What happens when mom is gone...

So I got out the camera to download some pictures and what do I find? Well, you have a look for yourself.

And for the videos....That's right, videos, plural...

This all happened Sunday night while I was on my way back from South Carolina from a dive meet I was at all weekend. It appears when mom is away, the boys will most certainly play! I hope you all find it as funny as I did:-)

Summer fun

Summer is finally in full force. The sun is out, the air is warm, and we're spending lots of time at the pool! I obviously go to the pool everyday since I am the pool manager, but I've also been trying to take the kids over there as much as possible. It works out nicely that Rylan is up from around 11:30a - 2:30p so that we can head over after lunch for the kids to play and for me to do a little work.

So far, the kids have all been having a blast. Jake has been busy making friends and playing everywhere, Brenden has been getting a lot better at exploring the pool and getting comfortable in the deeper water, and Rylan is having lots of fun on the steps of the shallow end or the in the baby pool. Its been a lot of fun to watch and play with them and all while I get my work done, nice to kill two birds with one stone:-)

Finally

It's official, the house is on the market! After talking about it for nearly a year and spending the past several months working to get to this point, we listed the house last Tuesday.

We had been planning to list it in early June when we met with our Realtor last February. We've spent a lot of hours, and money, trying to get it looking great. At the end of May it looked like the only major thing we were waiting on was having the master bathroom and outside trim painted. Our painters were able to get us in WAY ahead of schedule and finished up the day we listed. Everything looks great. There are still a few odds and ends I would have liked to have taken care of, but really all of the major stuff got done and that was what was most important.

And now the wait begins. Since listing it last week, we have had 3 showings over the weekend, a Realtor open house on Tuesday, and there are 3 more showings scheduled for tomorrow and an open house on Sunday. So far the feedback hasn't been much, "we're somewhat interested, but still looking", "Not the floor plan we were looking for", etc. Cheryl (our Realtor) said that the Realtor open house went well and there were no negative comments. Hopefully Cheryl will be able to work her magic one more time for us and get this sold fast - she had our last house under contract in less than a month during the summer that all the Pfizer people were leaving Ann Arbor.

We've also found an area in Cincinnati that we're going to focus our attention on. Chris and I went down there about 2 weeks ago while my mom was still in town to watch the kids. I met with our Realtor down there and saw 3 houses just to get an idea of the area and houses we were looking. I liked one of the houses a lot, but really didn't like the area very much. It just felt like a lot of separate subdivisions to make up the whole area. I didn't feel like there was much of a community there and after growing up in Ann Arbor I wanted that feeling. So after Chris and I finished with the Realtor we drove around the area we had originally been looking and LOVED it. Its called Anderson Township and its on the east side of Cincinnati. There are lots of hills and beautiful neighborhoods. Its only about 10-15 minutes from downtown and really felt like a nice community. I've been looking at houses online and have found a few that may work, but until we sell our house I'm trying to not get too attached to anything I look at.

Fingers crossed this all goes fast and smooth!

Kids

Since May was so hectic I didn't post/update about the kids as much as I would have liked so here is a quick catch up.

Jake

We always knew Jake was going to be quite the athlete if he wanted to be and after playing soccer this spring it seems he knows it now too. He had a blast! It was a very relaxed and fun league, but Jake's super competitive side didn't let that stop him from being one of the best players out there. I know I sound like one of those parents that always thinks their kid is the best, but when Jake was the leading scorer for his team I kind of feel justified :-) He scored 4 goals in one game, mind you this is kindergarteners and 1st graders so there's not a lot of defense being played. He looked forward to playing each week, stayed after games to play more, and always came home with a big smile on his face even if his team lost the game. I think it was also good for him to be part of a team and to learn how to be a good loser (this took a bit of getting used to). All in all, I'm sure there will be lots of sports in our futures after such a great experience.

Brenden

In April I mentioned that Brenden might need glasses. Well, we took him to the Kellogg eye center at U of M for a follow up and found that he's just fine for now. He did have some differences between each eye, but the doctor thought he was fine for now and we didn't need to have him seen for 1-2 years. He did so well for the doctor and was happy to learn he didn't have to have glasses, for now at least.

Brenden also played soccer this spring, but with a little different experience than Jake. He had a lot of fun doing the "practice" before each game, running, passing, shooting, dribbling, but once the game started he got very frustrated. He didn't like having to run in a pack with all of the other preschoolers trying to get the ball. He would often stop participating so he could yell at me or Chris that he wasn't fast enough - granted its hard to be as fast as the others when you're stopped on the field yelling at your parents while the other kids are running :-) He did end the season on a good note, he scored a goal! Overall I think he enjoyed the experience, but he may need to be a bit older before giving it a try again.

