Lights, Camera.....

Last week both kids went to theatre camp.  Of all the camps they are taking this summer, this one I was most excited/nervous about.  You see, my kids spend about 80% of their time playing some sort of make believe around the house.  But playing make believe with your sibling is one thing, but doing it in front of other relative strangers is quite another, especially on a big stage.  I either thought this was going to be an amazing week or it was going to crash and burn.

Thankfully, the week went MARVELOUSLY! They both said it was the best camp so far of the summer.  (Score one for Mommy).  For Quinn the week culminated in a small classroom demonstration of what they had worked on during the week.  Clearly, Raif and I's presence wasn't the best thing as she spent the half an hour show simply looking at us and giggling but she did show us a couple of things, like how she can be a hungry dog waiting to be fed.

Greyson's class however ended with a show on the big stage.  They did a lesser known Shakespearean romp called "Chickens to the Rescue."  Greyson played both a well and a duck and an occasional chicken.  He had a smile on his face the entire time up on stage, he particpated and rocked his parts.  What more could a Mom ask for?

(Here he is, nailing the part of the well.)

(As you can see, he didn't have any trouble using his "Level 10" voice to be heard)

(Seriously, could the boy be having any more fun?)

(Now all we need to work on is his Oscar winning smile!)

It's Official, FINALLY

It constantly amazes me what my children latch onto as important as it relates to life's events.....

Back in February of 2010, when Greyson got accepted to BGA, along with his acceptance letter he got a little gift from BGA which included a spirit shirt and a car sticker.  I let him put the sticker on my car as a little reward or event to get him excited about going to a new school.  Then I promptly forgot about it.

 Flash forward to February 2012 when someone else received her acceptance in the mail... (I have an adorable picture of her beaming and holding her letter which is on our photo hard drive, which is Lord knows where in this shoebox crammed full of crap, sigh)  The excitement was palpable but not because she was finally going to BGA, which she had been talking about constantly for the last two years, but...well you probably can guess.

"Mommy, when can I put the sticker on your car?"
"Huh?"  (At this point I had honestly forgotten that I had let Greyson do that over 2 years ago)
"When Greyson got into BGA, he got to put a BGA sticker on your car.  I want to put mine on."

Now unfortunately, rightly assuming that sibling families already are choking on enough BGA paraphernalia they could die,siblings don't get the same package of BGA goodies.  So I had no sticker to give her.  I finally got around to going to the BGA bookstore in April and even more finally actually had 5 minutes and remembered to let her do it last week.  Though don't think she didn't remember, I got nagged about it at least once a week.

Once she put it on, she danced around and said "Now I am going to BGA!"   If I had known that was all she cared about I would have saved the tuition money and just bought a sticker for my car!

The Best Reader EVER!!!!!

OK,  that title may have some proud mommy licensing in it, but I think I have a right to exaggerate a little when it comes to Greyson.  He has come so far this year.  Last year at this time he read around 2,700 words.  Today he earned one of the two best reader awards in his class with a little over 24,000 words.  Over the past few weeks I have had more than one of his teachers tell me how much he has grown over the past year and how proud they are of him.  They can't be prouder of him than I am though.  I love that little man!!

Promises, Promises

So I vaguely remember promising about 6 weeks ago that I was going to update everyone on the happenings over the last 6 months in my spare time whilst moving and packing.  You can see how well that went....

Moving did not go, dare I say, as we planned.  Thanks to the wonderful economy and living in the city with the highest number of foreclosures in the Nashville metropolitan area, the last few years were not the kindest to the value of our house.  After realizing the major bath we were taking on the house, Raif and I decided to save a little money and move ourselves.

I have likened moving to childbirth - I think you block out the misery of it, once the actual event has passed and so the next time you think about doing it, it doesn't seem as bad as it really was.  I really honestly don't remember moving to Nashville being a giant nightmare and that was when we had a 1 1/2 year old and a 6 week old.  So surely if that wasn't bad then moving now, with my days sans children, would be a piece of cake.

However, what I failed to take into account was that when we lived in Atlanta we actually had friends that helped us move - physically packing boxes and tending to children when needed.  Not a single neighbor in Nashville lent a hand (one of the many reasons why we are glad to have left that house).  And in 5 1/2 years we accumulated A LOT more crap.  This idea was doomed to begin with.  Couple that with Raif having to be out of town the two weeks prior to us moving and then him falling out of the truck while moving a mattress and more than likely cracking a rib or two and well....you can understand why I didn't have time to update the blog.

