The Last, I knew you were the LAST, aaauuugghh!

Okay, so this maybe the last time I post from Louisiana because the packers maybe showing up this Thursday and maybe we'll get out of here on schedule. (The title of this blog is a quote from the movie "The Last Unicorn", a childhood favorite . . . and okay, I'll confess, I still like the movie now and even Chris likes the songs from the soundtrack.) I don't know, Chris and I keep swinging up and down between total nonchalantness and super anxiety over this move. Why? Well for one thing, this move seems so much easier than the last one because 1) it's not over Christmas, 2) I don't have a six month old, 3) we aren't selling a house 4) my kids aren't changing schools mid-year. So yeah, this move is a cake walk compared to the last one. But then I start freaking out that it's too easy and I must be forgetting something that I should be doing and so I start doing a bunch of crazy stuff like making a bunch of freezer meals for us to eat our last week here and going out to buy a gazillion ziplock baggies to "prepack" everything for the packers. But now here we are down to crunch time and we haven't even heard from the moving company yet to know when they are going to show up. Hopefully everything works out. I'm sure it will - it always does - I just hope that my sanity doesn't get lost in the move. :)

This week was a bunch of normal craziness. I finally found Kate's sandals at the bottom of the girls' laundry basket that had been missing for a week. Chris and I started working out our abs together and I was so proud that his abs were sore the next day and mine weren't - until day two when my abs were way sore. A lot more moving prep stuff - pre-inspection, more California housing research, etc.

Luckily, Chris and I were able to escape the craziness we call life for a weekend trip down to Baton Rouge thanks to Natalie who watched our kids for us. We went to dinner and a movie and then to the temple on Saturday morning and I got some new shoes as well. It was awesome! It's like I was saying to Chris, "It's so much easier to prepare to go to the temple when I didn't just finish watching two episodes of Sponge Bob while getting everyone ready." The only mishap was that Chris' truck was broken into while we were staying at the hotel. Luckily nothing was taken (the security officer caught the guy), but now the rear passenger window is smashed and needs to be replaced before we move. Another reason to feel calm, because we know it will all work out, while stressing at the same time because it's one more thing we need to take care of in the next two weeks. Ya gotta love moving! :)

Oh, and one more thing: Mother's Day. I hope all y'all had a great one out there. The Elder's Quorum in our ward provided a spaghetti dinner after church for the entire ward and served all the moms. It was surprisingly well put together. So Chris and the girls are going to cook for me tomorrow. Hooray, two days of no cooking! As we were at the spaghetti dinner Aly said, "so if the dads cooked the dinner for Mother's Day, then that means the mom's need to cook the dinner for Father's Day." (Um, yeah, Aly, and every other day.)

Don't FREAK OUT!!!

Okay, so it's no secret that Kate is a spazoid. When she's happy, she's beyond ecstatic. When she's angry, she's irate. There is nothing in between and she can fluctuate from one to the other in less than a second. Like today when she didn't want me helping her with her sacrament cup and so she screamed, threw herself on the floor (bonking her head in the process, but I have little sympathy when my kids get hurt throwing tantrums), and spilled the water, of course. It's the same way in the mornings. She'll be so happy when I go in to get her - until I try to take off her PJ's and then -whoahoa! Look out! - she is demon child screaming because she wanted to stay in her PJ's even though her diaper is overflowing. So anyhoo, you get the idea. It was the same story this week during dinner - she was throwing a fit because I did up her booster buckle and she wanted to do it herself. So I said to Chris, "I don't know why she has to freak out about every little thing!" to which Chris started singing "AAaahhhh . . . FREAK OUT!" (The 70's song, I'm sure you've heard it.) Well, instantly Kate stops crying and joins in the singing:

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH THAT KID?!? I seriously don't know if both of us are going to survive her adolescence. Kate's other quirks for the week have been putting Chris' sweaty workout socks into her mouth (ew!), eating sand at the park when she and Lise were making pretend "cake", and taking Aly's friend on a wild goose chase to find her hair things when she had been chewing on them all the while. Lately, Kate also likes yelling "I fasser an you" (I'm faster than you) while running. We have her sisters to thank for that one.
The rest of this week has been pretty busy. For some reason everything seems to compound when you're getting ready to move. We took my car in on Monday for a tune up and finally went in to pick it up on Friday and they didn't even have everything done. It was very frustrating. Thanks to Natalie for letting me borrow Dave's car! There were some fun things this week also. The school had a volunteer appreciation lunch which was really nice and the ladies on my street had a luncheon for all of us who are moving this summer. It gave me warm fuzzies and made me sad to leave friends. Despite the crunched quarters and no garage, I really have loved living on this street. You have to have three kids to live in a four bedroom house on post and so everyone on our street has kids. I have loved living in a neighborhood where my kids have lots of friends to play with, I know my neighbors, and it's safe to let them play outside all the time. That's what I remember from my childhood growing up and I am glad that my kids were able to have some of that for a little while.
Also this week we were able to reciprocate with the Smiths and let them go out on a date while we watched their kids overnight. The girls had a blast with their friends and we were even able to go to the carnival hosted by the housing office on Saturday. It was a bit nuts taking 7 kids to a carnival by myself, but they were all very well behaved and we had a good time. I have one small confession to make. Before the Smith's arrived there was a potluck neighborhood BBQ going on across the street and so I promised the kids we could go over to that until the Smith's showed up and then we would play with our friends. I had planned on feeding the Smith kids hotdogs when they came over, but when they showed up I realized that I had the hotdogs but was out of buns! So on the sly I asked my friend to go steal four hot dog buns for me from the pot luck. Is that so bad? I remind myself of Steve Martin in one of my all time favorite movies "Father of the Bride." (Quote: "Do you think I was happy to tell everyone I had to come drive down to the local jail to bail you out for stealing hot dog buns?!?") Oh la.