Rylan

My little peanut is 9 1/2 months old! Where did the time go? She just had her 9 month check up and looked great. She's 16.5lbs (10%) and 28.05in (62%). The doctor said we could feed her more, but since all of my kids have been on the skinny side and very active she's probably just going to be a skinny girl no matter how much we feed her. She's been very interested in our food so we've been giving her lots of bites of whatever we are eating and she seems to be loving it. She especially likes anything with tomatoes, must be her Italian genes :) She's up to 6 teeth now, 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. And like her brothers, she is VERY active, lots of crawling and walking holding on to furniture. We had our first trip to the pool over the weekend and she loved it. She splashed and explored and even got her face wet a few times.

So the kids are doing great and we're looking forward to spending lots of time at the pool this summer!

The Longest Month

Wow am I glad May is finally over! For a while there it seemed like it might go on forever. Now the question is, where to begin?

I guess I'll start with the pool. This is my 3rd summer being the pool manager for AACC. Last spring the club changed ownership, but it wasn't until the end of the summer that the new ownership decided to take over the operation of the club from the Board of Directors (members). Needless to say, it has been a HUGE transition. The new owner had no experience running a club before and so it has been quite the learning curve. Through the winter he seemed to figure out a lot, but the pool was obviously still closed and thus not much could be learned. Well, after several weeks of trying to get a hold of the owner this spring, I finally did at the beginning of May. This meant we were about 2-4 weeks behind schedule, YIKES! Luckily, the new general manager had already begun on some of the steps I had outlined and so we weren't as far behind as I had originally thought. However, our pool lies in a very unique place, essentially there is a river under it, and this causes a LOT of problems. The new owners not understanding pools or our unique set of circumstances had a hard time wrapping their brains around getting the pool ready for inspection rather than just getting it looking good. I'm all for getting things looking great, but if the mechanics of the pool aren't working properly then the inspection won't be passed and it won't matter how clean the chairs are or how much more shade the new umbrellas provide. As the month went on and they saw me working late at night - until 2am once - they started to get it. With a lot of hard work and some help from our old and new fix it guys, I was able to get the pool going just in time and we passed our inspection 2 days before opening, YAY! And so now the real fun begins, maintaining the pool and keeping on the staff so that the pool stays open AND looking great. I think it's going to be an interesting summer and I have to say that I'm glad it will be my last. I love running the pool and my staff is great, but the lack of knowledge and communication issues from the owners is already starting to wear me out. Hopefully it gets better soon or its going to be a long summer!

And now for my grandmother, Bamma. 10 years ago while in the hospital for knee surgery they found a spot on a chest x-ray that turned out to be cancer. It was really dumb luck that they found it, but they did and it was early so they were able to get all of it in surgery. About six months ago the spot was back and it was later confirmed that it was cancer. Since she was 87 years old there really wasn't much they could do that would prolong her life and keep her quality of life the same. They didn't know how aggressive it was so there was really no predicting a time frame. In the spring it became clear that is wasn't going to be long and we called in hospice for additional care. On May 17th, Bamma, celebrated her 88th birthday. She had always said so wanted to live as long as her mom who died when she was 88. On that day we also had her moved to a new facility that would provide better around the clock care. It seemed that her birthday was her final rally. For the next few days she was surrounded by family and others that she loved and loved her. She died 4 days later with her four children at her side. They all said it was very peaceful and you could feel her soul move on as the wind picked up and the birds began chirping and singing. I was so blessed to have such a wonderful grandmother and to be able to enjoy her for nearly 33 years. I'm happy that she didn't suffer and is now back with the love of her life, my grandfather Pops, that passed away 15 years ago. I know that she is watching over our entire family now and she will be missed by all of us. She was such a wonderful woman, wife, mother, and grandmother and will not be forgotten.

So as many of you know, we are planning to move to Cincinnati as soon as we are able to sell our house. Over the past month I have been working to get the house in tip top shape to be able to put it on the market. I have been busy with LOTS of cleaning, painting, fixing little things, and getting quotes for other jobs that I am not able to do my self - side note, it is a lot harder to find a handyman than I would have thought! So now we are almost ready, we just need to get the master bathroom painted and a piece of tile fixed. Our realtor has told us that things look good in our area and that houses are selling so hopefully we'll be able to get it done quickly. Chris and I are headed down to Cinci next week to look at some homes and get a better feel for the area. I can't believe how quickly its coming, but I am definitely looking forward to a new chapter for our family.

And last, while driving home on Sunday from my Aunt's house a large piece of metal shot out from the car in front of me and ripped up the underside of my car. I'm waiting to hear back from the body shop today to see how long its going to take to fix. Luckily, no one was hurt and the damage will be covered by my insurance. It did seem like the appropriate end to an endless month though :)

And now the summer begins. Jake is done with school June 10th, I will begin traveling and coaching more for meets on June 17th, and I'm sure I will be plenty busy with pool and house stuff. Here's hoping for a fun, warm, and easy summer!