Year: 2014
What the—?? This is new.
Robots hug and kiss!
Katie was playing with Owen’s robots, making them hug (and kiss):
Six birthday celebration!
Any excuse for a cake, really…we celebrated all of our birthdays!
Papa was elected to blow out the candles since I was still sick, Tom and Grannie Lin were getting sick, and Owen and Katie would likely spit on the cake. 
Having fun with the party horn/birthday whistles, which actually THANKFULLY didn’t make any actual noise.
Five Little Pumpkins
HOA Fall Festival
I had to make her an MSU Cheerleader today!
Craft table! Which I had to do while also carrying their bags, his light saber, and my camera. Tom was running late because he was finishing up the back steps.
Katie LOVED the train. This was the first of many rides.
Snack time and water break!
Costume contest! (A puppy won it.)
Attempting the Mummy Race. Owen understood he had to wrap Katie up, but he wasn’t careful and the toilet paper kept breaking and he just kept wrapping it around her neck so she was screeching “I’M STUCK! I’M STUCK!” It lasted maybe all of 45 seconds.
Piñata!
Anakin meets Darth!
Owen helping Grannie make apple pies!
Mama! Look! I’m fixing!
Owen’s first Halleyween!
Owen’s school had a Halloween (Halleyween) party tonight with games and snacks and dancing! It was quite loud and chaotic, so we didn’t stay really long, but we did stay long enough for Owen to play a few games, see some friends, and have a cupcake!
Anakin!
Katie was screaming inside the house so we let her come out to take pictures, too.
Using the Force!
Decorating his goodie bag.
Pin the nose on the pumpkin.
Broom race!
Witch hat ring toss—his first attempt made it!
CUPCAKE!
Build-a-skeleton!
More broom racing!
We ended the night with a stop to get frozen yogurt!
Bullying Prevention Assembly
Today Owen’s school had a Bullying Prevention Assembly instead of the normal Friday morning program, so we got to see most of that (we came in after it started to see Owen’s class perform a poem). I recorded the poem but we were far away and it was hard to hear in person (and even moreso on the video) so here’s a screenshot:
Most of the student body of Owen’s school (I checked, and there are around 700 students in K-6):
Wheeeee!
My monkeys!
Katie showing Papa the iPad
A Brave Grannie
It was Linda’s idea to make a Halloween cake and let the kids frost/decorate it.
Little Helper
Thatsa lotta sauce!
Since I had help, I made a triple batch of spaghetti sauce. This is what 9# of meat looks like at the beginning…
And this is before the simmer…
There’s a first time for everything
Owen is usually up between 6–6:30, with rare times of maybe 6:45. This morning? I had to wake him up at 7:15!
Me: Owen, it’s time to get up.
Owen: But I’m still tired!
Me: Welcome to my world. This is how I feel every morning.
Football with papa!
Owen wanted to play football with Papa, so of course then Katie had to go out as well!
Story time with Papa
Once annoying, always annoying.
Some lady offered me $40 for the $150 police car power wheels we were selling:
Her: How much for the car?
Me: $150
Her: I have $40.
Me, laughing: Yeah, no.
Her: Are you sure?
Me: Positive.
Yes, I literally laughed in her face when she offered $40. I mean REALLY?!
So she kept walking around and finally comes back over and says $100. I say the lowest I can do is $125. She says $100. I say no, $125. I tell her I don’t really even want to sell it, so there’s no way I’m taking less than $125.
She walks around our driveway again then comes back and says $100. I just shake my head no. So she leaves, then about 20 minutes later drives by, rolls her window down, and asks “$100?” I yell across to her “$125.”
SERIOUSLY?
In the meantime, the garage sale ends but by chance someone else has shown interest at my full $150 asking price but she had to leave and talk to her husband.
So about two hours after the garage sale (and an hour after the other lady was there) our doorbell rings. It’s the annoying lady saying she wants the car for $125. (She didn’t even know if we still had it.) I kinda laugh and say “Well, someone else has shown interest at $150 so I need to ask her first.”
I don’t think she believed me but oh well. So I went in to grab my phone to text her and I came back out and her and her husband were in our garage looking at and handling OTHER THINGS (the police car was in there, but they were touching other stuff). WTF? WHO DOES THAT? So I tell her I will let her know as soon as I hear from the other lady. She says fine, I get their number, and she says they will be home around 4. Fine.
I talk to the other lady and she says if I can sell it, go ahead, her hubby wasn’t into it. So I text the annoying lady around 4 and tell them it’s available for $125 and to let us know so we can get it out of the garage. About two hours later we’re just sitting down to eat and the doorbell rings. Tom goes (I should have but oh well) and comes back and says it was “some girl asking if we had sold the car.” Well I have no idea who “some girl” is because I had never seen a girl, so I thought maybe it was one of the other 10 kids on the street who wanted it.
Well, turns out it was the annoying lady’s daughter, but Tom hadn’t known the update, so told her it was sold. This is what happened:
WHAT?!?!?
Good f’ing riddance. I didn’t especially WANT to sell it in the first place, but would have for $150 and possibly for $125, so there is no way in hell I’m now selling it to you for $100 after you’ve been so damn annoying all day. I really wanted to tell her something else, but I refrained because she does live nearby and I’m sure I’ll run into her again. But it’s people like her that make me hate people.
