One Funny Girl!

Ryan cracks me up!!! On the way home from school the other day Ryan was in her "repeating words" phase that she gets into every now and then. When she gets like this I try to mess with her by getting her to repeat some pretty silly things. So here is how the conversation went:
Me: Ryan, did you go swimming with the hippos?
Ryan: Yup, swimming with hippos!
Me: Ryan, did you go hiking on the moon?
Ryan: Yup, hiking on the moon!
Me: Ryan, did the monkey take over the school today?
Ryan: I love those crazy monkeys!

Ummmmm ok....what crazy monkeys?! Weirdo! :)
She really is a very funny girl, whether she means to or not!
BTW-I posted this picture, because it shows Ryan being silly. She kept saying, "Cheese baby, cheese baby!"

We Now have a River Rat

I should apologize for these posts being chronologically out of order. My mind got so overwhelmed with the move that I forgot about everything else. It wasnt until I went back and looked at the blog that I realized that I hadn't told the story of our family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN. There are a few highlights from the trip I want to be sure and mention, so I will glaze over the major details including how gorgeous the house was, how perfectly located it was, how insanely steep the driveway was and how spacious the rooms were. Ok, with that out of the way, Aunt Judy started the vacation out on the right note by giving Ryan and Leah TONS of presents (mainly Toy Story stuff-the best way to Ryans heart. But the main highlight from the trip was the river-the piece de resistance! We wanted to slowly introduce Ryan to it because we were worried about her still being in her "fear phase", so we took her down fully dressed..but within minutes she was getting in the boat with grandma. I really should have known. So only an hour into the vacation and a river rat was born! She really liked the paddle (more on why that was a problem later) and adored skipping stones (basically tossing rocks in front of her-no matter how big). Every minute we had free we would head down to the river and hang out in the boat paddling in circles, or standing on our island of rocks, watching Ryan slowly dissolving the island stone by stone.
Now, here is where her fierce independence nearly caused a tragedy-she got into the boat with grandma but wanted to paddle herself. This really wasnt a problem until the current started to take them down the river into the rapids and Ryan wouldnt give up the paddle to help them stop (cant be sure that she didnt want to go down the rapids, she is brave like that). But to avoid the treacherous rock ride down the river grandma did what she had to-dump herself and Ryan into the river and abandon the boat down river. Of coarse the water was only a foot deep, but Ryan was crying and seemed worried about grandma...pretty sweet kid! Poor grandma looked like a prune, all purple and bruised. I did my heroic gesture by jumping into the river fully dressed to save the day!!!
We decided to take Ryan to the Aquarium in town and try to spend a little alone time with her without Leah. At first she wasnt in the mood, but she opened up a bit and started to really enjoy the fishies-until the Shark room-that scared the beejeezus out of her. But in her defense, they were really big and swimming right over our heads, I was a little freaked. I think Jamey and I enjoyed the aquarium more then Ryan did, and while she didnt have as much fun as we had hoped, I was glad we went. Also, on the way back to the car we stopped to have her picture taken with the official GENERAL LEE-Jamey was in heaven! We now have a picture of her with the general Lee just like the one we have of Jamey when he was a boy.
Now, when Ryan wasn't in the water, or yelling at the sharks, she spent the majority of her time upstairs in the 3rd floor tunnels that was created for the kids-an amazing, colorful, wall to wall, floor to ceiling paddled bunks and tunnels that Bri and Ryan would play in for hours! Thank you Bri, I soemtimes forgot Ryan was even around! :)A needed break!
You may ask what Leah was doing this whole time-well, she spent the week sick, and mainly stayed inside with grandma. She did go into the river and spent a little time int he hot tub-the girl already knows how to chillax.
I realized while on this trip that while we had some fun and Ryan had the time of life, the days of relaxing vacations are over. I think I had to work harder while on vacation than I did while at home. Thankfully we will only do this once a year!

A VERY VERY VERY Pregnant Aunt Rachael!

With my best friend being 8 months pregnant with twins and staying only an hour and half away, I knew I was going to get away for a day to go and see her. I HAD to get away and go see her. I took Ryan with me, knowing it would be a very long time before either one of us would be able to leave our babies to come visit one another, plus I didn't feel right about leaving both babies with my poor mom all day. We got there a bit earlier than expected and had to wait for Rachael to get home and I am so glad we were there early to see what happened next. Rachael pulls up in her silver VW Bug and I got to witness what can best be described as a clown car. A clown car in the sense that it is pure magic that they fit so much in a such a small space! I mean that in the best way possible. It was hysterical to see my very pregnant friend climb out of her bug when, as you can see above, her twin belly was as big as the car! God, I love this girl! The visit was unfortunately short, but tremendously sweet. And Rach was able to take a few shots of Ryan, but Ryan being, well, Ryan, refused to pose, or smile, or even look in the direction of the camera. We were lucky to get any pictures at all. Rach and I agreed that modeling is NOT in her future, but only because she seems to hate the camera so....pity.
So 3 hours on the road, for only an hour visit-WORTH EVERY MINUTE!

