Summer Break, Day 12

The day of reckoning arrived for the cavity-infested male inhabitant. This morning he was escorted back to the dental facilities for the first portion of his treatment. Nitrous oxide was used to dull his senses while the Novocain was injected into both sides of his upper jaw. Once the numbing took effect, 3 of the 4 cavities were filled and 2 sealants were placed on his upper molars. I was proud of how well he behaved during the entire procedure. There was an impressive lack of thrashing and screaming coming from our operating room.  This self-controlled behavior must have taken quite the toll on the boy, for he came home and went straight to his bedchamber. Within the next 5 minutes, he fell fast asleep!

The effects of the morning worked their way out of his system during his nap. Once he awoke, fully rested and famished, he was back in full form. I was glad to see there were no ill effects from what may have been a traumatic experience.

Kudos to Charlotte Pediatric Dentistry at Mallard Creek! Every time we visit their establishment, I become more and more impressed!

Summer Break, Day 11

The inhabitants have been enjoying their vacation. This afternoon, lessons in the form of martial arts were planned. A pleasant surprise awaited the oldest resident as she received a most high reward for her dedication to the sport: Student of the Month. The middle inhabitant showed great envy for her achievement and was slow to congratulate her. As a result, the oldest asked Master King if she could share her award with her younger sibling. Shaking his head, Master King explained that this award was meant for only one person at a time and must be earned, not given--otherwise, where is the value of the hard work to earn such a reward? Kudos to their great teacher for gently explaining such a difficult life lesson.

This photograph is a fuzzy rendition.  However, you can see the pride in the inhabitant's face. Her Co-Creator and I are so pleased and proud of how hard she has been working! 

»»»» We're proud of you, Aurora!««««

Summer Break, Day 9: Co-Creator's Day

The inhabitants awoke this morning to shower their Co-Creator with cards and gifts. This day was all about him, after all.

The male inhabitant waged a difficult battle, in which he lost. Dinner was chosen and made especially for the residents' Co-Creator. He choose BBQ chicken sandwiches, curly fries, a salad and my specialty chocolate cookies. Our middle child refused to eat salad. The resulting mutiny led me to force-feed him every bite. That was exhilarating (not).

After dinner, the restless natives went hunting for fireflies. Many were caught and, subsequently, released. It has been a beautiful evening.

Summer Break, Day 8

The inhabitants have an immense amount of energy this day.  Co-Creator took them to the largest multi-store shopping facility in the area, hoping to ensure naps for everyone.  The results were that the Co-Creator and the youngest resident were exhausted upon departure.  The 2 exhausted ones took a nap; the remainder of the inhabitants somehow acquired more energy.  After nap time, restless natives were banished to the outdoors.  Upon their allowance back into the house, all 3 decided to take up adventures in the playroom.  Such antics resulted in this living artwork.  This piece is called Mutiny in Black Marker :

Summer Break, Week 1: Days 1-7

Day 1:  The natives are angry that their previous institutionalized incarceration has ended. Not knowing what to do with all their newfound freedom, they have protested by killing my micro-USB charger and my favorite straw cup. These incidents were masqueraded as "accidents", but as their co-creator, I am now very suspect. The youngest is confused about our new schedule and is rebelling at nap time. I have separated the inhabitants and sufficiently laid down the law. Mutiny is always but a whisper away.

Day 2:   I placed household items for sale on the List of Craig. Incidentally, 4 people wanted to rendezvous at the same time today to purchase said items. Basically, I performed a yard sale out of my geriatric station wagon in the neighborhood pharmacy's parking lot.  Said geriatric automobile staged its own kind of mutiny, refusing to remain started when I turned the ignition.  The youngest inhabitant was asleep at this time.  Their Co-Creator and I decided to abide by Rule #1: Never wake a sleeping child.  Thus, I was to await the end of nap time in the heat of my vehicle, or walk the neighborhood roads to home.  Having seriously underestimated the distance from my home, I walked through the door an hour later, just in time for the nap to have ended.  Co-Creator drove to the mutinous vehicle and, rather quickly and unbearably easily, was able to drive it home--and back to get the other automobile in our possession.  Later this evening, I overheard a suspicious mechanical laughter from the driveway as I was nursing my newly acquired sunburn.

