August Adventures

August 13th was a big day for the kids. We got a chrysalis from the community picnic the week before, and we let the butterfly go. Iris's birthday present came early - a convertible balance bike! I had tried to get her psyched up about it prior to its arrival. When it game, we got it out and ready for her... and she spent about five minutes attempting to use it in tricycle mode before abandoning it for other wheeled enjoyment. 

Because we knew Iris's present would be coveted by Felix and to get him better about riding a bike, Geepa helped me take the training wheels and pedals off Felix's little bike. He was about to outgrow it anyway, so why not? He's a little nervous on it and hasn't gotten the concept of pushing off to glide and balance yet. I had him riding down the tiny little slope between our house and the neighbors so he could practice without falling on pavement or gravel. This bike also contributed to Iris's abandonment of her new bike. She wants to be big like Felix, so she would rather have gotten rides on the big bike (pushed by Grandma or me). They'll get more used to them, especially if we let them play with the bikes in our unfinished basement over the winter. 

*** Warning - here be a potty story. ***

Iris wants to be like Felix in more ways than one. She, 17 days shy of her 2nd birthday, told us she wanted to poop in the potty. She was a little late on that, but she did sit down on it and peed! Huge cheers by all! I don't know if she'll keep it up, but it's great that she at least has some interest. We're not going to push her; as we learned from Felix, a kid won't do it until they're ready. But hey! Great early start! She did it again two days later, but has since had zero interest in it. Oh well.

*** Okay, potty-adverse folk, it's safe to come back now. ***

We had our first family wedding in a while. Oh, what an adventure... Nick was laid out with tummy problems Saturday morning, so I packed and wrangled the kids by myself. We all left after lunch to drive down to Germantown. Uneventful trip. However... when we arrived at the hotel, I realized I forgot my dress at home, and the clothes I brought weren't nice enough to wear to a wedding. Then we got into the hotel and found they had no record of our reservation. Cue expletives. Thank goodness for family weddings and gracious and generous family members! A little bit of room rearranging later, and we had a place to sleep. And after a quick shopping trip and grabbing a dress off the clearance rack later, we were finally ready to go. Note to self for the future - confirm all hotel reservations before leaving home! It was nice to see people at the reception, although it was a bit difficult keeping Iris away from the in-ground pool. Poor girl wanted to go in the water so badly! Alas, I had to take them home early and (thankfully?) avoided the progressive drunkenness of those remaining. Nick was in such a state the next morning that we scrapped our plans to stick around and just headed straight home. Definitely a memorable wedding for us, Trisha and DJ! ;o) All the best to you!

Felix: 5 yrs & Iris: 23 mos

Bye-Bye July

We're coming to the end of our first July in Rapids. I figured since it's been six weeks, it'd be a good time to check in with a brief update. Felix just celebrated his first birthday here (the big 5) and we had our first party. We had our first hailstorm (no damage, thankfully!). Nick and I are both learning the ins and outs of our respective new jobs. We've all gotten rides in a Porsche. All in all, things are going very well.

First Tree Picture

Happy 5th Birthday!

Lucas and Felix

Silly Iris

Felix: 5 yrs & Iris: 23 mos

Finally Settled

Now that the dust has settled, it's time for an update blog post!

So, last I wrote on May 6th, Nick had accepted a job with a law firm in Stevens Point. We spent the previous weekend refreshing the kitchen (painting the countertops, putting in a new sink and faucet, new knobs, cleaning the cabinets), painting the deck, and basically packing up half of what we own to stage the house.

We had our listing appointment on May 7th. We decided to go the flat-fee MLS route to get the best of both worlds, since we were all ready to go. The house was listed on my birthday, and we got three showings scheduled for May 10th. We received an offer (full asking price!) on May 12th. We countered over some minor details and they accepted our counter May 13th, asking for closing to occur in exactly one month. On May 14th, I took the day off and we left the kids with Nick's parents and toured eight houses in the Rapids/Point area. Found the one for us, on which we put an offer on May 16th. We accepted the counter and whew! What a heck of a week!

