The Cat and the Turtle

Trick or Treat 2012

Eddie aka the turtle, lived up to his costume. He was a bit pokey, and wasn't at all into the entire idea at first. But once he got the hang of door to door candy consumption, he was on a roll. Rowan was an animal this year. She started out with her friends hand in hand. But quickly let go of them and flew solo from door to door, running. Therefore, I had to help Eddie get from house to house in order to keep up with her. We only finished our immediate subdivision circle before heading home. Rowan actaully said she was done. Which was completely fine. It was chilly outside, and we were operating on no dinner.

Rowan, McKenna and Josh ended up in Josh's basement playing for a bit when they were done and the adults conversed in the driveway. Then we headed in for the night. Operation trick or treat was a success. This was the first year that Rowan's costume feet required a little TLC from Nana. She wore through the heels of the costume. Easily fixable, we hope!

Halloween 2012

Halloween Party

Rowan had a Halloween Party at preschool today, so she got to wear her costume. They had halloween like snacks, went trick or treating around the YMCA as well as at an elderly home across the street. They did very well. Eddie wore the head piece of one of his halloween costume possibilities. They both got lots of comments on Nana's masterpieces.

Sloane...

Had an unseasonably warm playdate today...didn't think we would be playing in the sandbox still at the end of October, but they kids and Sloane did. Even if it wasn't for long. It happened. Wish we were doing this still at the end of December too. Probably not, not in Wisconsin.

neighbors

Days like today make me really sad that we will be moving eventually.

 

This morning McKenna and Kendall came over to play. The big girls painted a mini pumpkin, and played dress up and whatever else. The littles did a little playdough (except Kendall got cut off quickly as she thought it tasted better than it played) And when lunch time approached, we split up for eating, Packers and naptime.

Then when the Packer game and naptime was over, it was neighborhood playtime! We put the sandbox toys away last week, thought we were done with that for the season. Guess not. Rowan tantalized Chris with some ring around the rosie. He loved it. Balls and lawn mowers seem to be a staple for the neighborhood littles as well. They make a daily appearance it seems. Nobody was really about a group photo, so this is what you get.

Pumpkin day...

Today we headed to Hortonville to Cuff Farms to get pumpkins, gourds and corn, take a hay ride, play in some corn, and eat some popcorn. The kids had lots of fun. We went on the hay ride first to pick out pumpkins. This year we decided to pick out the biggest ones we could find. You pay a flat rate for 1 pumpkin, 2 mini pumpkins, 2 gourds and 2 corn, per person. So why not go big? Rowan got to check out the back of the patch thanks to her pea sized bladder. The girl always has to pee at the most inconvenience times, therefore she has learned how to pop a squat pretty well. Ugh. It drives me crazy. Anyway, after we put our goods in the car, we played on the hay bails, and in the corn, had some popcorn, and then were on our way home for lunch and nap.

After nap we started with painting a few small pumpkins. Rowan got her small pumpkin from her field trip to the Little Farmer last week with preschool. And Eddie's little pumpkin jumped into our loot. We paid for him not realizing we didn't have to, so we thought we deserved an extra pumpkin for him to be able to carry.

Then after dinner we moved onto carving. We went with standard funny faced pumpkins this year. Much less time consuming than the intricate designs that come with the carving tools. Eddie wasn't too into the gooey pumpkin insides. Rowan was for a bit, but then they moved onto playdough while Ed and I carved. Ed did his and Rowan's, I did Eddie's and mine. 

5 guys

Rowan loves going out to eat. And asks almost all the time if we are going out for lunch or dinner. Today, we left the pumpkin patch after a couple hours and were late for lunch, so we stopped at 5 guys for some burgers (or hot dogs in the kids case) These kids have pop problems, and fries too. But they are so cute. Rowan as working on her scary face in the bottom right! Crazy like her dad!

graduate

kipper to eel

 

I don't take pictures at swimming much anymore because let's be honest, they all look the same. But I took a few with my phone this week. Rowan put her class to shame this session. She has been in this level for a few sessions in a row now, and was in a class with all kids that this was probably their first go around, and it showed. Rowan really did great every week and finally passed everything and will move on. The only downfall is now it will be a different class time. But we will adjust.

it's officially official

The 'real' sign is now in our yard!

The story of our life hasn't really been public knowledge until the last week or so. So, here is a blurb to catch everyone up...

Ed got a new job offer at Pentair in Brookfield in mid-September. His last day at OshKosh was September 27th. He started at Pentair on October 1st. We met with a First Weber realtor on Thursday October 4th. He came back on Saturday the 6th to take pictures and for us to sign contracts. We had an MLS # and were officially posted online on Tuesday October 9th, we well as the temporary sign posted in our yard. We had an Open House on Sunday the 14th. And today the permanent sign was placed.