I will be eternally grateful to our realtor Jessi, who two days before we were suppose to close on the house, came by to put the SOLD sign in the yard, saw the state of packing/moving and saw the emotional basket case that was me in the midst of it all; completely paralyzed with fear as to how to handle it all.  Perhaps it was her fear of not closing on the house she worked so hard to sell or perhaps it was taking pity on me, but she walked right back out of the house and called Two Men and a Truck who was there in an hour and packed up my house for me.  Without that I probably would still be in the fetal position in the middle of my living room surrounded with half packed boxes.

But all's well that ends well and here I am in my tiny shoebox apartment surrounded by boxes and cheap formic counter tops!  We are enjoying our 10 minute drive to work and school (previously it was 35-40) and Raif is enjoying weekends that haven't involved a single lawn or garden tool.  We put the build order in on our new house today and hopefully (knock on wood, crossing all fingers and toes) we should be moving once again, this time starting out with real movers in about 4 months.

So now I am honestly really ready to update the world on what has been happening.  I know the Grandmas have been more than patient in waiting for pictures of baseball and softball and all things grandkids.  And whomever else hasn't given up on me and occasionally been checking in to see whether I am alive and dead, I am alive and kicking, so let's get this update started.  I will try to keep the new things current and do some awesome flashbacks as time permits.  And without further ado.....

Happy Easter and Welcome Back

First of all, to everyone a Happy Easter. 

Now on to more important topics, like what in the hell happened to me?  (OK, Easter is probably more important).  So some may have noticed the slowing of my blog posts and then their abrupt end and wondering whether or not I had been kidnapped by international terrorists or perhaps my car was taken away by an angry swarm of butterflies (a la Ms. Nelson is Missing).  I wish I could say that my absence was due to something glamorous or even intriguing but instead it was just the convergence of a whole lot leaving me extremely busy and more than slightly overwhelmed.

The biggest of these things is the fact that in January Raif and I decided to try to sell the house.  OK, honestly we decided to sell the house about a year ago but it was in January we really decided to actually put the plan into action.  We spent most of the month of January getting the house ready and cleaning and tossing (anyone remember pictures of the basement?).  In February we listed it and held our breaths and spent more time than I care to admit vacuuming every single piece of dust and dander every night before bed, putting every semblance of actual people living in this house under beds and in closets and in general living like we were in a museum.  Then on the flip side we spent countless hours combing the internet for a suitable alternative house.  I spent half of my time worrying our house would never sell and the other half worrying it would sell and we wouldn't find a place to live.

But it appears that everything is finally coming together.  We got our house under contract a little over a week ago and are closing on it on April 26th, knock on wood.  (The neurotic side of me is still convinced they are going to find out that our house is on an old Indian burial ground or something like that and the contract will fall through.)  As for the Erim clan, as of April 27th, we will be homeless, though temporarily.  After looking at every single house in Franklin we could we couldn't find anything that suited us and so we are building a house.  In the meantime, we will be shacking it up in a nice little 2 bedroom apartment (though a specific one has yet to be determined) for 4 months. 

Of course pretty much since we signed the contract Raif has been out of town on business and will be this week as well so moving this family and packing up all of our valuables and not so valuables has become my sole responsibility.  No stress there, none.

So there you have it, the last two months in a nutshell.  For the benefit of the grandparents, I will try to update you on the happenings of the last 2 months or so as I take much needed breaks from packing and attempting to determine what goes to storage and what gets moved to the apartment. Oy vey.  Let the fun begin!

Happy Valentine's Day

 You gotta look GOOOOOOD when you are coloring Valentine's for your friends....

 Greyson's Valentine Inchworm

Greyson's holiday door hanger.  You can tell he really got into the spirit of the holiday.

Happy Birthday to me...

 Tuesday was my birthday.  I have forgotten what year I was born but since I have to belt out "Baby Got Back" every time I hear it in the car, I guestimate my age somewhere between 30 and 40.  The kids surprised me with this wonderful present.....

I have to admit that I love doing all these things with them as well.  And my favorite part of the whole 'unveil' was the 10 minute story each of them told about their picture.  It is amazing how much of a story goes into each and every picture they draw..their own little novella.