Did I mention Nick moved up to Waupaca to stay briefly while we were down in Madison and start his new job May 19th? At least at the end of that week, we had a mini-holiday planned to celebrate our 6th anniversary. We met up in Green Bay, left the kids with Nick's parents, then had a lovely weekend forgetting about everything while we were up in Sister Bay. Nick lost his wedding band at the state park at which we went hiking one morning. We were so fortunate to find it just sitting in the parking lot where it just slipped off his car trunk, after our third trip up to that park in a day. Definitely got use out of our day pass!

NOTE TO ALL POTENTIAL HOMEBUYERS: Learn from my mistake, and DO NOT change any part of your mortgage application before closing. NONE. I was offered and accepted a job in Rapids three days before our scheduled closing. I informed my company the next day (my last day in the office) that I would be leaving at the end of the month. The bank called to verify my employment THAT AFTERNOON. And suddenly, closing fell apart. I had to scramble to prove my new offer was real, and it had to go back into underwriting for verification. Argh, argh, argh. Things were going so well - we knew it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.

Anyway, it worked out well - the house builder/seller allowed us to move in on Friday after we closed on the house in Madison, and we scheduled the new closing for a few days later. He's been so incredibly nice and helpful in this process - let us move in, got our appliances hooked up, and he's making fixes around the house for us as we find them.

We love, love, love our new house. Everything is just *nice*. Big beautiful rooms, an unfinished basement, plenty of dirt the kids can track inside... :o)

And I'm finding that living up here again is both good and bad...
I missed: Seeing awesome lightning storms, very little traffic, having family so close by
I didn't miss: Instant sinus infections, no Target, wonky cell phone reception (which we just fixed by switching. Yay for new phones! - Head's up, new phone numbers coming soon!)

As for the kids, Felix had his last day of 4K before we left Madison. How much things have changed! He insisted on wearing the same shirt, so you can see how much he's grown. Possibly even the same shorts. :o)

Felix: 4.5 yrs & Iris: 21 mos

Big News!

We're moving! Nick just accepted a job with a law firm in Stevens Point (Lummis, Lloyd and Barkley) and he starts May 19th. I'm hoping to get a job with WisDOT in Rapids, which is where we will call home again if I do. In the meantime, it's going to be just me and the kids until we all move (oh boy...). We just endured a hugely busy weekend prepping the house for sale. If you happen to know of anybody in the market for a nice, spiffed-up 3+ bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in a great neighborhood, please let us know!

It's sad to leave Madison and everyone we have here, but as Felix told me today, "We can come down and play." Madison, don't forget about us!

A new adventure awaits!

Felix: 4.5 yrs & Iris: 20 mos

Easter Doings

Well, that was an eventful Easter weekend! It involved trips to Green Bay, Rapids, Waupaca and the emergency room. (Don't worry, everybody's fine.) We spent the first part of the weekend up in Green Bay, the first time we'd been up there in a while. Unfortunately, Iris hurt her hand while we were playing with her. Looking back, I think it was the combination of being hungry, tired, and a just a little bit in pain that made her shriek about it enough that we took her to the ER to have it looked at. As soon as we got there, she was her normal self, using her hand and not making any fuss about it. Oh well, better safe than sorry. That delayed our trip to Rapids, but not by much. It was nice enough in the afternoon to get the kids outside for an Easter Egg hunt. :o) Iris didn't quite get the concept, but Felix was so quick picking up his designated eggs that I could barely take a picture of him! On Sunday, we saw more family in Waupaca.

So, Iris is a little smarty pants. She's coming up on 20 months old, and already knows all the ABCs (by sight and how to say them) and recognizes all the numbers from 1-9. At my last count, she says over 320 words, and uses multiple word phrases. She will also answer your questions. For example, "Iris, where's my wallet?" "Ground." (Oh good, now I know not to look up for it.) "Iris, how did you bump your head?" "Jumping." Here's a video of her randomly telling me the letters on a manhole cover. Sorry for the vertical video - I was trying to take it quickly when I realized what she was doing.

