We must be related

My Grandma passed away just before Christmas. At her funeral, one of the memories many of us had of her was that she liked her ice cream melty. She would even go as far as putting her bowl of frozen goodness in the microwave for a minute or so just to get it to the "right" temperature for eating.

Strange? Maybe so.

But...last night the kids had ice cream after dinner. Some left some in their bowls as they ran off to their new favorite way to end the evening: in my shower. I found myself wandering over to their bowls, and getting a spoon, and scooping up all the melty yumminess, and thinking, "Grandma had something, here." I wished there was more. I'm not quite ready for the microwave, but I would not hesitate to eat melty ice cream again.

So we must be related. Or maybe, when you're six months pregnant, everything is especially delicious.

PS--I took this photo of my grandparents from a very old post on my cousin's blog. Heather (if you happen to ever read this), I would love a copy of the original!

The drama in selling a home

So...when we were selling our home, we had our foundation inspected, and guess what--we had some leaks! That is really bad news, though not wholly unexpected in an older home in Texas, where the foundations shift all around. The buyers wanted them fixed (for some reason), so we called a plumber. They decided the best way to fix the leak was to dig through our bedroom, so they could access the toilet on the other side of the wall. This is the view of my former master bedroom, a week before we were going to move:Don't worry--they fixed the leak, and filled in the hole. But it didn't fix the whole problem--there was another leak somewhere. They guessed it was the kids' bathroom toilet. So they dug another hole through the master closet to access those pipes:

This time, the fix fixed all the leaking. Yay for plumbers! Yay for a husband who figured out how to lay the carpet back down so it looked like nothing happened! Yay for a new way of laying foundations and better pipes in our new home that are supposed to keep problems like this from happening! Yay for buyers who bought our old home! (Now let's get out of here before anything else falls apart...)

For your viewing pleasure

Ta da!

Welcome home!

What I do not miss

Revisiting our five weeks in the hotel...

1. Bedtime. Everyone in one room. Caytie learned how to climb out of the Pack n' Play the week we moved in, so we had some adjustment there. Gracie and Emma shared the bed in the couch. They fought over sheets and blankets, until we finally took them all off and gave them their own. Poor Scott had to sleep on the floor on foam pads. The queen bed was very comfortable, but Ben and I are used to a king... We had lights out for everyone at the same time--usually not early enough for some key noise makers of the family.

2. Naptime--especially on the weekends. Caytie could usually sleep (though she went a whole week without) during the week, with only Gracie and me to try staying quiet in the dark, but the weekends were pretty much impossible.

3. CNN for breakfast. We did have a little free breakfast in the common room each morning, which was nice, but they had CNN showing every day. I found that that is a very depressing way to start the day.

4. Cooking in my little kitchen (shown below). I will admit that I was grateful for the dishwasher and microwave and the little cupboard and counter space that we had. But I could not really make a meal there, especially when all the kids were around my feet. And the first two times I used the oven, I set off the smoke alarm! (I truly didn't burn anything--I think the oven had something in it that made it smoke... It's possible!)

5. The desk (shown above). It was the only place for me to put things out of reach of the kids, but Caytie is a little monkey, and nothing was safe!

6. The cat's litterbox in the bathroom. I think that might be enough said on that.

7. Public tantrums. We had several of these, as our schedules were so disrupted and kids were sick... The hotel workers at first came to see if they could help, but by the end, they just let us get to our room or car as fast as we could. (This involved mainly the two youngest. And maybe me.)

8. Fights about who gets to push the elevator buttons or open the doors with the card key or who gets to sit by Daddy for breakfast... Every. Day. (This involved ALL FOUR kids.)

9. Teething. Caytie had two come in the first week we were there, and she's not a quiet teether. She had some long, loud nights. The first one was so bad, Ben took her on a long car ride. Then we discovered the breakfast room could be opened, so he spent a couple nights there with her.

10. Saying, "Don't run down the hallway!" "Keep your feet and mouths quiet!" "There are people below us!" "You've got to be quieter!" in many different forms, many, many times a day.

And that's enough on that.