'M' is for.....Mitten?

My gosh - it has been such a long long time since I've posted in here! So much has changed since the end of January!

The Land of Cheese is no longer in the picture for the H family. Instead, we're moving to Michigan! In 2 weeks!! This dramatic turn of events has occurred in the past month or so and we've been going non-stop since!

At the end of January Keith had to go to Chicago for a meeting for work. It was at this meeting that his bosses approached him about returning to the Nursery in MI. We had been pretty set on moving to WI at this point so we had a lot of thinking to do. Turns out that the WI position was probably going to end in the next few years and Keith didn't want to take the risk of losing his job.

Keith got his official offer letter on February 23, we put our home up for sale on February 25, and sold it on February 27! WHEW! What's sad is that our neighbors immediately to our right have their house up for sale (and have since the middle of January) and they haven't even gotten one offer on it. We're very fortunate that someone fell in love with our house (even my lime green kitchen!) and we're SO happy that we've made such a great return on our home. Turns out all of that sweat equity really IS worth it, even though we've cursed putting in new floors and moldings and painting and installing new light fixtures and...and....and....! Plus, we've got an awesome back yard and we're in one of the best school districts so we knew we'd have a lot of interest in our house.

The job I was doing for "only" 10 days turned out to be an entire month of work! And when I quit last Friday the job was actually scheduled to go until May 15! I was entering tax information for NY State and while it was extremely boring and tedious work I found it somewhat interesting. Plus, I became friendly with a few people so it was nice to be able to go to work everyday and see them. Turns out that adult interaction is kind of nice afterall! :)

Keith found out last week that he needed to be in MI and beginning his job on March 7th, which is tomorrow. So all week long we've been packing stuff for him to take out to MI today. When we got it all ready to go to put into his car, he went to load the car and............................his car was dead. We have a new(er) car (2003) and this never should have happened! After a run-around with the dealership he ended up taking it to Sears for a new battery. Thank goodness it was something that "easy" and he was out of there within an hour. His battery has a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty so you can bet that I'll be on the phone tomorrow with the dealership! For those of you who remember my car issues last year I was very successful in my complaining to Honda.

Like I said, Keith left today and drove 10 hours straight to MI. He will stay with Dad S until Friday and then he'll fly back here Friday night. He'll be home all day Saturday and then he flies back to MI on Sunday. He'll work until Thursday and then he'll fly back to NY. Our movers are coming on Friday, March 18 and we're OUT of here! :) While I am very excited to be back in MI I am extremely anxious and nervous and SO stressed to get everything done in the next 9 days. If I didn't have such a rambunctious toddler to look after this would be much easier! But really, can I complain when I am reading him a book rather than packing?? Heck NO! Reading to him is much more fun and much more relaxing and less-stressful! ;) There are times when I look around our home and wonder how we're going to get it all packed but it'll happen. I am a little bit sad to leave NY, but only because we bought our very first home as a married couple here, and we started our family here. I've never really warmed up to NY but it was growing on me and we did like being nearer to Keith's family. I know they are sad we are leaving and especially so soon. I've always said that we need to move to OH so that we'd be smack dab in the middle of everyone! We'll be staying with Dad S for awhile until we get on our feet and get re-adjusted to the Midwest. I guess I need to start learning how to say 'pop' instead of 'soda' again! ;) All I know is that once we get a house in MI, we are never moving again. Ever! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!

And in Aaron news, our little guy has just been such an amazing little person lately. He's charming and sweet and smart and sneaky and quite mischievous. He's growing so much and we call him our little bamboo because we swear he grows right before our eyes. I've been taking him to a Mommy & Me class and after the first 2 weeks he absolutely loved it. We sing songs and play with a bunch of instruments and do funny dances. He's quite the clown and usually has everyone laughing. It's been neat to see other children his age and see how different they all are. Aaron is quite independent (as in he has no problems being across the room from me) and as long as I'm there when he's looking for me he's happy. His vocabulary is coming along well and his motor skills are great. He's quite a little monkey and loves to climb on stuff (especially stuff he shouldn't!) and loves to get into trouble. When he's doing something naughty we'll say, "AARON!" very sternly and he'll tilt his head to the side, give us a big grin and then say, "Hi Mommy/Daddy!" Usually he follows that up by a big hug and/or kiss and it is SO hard to not laugh or smile. He loves his (stuffed) dogs still and carries them with him everywhere. He also loves this coyote his Grand Aunt Melinda ;) got for him. We call him Frank (after a coyote in a book she also got him) and whenever I ask, "Aaron, where's Frank?" He'll reply, "Owoooooooooo!" Amazingly enough, his owl sound also sounds exactly the same ;)

Like most children his age he also loves Sesame Street. It's really the only show we allow him to watch in it's entirety and he of course favors Elmo the best. He calls him "MOMO!" when he sees him. I really like watching it with him because I find it amusing too! Aaron is quite the snuggler when it comes to reading and watching TV together. Whenever we read to him (which is all the time and I think that's awesome!) he'll hand us a book, turn around, and scoot his little butt in our laps. It's pretty cute. We've found that longer books keep his attention now so we'll be getting him some new reading materials once we get situated in MI.

We've also started potty training him. I bought him a seat for our big toilet and he likes to go into the bathroom before a bath, sit on the toilet and say, "Diddle, diddle, diddle!" :D It's really quite amusing, but for those of you without children I can imagine you're thinking we're nuts. We're not going to even remotely push him and/or stress the importance of using the potty until we've settled down in MI. But we both agree that early 'readiness' was good.

This will probably be the last time I post here before our big move. I guess I need to change our blog title to "Keith, Lynn and Aaron (and our annoying dogs too!) and yet-another-move-because-we-love-moving!" LOL.