'm pretty sure Rosalee could have stayed there all day but had to go home so Jesse could make it to class on time. Another bonus of the zoo... Rosalee takes 3 hour naps. :)

On the road again

In 3 weeks from tomorrow we will be in our car/U-Haul headed west. For the past 3 years we've looked forward to Jesse's graduation and now it's so close. Actually it is almost scary how close it is. At this point Jesse only has some seasonal work set up back in Idaho but it beats living in a cardboard box! For now our plan is to move to Blackfoot, Idaho and stay with Jesse's parents until we can find either a permanent housing situation or more importantly a permanent job. So if anyone out there knows anyone, has connections, etc. for a wildlife/fisheries/natural resources job let us know!
Everything happens for a reason and we're just happy to be closer to our family. Hopefully some jobs will open up during the summer and we'll be back on our feet this fall. Right now we're at the point in life when we'll just say, "come what may and love it"!

Land of spuds, here we come!!!

Dream stroller

Today I was reading a parenting magazine and I found

the

perfect

stroller

for our family!

Plus~ it has two seats (a must with 2 under 2), the seats can turn so both can look at the parent, look away from the parent, or look at each other, you can snap an infant car seat on it for convenience, and you can take out one of the seats for storage, shopping, etc., and it can hold kids up to 40 pounds. (With Rosalee we could use this for many, many years to come!)

Minus~ it costs over $200... even at Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10660990
So if any of you find this stroller, or one very similar to it, please PLEASE let me know!

Quilting cave

If you can't be handsome, you might as well be handy!

Thankfully for me, my husband is both! For Easter Jesse made me a quilting frame after we realized the ones at the store were $100+ dollars... on sale. Today I brought the frame out to use and the kids thought it was a new toy for them! So Jesse put a blanket on it and attached some toys to the side bars. Rosalee and the boy I babysit were in heaven! The quilting frame is at the right height that the kids can run under it and stand while playing. Jesse has told me (since I was pregnant with Rosalee) that he wanted to build a sensory cave/room for our kids. So now I get the quilting frame I've wanted for years (for less than $30 mind you!) and our kids can have a fun sensory fort/cave/area to play in. Thanks Jesse!!!

The frame is large enough that it fits a queen size blanket really well. After Jesse put up some of the toys I took a quick picture before the kids started playing in the cave.

Rosalee was having fun running through the cave. It is the right height for her because she barely touches the blanket with her head.

Rosalee loved smacking, pulling, etc. all the toys for at least 20 minutes straight.

While I was writing this Jesse made lunch for the kids and then they decided to have a picnic inside the cave. I thought it was cute to see Jesse hanging out with the kids eating homemade burritos. Rosalee's burrito was made with soy cheese and surprisingly it melted and smelled like normal dairy cheese.

On a side note... Jesse was on the 11 o'clock news last night! For his senior project he was in a group that worked on improving the local water systems. They interviewed him about his ideas and it ended up on the news. I'm very happy and proud of Jesse for all he's been able to learn and accomplish over the past 3 years here. It was nice to open the WLFI website this morning to see my husband's photo on the main page. I've included the article from the website below.

Wabash river clean-up plans
Watershed project coming in 2011
Updated: Thursday, 23 Apr 2009, 10:14 PM EDT

Published : Thursday, 23 Apr 2009, 10:14 PM EDT
Kristin Crowley
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - " If we want to have long-term sustainable water quality in the Wabash river, we have to do that through improving the water quality in the water shed that drains into the river," said Wabash River Enhancement Executive Director Stanton Lambert.
Lambert said there are various strategies to improve water quality, such as putting up green buffers along the creeks and rivers that feed into the Wabash River, and reforestation along creeks to help hold water and soil so the soil sedimentation doesn't wash into the river.
Purdue wildlife students like Jesse James were put into groups this semester to come up with ideas for river improvements and shared those ideas with the community. James' group said high quality prairies could help clean the river.
"It reduces agriculture run off which will provide clean water for Wea Creek as well as the surrounding areas, which will dump into Wabash landing," said James.
Watershed Coordinator Sara Peel said implementation of the watershed plan will start in the fall of 2011. Peel said she wants as much input from the community as possible before that time.
"The next steps we'll be having some community meetings, we'll be attending the fairs to get more information out to the community that isn't here tonight," said Peel.