Felix has been his usual, challenging self. We hit upon a way to motivate him to stay dry at night: for each dry night, he earned a star. Enough stars earned him a toy plane from the movie Planes. We started with two stars needed and are now on seven stars needed. He's pretty proud to draw the star himself and get the new plane. This is the last one - next he'll earn the sheets and we'll take away the pull ups. Wish us luck! He is a pretty strong-willed little guy, whose imagination has no bounds. He draws very detailed stories, as you can see.

The Princess and her baby (right side)
have spider fingers.

Here is Nick winning a trophy for
baseball

Olaf, Frosty and a praying mantis

Angry Birds

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, a game of Shriek-a-Boo the kids played last week. Iris requests it by asking for "Iris screaming". You might want your sound on low... :o)

Felix: 4.5 yrs & Iris: 19 mos

Cable-Free

I thought I'd share our experience being cable-free for a whole year now. Do I regret it? Not one bit.

1. We started by changing our internet provider to the fastest and cheapest around. 
2. We bought a Roku box to access all of our online streaming subscriptions in one place. We hooked this directly to our router to provide continuous internet feed.
3. We added our Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime accounts. We also watch the PBS channel quite a bit. And we'll put on the Presto fireplace channel to have on in the background at times.
4. We purchased a PlayOn subscription, thinking this would allow us to stream ESPN, BigTen network, etc. It did not. We can watch YouTube videos through it, but it's a pain and just easier to watch that stuff on our computers.
5. We bought an antenna for our TV, so we can watch available Packers and Badgers games (note - we do miss pausing the game when dealing with the kids...).
6. We also purchased a side subscription that allows us to watch shows on the BBC.

That's it! Certain shows that we know we'll rewatch (Doctor Who, Psych and Archer), we purchase a season pass from Amazon Instant Video and they are downloaded to our account after they air. Amazon also is our source for old Iron Chef America episodes. Hulu is good for network shows (Parks & Rec, New Girl). We've used Netflix to discover series that we can watch at our own pace (Eureka, Top Gear, old episodes of all of the above). And the PBS channel on Roku has given me my Sherlock and Downton Abbey fixes. Speaking of the BBC, if you see Broadchurch or The Musketeers, WATCH THEM. They are amazing. [note: these are just a few of the shows to which I am particular.]

We're not big movie watchers, but there are several movie subscription channels that are available.

Badger game not on a network channel? Old school radio, baby.

Gratitude

Just when you think you're getting close to the light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes it collapses and you have to dig yourself out again by hand. This winter already seemed terrible and interminable when things got worse. This is officially going down in my memory as A Bad Winter (yes, capitalized).

But, it's the times when you struggle that make you grateful for what you've got. And we certainly have a lot. We've got our health (well, what's left of it after this winter), each other, incredible children, supportive families and friends, and lots of opportunities. We just hope they pan out soon.

We've thankfully had plenty of distractions lately, like three kids' birthday parties to attend. Those have been lots of fun for everybody, and it's so interesting to watch friends' kids grow up as well. We've gotten into homebrewing, and currently have two brews fermenting merrily in our basement. We've also taken the opportunity to rid of house of unwanted clutter. It's nice to have some storage space again. We have semi-nightly dance parties to Disney songs in our living room. Both kids very much like to "Move It".


The kids are doing well. Felix is really becoming an artist, making detailed pictures that have an equally detailed storyline. Here's a couple examples of recent artwork. I wish I had the story verbatim behind each one to share with you.

Iris is talking up a storm. She says more than 225 words (about half of them you don't need an Iris-to-English translation guide), is starting to use two-word phrases, and knows the numbers from 1-12 (even a few by sight), plus some letters. I'm really impressed with her language skills. She does have some funny pronunciations that we've struggled to translate. "Pyot" is spider. "Mugeet" is music. "Painah" is peanut butter. Context is everything...

We are confident things will work out for us, and soon. They did before, right? Right. And it could always be worse.

Felix: 4.5 yrs & Iris: 18 mos