Bruises, Boxes, Sleep Deprivation...and WHERE ARE MY TOWELS?!

Muscle memory is when your body is able to perform certain tasks without consciously thinking about them due to previous repetition. Like driving to work and forgot how you got there, making coffee very early in the morning when you aren't even awake yet, walking through your house without bumping into anything are just a few examples. When you move, specifically into a place that is much smaller, you muscle memory takes you in one direction, while your body slams into a chair. You reach for the coffee with your left only the coffee is now on the right of the machine and instead of grabbing a coffee cup, you grab a dinner plate. If I had a dime for when someone (including myself) asks, "Where is ________?" I would be able to afford a bigger house! The scatteredness (is that a word I made up?) of our lives right now has put everyone on edge. NEVER underestimate the power of routine and organization and the peace and calmness it brings into your life. Just when I feel I accomplished a vague sense of organization, I go to take a shower and only have 1 towel...what the hell happened to all our towels? It is then I realize that they probably got used to wrap up stuff for the move and are still in boxes in the garage that I refuse to go into in an attempt to avoid a breakdown (maybe when I am stronger). I am avoiding the garage and the search for towels because I know exactly what is going to happen:
go into the garage and GASP, find a box I think MAY have a towel or two (none are labeled just because we wanted this move to be extra challenging) only to open said box that has a few things I could use upstairs.
Bring these items upstairs only to realize there is no room for them, so I have to rearrange a closet to make them fit
After pulling some clothes out to rearrange, I realize that those clothes should probably need to be washed.
Start the wash only to see I'm missing my Downy Ball for the fabric softener, which is-you guessed it- probably in a box in the garage-back down we go...only to start this all over again.NO THANKS!
So for now I am drying off my bruised body (from running into walls & furniture) with the 1 wet towel we have that Jamey just used, and hanging back up presumable dirty clothes back in the closet (they are Jamey's anyway).
Right now, in this moment, I am thinking of adding some rest into my new routine (certainly was NOT a part of my old one) in hopes of getting rid of this nasty cold that certainly was caused by stress. At least the bed is closer to the floor (room is tooo small for our bed frame), makes collapsing into it that much easier!
At least it is only 6 months-then maybe I can figure out where all the towels went!

Newsome Bugs On The Move...get used to it girls!

If you thought you would see photos of boxes, UHauls, an old house in shambles and a new set up apartment you would be wrong. First of all, no one needs to see that, and secondly I do NOT want any photographic evidence of the sheer madness that was this move. It's bad enough that the mental image of our old place looking like a tornado hit it is seared into my brain, the sounds of the kids screaming echoing in my ears, and the nervous breakdown from the "hurdles" we had to jump over to even get here (I still wake up in a cold sweat, twitching), is it really necessary to document it all in photographs? I refuse to get into the details of the horrors, only to say that it could have been made much worse. For those who dont know why this happened, here was the situation-Jamey got a new job, a great job, his first Head Coaching job at Auburn University Montgomery. He got the job on a Thursday, mom, the girls and I drove down to find a place on Friday and by the following Friday we were moving in. So this meant we had literally 4 days to pack up my house and finalize everything we needed to in Statesboro. With the girls in daycare all week (THANK GOD!) Jamey spent the majority of the week working on administrative errands and I boxed up the house. I had a plan, a system, go through room by room and label everything. This system broke down the first day and by Friday we were just tossing random things into the Uhaul like oulaws running from the law and sped off in a blaze of glory. The bright spot of the move was the 5 hour drive that Jameys parents allowed my to have while Jameys dad drove the truck (with Moe in tow) and Jamey and his mom drove the van with the girls. I was able to drive their car, on my own, by myself, the 5 hour (I stretched to 6) to Montgomery. 6 hours of peace. History proves I like to unpack all boxes within days and have the house set up, this isnt going to be the case this time around-with the girls around, there is simply not a moment to do it. We signed a 6 month lease with this apartment and it is going to take me that long to unpack..only to do this all over again! Long story long-I thought I hated moving before, but now with the girls, it was a whole new level of torture, a nightmare I hope to blackout quickly.