Day 3:   The rains are incessant. So are the requests for electronic screens. The youngest, in an attempt to defend her territory, continually grabs objects from the other inhabitants, causing them to chase her down. Soon the rains will cease and the restless natives can go into the great outdoors for their entertainment. Thus far, we have avoided mutiny. Tomorrow is another day.

Day 4:   The male inhabitant awoke at 5am, in mutinous fashion. He insisted I connect an electronic screen to WiFi. Having ignored his request, I sent him back to bed with a good book. I knew it was just a matter of time before the other inhabitants would join him. The day was going quite well until I attempted to use the electrified floor sweeper. It was at this time that, over the din of the electric suction, the restless natives found the acrylic paint and brushes. I have now found myself in possession of a dozen half-emptied paint bottles. I am, however, entirely unsure where the contents of said paint bottles currently are housed; all 3 of these cherubic residents have no evidence of paint on their persons or their clothing. This mystery shall be solved in due time, I suppose.

Day 5:   Dental appointments for all 3 inhabitants this morning. The damage consisted of 4 cavities. In one mouth. The female residents are both dentist-free for another 6 months. The male resident will suffer greatly for his constant thievery of the pantry dried fruit candies. Currently, as I record this, the Co-Creator is in with the littlest mutineer. He is singing a song, which she will, in turn, sing at ear-piercing volume to her roommate as soon as Co-Creator exits premises. This is not their first show-down. Native roommate is asleep. Correction, roommate WAS asleep, became awakened long enough to holler "Shut up!" to current mutineer. The night is still young!

Day 6:  Update, 12:32 a.m.:   Little mutineer is currently viewing an animated movie. As her Co-Creator, I am exhausted. I will dock nap hours tomorrow as disciplinary action for such insolence.


Day 7:  After such a long night of unrest, our Day 6 was incredibly, blissfully uneventful. The inhabitants helped work on Co-Creator's gift for his Day this weekend. The residents fully enjoyed every messy moment. Storms blew in last evening and broke the front yard foliage. Branches are everywhere. Today begins the Co-Creator's first vacation of the season. His reward? Neither the chain saw nor Ol' Busty Blue will start up. The replacement part for Ol' Busty went on quickly and easily, however, it was not the cause of vehicular mutiny. Back to the drawing board...

Hello, again

I cannot believe I have neglected this blog since October of last year!  I had so many intentions of updating it when we moved into our new house in November.  We did get the house from my last post and have fully enjoyed living here

The girls are sharing a room together.  I was concerned about how that would go, since Aurora is 8 years older than Ellie.  It's actually going quite well.  We send Ellie to bed first, then remind Aurora to go back to bed in absolute silence, so as not to wake the little one.  Ryan is fortunate that he gets his own room.  It's much smaller than the one in Tulsa (all our rooms are, even though the house is 1400 sq ft; our house in Tulsa was 2400).  My theory was: Smaller room, smaller mess.  That theory may have been true, but it never actually LOOKS true.  His room is just such a mess.  An enter-at-your-own-risk mess, with Lego and Squinkie boobie traps everywhere!  He loves it that way and cleans the mess well enough on his own when I tell him I need to vacuum his room.  That's good enough for me.  Aurora has been doing an amazing job keeping her room clean, too.  It's almost like this parenting thing is finally starting to work.  And, then I step into the playroom...

But I digress...

We switched the kids to a new school in January and had some issues with the new school, at first.  The culture was different and quite shocking to the kids.  Having lived in Oklahoma their entire academic life, going to school with anything less than a 98% Caucasian population would be a shock to anyone.  They have adjusted by now and are excited to start school again this fall so they can go see their friends.

Currently, we are on summer break.  Ellie had a difficult time the first couple days the kids were home.  She felt like she needed to defend her territory from them.  Once she figured out that she could play WITH them, she was more pleasant towards them.  The kids have been playing well together--for the most part--but we are only on week 1.