So this happened again.
Our HOA sponsored a community-wide yard sale today, which we only found out about about a week prior. The good thing about the lack of notice is that we didn’t spend that much time prepping.
We had a good assortment of stuff and people were sporadic throughout the morning but we did pretty good. I had to haggle a bit more than I’d prefer, but I had to remind myself that the main objective was to get rid of stuff.
I only had one super annoying lady that tested my patience, but it taught me if someone is annoying at the start, they’re probably going to be annoying the whole way through. Stay tuned for that post.
Owen’s first martial arts experience!
He was invited to a birthday party at a local martial arts place…and boy did he have fun. We would actually have been interested in sending him there, but it’s expensive (not to mention 4-5 days a week).
Here is a video compilation of some of the stuff he did.
But I had to put this video in all on its own—he was SO excited and SO proud of himself for breaking the board! GO OWEN!
Katie is 2 years 3 months today!
Wow, I’m way behind with this post! I took the picture but then completely forgot to post it because of the excitement of Dad’s Day!
Pumpkin Patch Field Trip
Owen’s first out-of-school class field trip was to a local nursery that has a pumpkin playground. I really wanted to go and help chaperone but I couldn’t take Katie on the bus, so we just met them there.
I actually went to the school first so I could follow the bus, so we got to visit Owen’s classroom for a few minutes. One of Owen’s classmates said to him “Owen, your sister is sooo cute!” and Owen said “Thank you!” The classroom assistant said the two looked a lot alike and I said “Really? You think?” But then she said it was the eyes.
It was only about a 10-15 minute drive from the school. We parked while the busses unloaded so this was waiting for Owen.
Owen’s class (the assistant is on the left in the green tee and his teacher is on the right in the white tee):
Owen grabbed the hands of two of his classmates in his group and off they went!
Their first ride on an old-style merry-go-round. THEY LOVED IT.
A quick climb on a train…
And then off to another merry-go-round!
Time for a hayride! Well, a tractor ride—there was no hay.
He went right down this slide with no hesitation!
Katie wanted to go down the slide so I sent her up with Owen and instructions to help his sister (or go down with her), but of course it didn’t happen!
After I helped her up the slippery walk twice she could manage on her own!
I think these were her first horsey rides! It was great because they didn’t take coins—you just pressed the button!
You can see how dirty she was. It had rained A LOT the day before and everything was wet and muddy. I had thought about the ground being gross so Katie had boots and Owen had old tennis shoes…but I hadn’t thought about the climbing things being covered in muck…so they were both a mess.
We got to pick a small pumpkin on the way out!
She loves pumpkins and wanted another one!
Katie took a tumble right as we were leaving so she was really muddy. We got to the car and I literally stripped her down, changed her diaper, then put her in the car seat.
Katie getting scared by the peekaboo bear
We were downstairs coloring a welcome sign for Grannie and Papa when Katie pulled out her peekaboo bear…and the excitement began. Holy cow.
Katieisms 10
Me: Hi Magga-doodles!
Katie: Hi Maggie-noonoos!
Tom: Katie, do you like your new chair?
Katie: Yes! It’s nice and comfortable!
While watching commercials.
Owen: Katie, do you want that?
Katie: Of course, of course! I want that!
It’s starting already… There was a loud noise from the kitchen.
Me: Katie, what are you doing?
Katie: Nothing!
When we put Katie to bed, we say goodnight to everyone. Goodnight Owen, goodnight mama, goodnight Maggie, etc. Tonight?
Tom: Goodnight Owen.
Katie: Goodnight Owen.
Tom: Goodnight mama.
Katie: Goodnight mama.
As they walk away:
Katie: Goodnight everyone!
My heart is melting she looks so sweet.
I had to wake her up from her nap to go get Owen from the bus. This is EXACTLY as I found her. What a little angel.
Then I got about 10 minutes of waking up cuddles…
/sigh
I am so pissed at myself and at Tricare.
Granted it could be worse, but still. Ugh.
I recently got a bill for $109 for two of Katie’s appointments…where we didn’t see her primary care provider (though I didn’t know that at the time). You see, when we moved, I dutifully went to the Tricare website and picked the clinic/doctor I wanted AND THE SITE LET ME PICK the one I wanted, so when we got the confirmation letter, I admit I didn’t look at it closely because WHY WOULD IT BE ANYONE OTHER THAN WHO I PICKED? (And also, by that time, I think we had already seen the doctor.)
But apparently the letter confirmed the REAL doctor Tricare had assigned me (that I didn’t get to pick). And when I called Tricare to ask about it, they assured me I was covered and it was all taken care of, even though it was a point of service appointment. Phew, okay. But calling them today, I find out that, well, I WAS technically covered, but only for X amount and the rest was from my own out of pocket expenses. Lovely. That’s a big chunk of money I wasn’t planning on spending on something that could have been 100% covered.
Flower girl
Katie wanted to go outside and the first thing she did was pick some flowers.
My lamppost ghost!
We had one of these growing up and I always wanted one of my own but I never lived anywhere with a lamppost!
Until now!
I asked, and Gramma Jean made one for us when she was here! After seeing the neighbors with their decorations, I put it up after getting Owen on the bus.