The whole interviewing process with Ed and Pentair started probably back in August. And between the 1st and 2nd interview and then the offer and negotiations, he accepted in mid-September. OshKosh Corporation came back with an offer to get him to stay, but the future there just isn't secure enough for us to stay. And we don't want to miss this opportunity to move back by our family and friends. We have been having Sue send us homes in the Lake Country area ever since Ed started interviewing that are for sale just to sort of see what is out there. And we stumbled upon a few good offers to build with Bielinski in Oconomowoc. We like the Oconomowoc area, and you can get more for your money out that way, so we went down on October 1st and met with the sales lady and looked at the model and got some pricing and what not. We spent the night with Ed and Sue so that Ed wouldn't have to drive back and forth one day/night that week. We then decided to go ahead and write an offer to build with a home sale contingency. So we picked a lot and a model we liked, and went back the following week to sign the offer and get things rolling. So now, we sit and wait for our house to sell so that we can move forward with building. Nothing will move forward with building until we sell our house.

That being said, at this point, there aren't any perfect jobs open for me to apply for in the area yet, so I am just sitting content with my job here until something either opens up, or we sell our house. Ed has been commuting and tolerating it at this point. Last week, the kids and I went down and stayed at Ed and Sue's with him another night to alleviate another trip back and forth. The first time we did it, the kids slept perfect. This last time, Eddie and I slept like poop. Therefore, I am not in a huge hurry to do it again. But we probably will in another week or so.

The other loop hole we are dealing with is the first time home buyer tax credit that we got when we bought this house. It has been said that you have to pay it back if the house isn't your primary residence for less than 36 months. Our 36 months isn't up until February 25th 2013. We are trying to get opinions on whether or not that is true, or whether there are exceptions to the rule, and we aren't quite set with the responses we have gotten. So part of us wants our house to sell fast so that Ed doesn't have to commute, but on the other hand, I don't have a job, and we don't want to pay back the $8000, and we aren't sure what we will do living wise while our new home is being built. So there are a lot of what if's at this point in our life. But we are just rolling with the punches at this point.

Mission Completion!

Well after many nights of working after work, the bathroom is complete. Just in time for the Open House today. It isn't completely operational, only because it is lacking a shower curtain, but everything does work!

Got a few pictures of the house all cleaned up and ready to go. Didn't take any of the living room and kitchen because there was stuff sitting around until we walked out the door. But it doesn't even look like our home with all the toys and stuff hidden. If only we could keep it that way for more than 10 minutes. Ed's work room is even all clean and organized.

For the Open House, we went out for lunch and ice cream. Made a few returns at Menards, and then we could finally come back home. After nap we played play doh and relaxed until the Packer game was on. Rowan's hair was in a nice little french braid for about 5 minutes, and then it turns into a crazy mess! Oh well, she is fine with it.

silly kids

We had a playdate today with Beth and Lauren! The kids played just about everything possible. Except for outside of course. A bit too chilly for that today. But we were upstairs and downstairs, back and forth, play doh, squinkies, puzzles, you name it, they did it. We had some delightful lunch. And before we knew it, they had to go and Eddie was ready for a nap. 

When he awoke, he was hamming it up for the camera, when his sister decided she was tired and fell asleep on the couch about 45 minutes before we had to leave for swim lessons. That led to an interesting departure since it takes her a bit to wake up and regulate her emotions. (that is the nice way of phrasing it)

artwork update

Some of the last few things Rowan has brought home. The strip on top is her attendance for the first several weeks of school. They put a sticker by their name when they arrive every day, and then they get to take it home when it is full.

 

They work on a letter of the alphabet every week at school, so they talked about beans on 'B' week, Thus the bean with beans glued on it, she also brought home a bean she planted at school. Then for 'D' week, last week, they went on a dinosaur hunt around the YMCA to find dinosaur bones, so that is her binoculars she made on the lower left. She pulled the string off on her ride home.  

work work and more work

While I was busy working night shift all weekend, Ed was busy slaving away in the basement all weekend. Thankfully Amanda came up on Saturday to help watch the kids while I slept so that Ed could get as much done as possible. The biggest accomplishment was tiling the bathroom floor. And our special order doors arrived, so we had them delivered on Sunday so that Ed can get them installed this week sometime, hopefully.

 

In addition to all of the working, Saturday morning the realtor came over so we could sign contracts and have pictures taken of the house for the online listing. Sue referred us through First Weber, so the realtor came over on Thursday to do our cost analysis and tell us when he thought we should list our house at. We set up for time to come back Saturday morning to take pictures so that we can get the ball rolling on selling the house before the season is really bad. Also because I work 4 nights in a row, so there really isn't an ideal time when both of us are home. So the house should be listed with an MLS number early in the week.

dwindling days

It's hard to believe that the days of playing outside with our neighbor friends are few and far between as the temperatures continue to drop! So fun to see them all enjoy themselves so much.