Last night, storms blew in fast and furious.  We have a tree down in our front yard.  Today begins Rob's first vacation of the summer.  He went out to the shed to start up our incredibly old, unreliable chain saw.  Of course, it wouldn't start.  To purchase a  new one is over $100; to rent one for the day is $100.  Explain that logic to me...?

To top off our fun day, Rob replaced a part in our vehicle which we were sure was causing a problem.  After replacing said part, the car behaved the exact same way.  So, now we must go back to the drawing board and figure out why Ol' Busty Blue is giving us fits.  Could it be because she has over 192,000 miles, is a 2002 and runs a family of 5 around the country on demand?  Poor Busty.  She's so abused.  I hate the thought of purchasing a newer vehicle.  With 3 kids and a dog, the interior of any vehicle becomes ruined rather quickly.  My automobile life kinda looks like Mom My Ride.  Thank God for Febreze.  Just last week, I almost gagged when I got into my car.  Someone had spilled their milk on the floor and the interior smelled like stale, spoiled milk.  There is nothing on earth quite like that smell.  I used half a bottle of the fabric refresher in order to get rid of the smell.

In the meantime, Rob is much more concerned about getting that tree cleared from our yard.  A neighbor has loaned him an electric chain saw and he is working on it as I type this.  So far, our summer break has been quite eventful.  I have been putting some wacky updates on facebook about our daily events, calling my children the "inhabitants", "residents" or "restless natives".  Rob and I, as Co-Creators of these 3 children are attempting to avoid the summer mutiny that these 3 children inevitably commit.  Someone on facebook said I should start a blog.  I thought, "Well, I already have a blog!  I should get back to it and post there!"  So, there you have it.

We don't do fancy things during the summer like a lot of people do.  My kids, like me, are home bodies.  They like to stay home, have pajama days and eat breakfast for dinner.  We don't get to do that very much during the school year, so we do it as much as we want to in the summer.  Let's see what kinds of trouble we can get into this summer here in the confines of the Rose Household.

The Longest Move Ever!

It has now been 6 months since we learned we were moving from Tulsa, OK to Charlotte, NC.  Six months of making decisions, 6 months of living in temporary housing with temporary furniture and beds on boxsprings on the floor.  I know, I know.  It could be worse.  It really could have been in a lot of ways!  We have been blessed over and over again with this move.

Every time I think "I just can't handle it anymore--something's gotta give!", something gives!  In a good way!  When I thought "We have GOT to get that house in Tulsa SOLD!", we got a bid for a Lease-Purchase that week.  When I thought "We have GOT to find a place to live permanently", we found a house in our price range, put a bid on it and it was accepted.  However, that was a short sale and we then had to wait and wait and wait on Bank of America to answer our bid and let us know if it was "good enough".  When we placed the bid on August 13th, BoA asked for us to have a closing date of October 31st.  Our lease at our apartment ended September 28th.  We knew there was a chance we could get an answer before our lease was up, but we were also aware that short sales could take anywhere from 30-90 days to be answered by the bank.

So, we waited and waited some more.  When our lease was up at our apartment, I had to find a place for us to live.  For one month.  With 3 kids, a dog and a rabbit!  Oh, yeah, and the Democratic National Convention was taking place here in Charlotte.  ALL of the temporary housing was taken.  Fortunately, the DNC would be gone by the time we needed a place, but when I was calling around to get everything set up, the prices were astronomical!  We couldn't afford a place for just a month.  Because of Equal Housing Opportunity laws, we couldn't find an apartment in a family-friendly area with a lease option of any less than 3 months.  IF we were to close on a house Oct 31st, that option just wasn't going to work.  That Oct 31st date was crucial.  Just when I thought "We are going to be HOMELESS in October!", something came up on Craigslist where a woman wanted out of her lease a month early because her home was ready to move into.  Jackpot!  So, I jumped on that and we got that all set up.

We ran into a problem when we were moving into the apartment--it was overrun with FLEAS!!!  The complex didn't know the lady had a cat and, apparently, the lady didn't know her cat had fleas!  There were so many of them!  I counted 13 on Ellie's right leg--just one leg!  Immediately, I called the front office and asked what I should do.  Two hours later, an exterminator was in the apartment, explaining it could take as much as 3 weeks before they all die.  I had to vacuum every day and empty the vacuum canister each time after I vacuum.  I have been doing that EVERY DAY and we are finally waking up without flea bites.  Talk about a nightmare.  But, God was faithful.  We didn't have the money for an extended stay or a furnished apartment (we're talking 3 times my budget!), and who's to say that any of those places wouldn't have had roaches, or bedbugs, or anything even worse.  There was a neighborhood that did month-to-month leases and it looked like it was our only chance, but when I called the police station to get the crime statistics there...  Let's just say it was a VERY bad neighborhood.  Rob and I decided we would live in our station wagon before living there.

So, we waited another week after moving into this second temporary apartment and we heard nothing else from the bank.  Our mortgage broker said it would take 3 weeks once we got confirmation from BoA to go through with the purchase.  When Oct 9th rolled around and we still hadn't heard anything, we decided to remove our bid, fire our realtor (who refused to take us to see any other houses because he was so sure we would hear something "any day now".  He'd been saying that for 3 weeks!), and find a new realtor.  Day one with the new realtor, we found a house, placed a bid on it and it was accepted!!! 

We are now in the process of purchasing this house.  It's not as new as the short sale house and the kitchen and bathrooms, though they are all in full working order, need to be updated.  Blessedly, it's available and it's in our price range.  Because we didn't truly sell the house in Tulsa just yet, we have a VERY limited budget.  Yes, God is good all the time.  Charlotte has taken such a hit in the housing market as a result of the economy.  As a result, we can purchase a house for our needs in our price range in a pretty decent area and the house is not a member of a Home Owners Association.  Not HOA!  After our run-ins with the HOA in Tulsa, I am ecstatic about this feature!!!  I could paint my house purple, put red shutters on it and a green roof above it all and no one could knock on my door and tell me that it doesn't meet the neighborhood criteria.  Now, the house has gray vinyl siding with green vinyl shutters and a safe gray roof, so I'm probably not going to go with that color scheme ever.  My point is: I could if I darn well want to, though!  Being completely rebellious in nature--both Rob and I are, and so are our children, who inherited that lovely characteristic from us--this is such a relief to us.  I don't have to worry about keeping up with the Jones', or whether my grass is the proper length.  I don't have to worry about what happens if my kids or my dog dig up my front azaleas.  My house doesn't have to maintain a status quo.  And, this is a good thing! 

I'm so weary after these many months.  I don't want to have to worry about impressing you, or my neighbors, or anyone who drives by.  I just want a place where my children can stomp on the floors and play without bothering the person downstairs.  I want a place where we can bring in our belongings PERMANENTLY.  Somewhere that I can place my furniture and sit on it again (oh, how I have missed my nice, fluffy, cushiony couch!).  I'm ready to have my bed up on its frame and off the ground.  I want my pictures up on the walls--I'm so tired of staring at blank white walls.  I can't wait to be able to bring out my Fall decorations and prepare for Thanksgiving with my family--and then to put the Fall decorations away and set up for the Season of true Thanksgiving--Christmas.  I'm ready for it. 

I'm grateful for the provisions my Father in Heaven has given me these many months.  I've been a brat many a time, asking God WHEN He is going to prove faithful; it's been stressful and I've been to the end of my rope a few times.  However, there has not once been a time that I have doubted that we are exactly where He wants us to be.  I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in this time around.  That's more than I can say about the move out to Tulsa--I was a lot younger then.  I have a much more mature and respectful view of God now.  He is not out for MY best interests; He is out for His Glory.  I don't have to like how He goes about glorifying Himself; I just have to know that He is to be the Glory in my life.  If it takes 6 months to get me settled into a city to teach me that I am to like it no matter what happens, then so be it.  I still love it here and I am still waiting for His calling on my life here.  We have not found a church home yet because we have not settled into a home-home yet!  But, we are still finding new ways to worship as we visit churches each week.  He is still the God of the Universe and I am still His Child.  Nothing has changed except my coordinates on the globe.  My coordinates in Heaven are still the same; as are His.  Praise Him!