I don't want to go to bed yet.

When I get to thinking I don't go to sleep very well so I figured instead of laying in bed I might as well catch up on a few things. No pictures cuz I'm not that ambitious on filling you in.

Like I said the house is coming along. We so thought we would be outta where were at like 3 weeks ago but with me not being able to do the bathroom (cabinet, counter, moving the plumbing, laying the floor, putting in the toilet) all by myself I have been left to painting, cleaning, watering the sod, and killing ants. Me and Sean have had a good time doing this bathroom together, it is our 5th bathroom remodel. We work well side by side and I awe at what he knows and he sometimes awes at me when I figure something out that he couldn't. Happened twice on the plumbing (had to brag a little). We haven't done anything with the kitchen yet, saving that for another day, and we didn't get our fence up but I am excited. Everyone wonders why we do this cuz we move so much but we enjoy it, I don't mind chaos, the kids still have the same friends etc., and the payoff is great! Although, I won't mind when we are rich enough to own a home and flip a home at the same time.

We are having a heck of a time with our cars!! As previously posted-our Yukon (Sean's car) died. The transmission in it went and with the house stuff we just haven't had the money for it so my Mom graciously lent us her spare car. Well the other day our Lincoln Navigator (my car) started leaking coolant. Argg...so now that's outta commission until either Sean can fix it or we can pay someone to fix it. With our Ford truck only getting 4 mpg we have resorted to switching on and off with my mom's car. C'mon Lottery I will be gracious I promise!

We went to Seattle this week. It was a fun little trip. Sean went and did a Home Inspection over there, on his day off, so we stayed with his brother and family and had a pretty good time (although next time I'm leaving the kids on the floor and sleeping on the other couch). Our kids had a fun time playing with their cousins. And we had a fun time babysitting! Sean had a good time with Luke and I cuddled with Savannah!! Not that we ignored the other 5 but lets face it I can't get enough of little ones! Funny story-Owen, their oldest, went with us to the home inspection and apparently the size of the master closet is perfect for hiding 2 dead bodies. Sounds like something Jase would say since I let her watch CSI with me if it's not too gory.

I am still living my life everyday. This house has been occupying most of my thoughts during the day but unfortunately not at night. I am having a pretty rough time as is Jayda. Although her fits have gone down tremendously in the last week. She has never had fits, Never, not even when she was 2. But we have been talking a lot more and worries are coming out that she had not expressed before. We don't have any answers for her but just talking seems to be helping.

Jase is starting 1st grade next week. AHHHHH! My big first grader! And Jayda is starting preschool the week after. I am not looking forward to it. Almost everyone is excited when their kids go to school but not me. Never have been. I miss my kids. I feel like I'm missing out on the funny quotes, the mommy/me time, the smiles, laughs, dancing, crafts, even the ups and downs. It just seems like that stuff is spread awful thin in the time between after school and bed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not superwoman, I wouldn't ever home school my kids cuz I don't miss them that much! :) But I am gonna be a bit lonely and the house can only get so clean. Actually, I'll probably catch up on some sleep I've been missing for the last 6 years! :)

So that's about it. There is more but I don't want anybody moving on to the next blog before finishing mine. I still haven't posted my last post on Montana, and I know all of you have been anxiously waiting, ha, but I will get there. So many pictures to go through. And now since it's 2:15 maybe I can go to sleep. Thanks for listening. :)

Busy, Busy

I can't believe it's been six days since I posted. Sorry to all you who check everyday (Grandma) and are so sourly disappointed. :) Anyway, we have been soooo busy trying to get our house move in ready. I had told Sean about a week ago that I wanted to be in our new house before school started so that means this weekend is it. We have been going full bore and it's paying off. We are so very close to the bathroom being done and have a toilet as of tonight!!! Wahoo! While working there these last 5 days we have been making due and you don't want to know. Maybe you do but I'm not gonna tell ya. Ha! I am going to spend all day tomorrow cleaning and getting ready and hopefully Saturday we will be in our new place! So long buggies, so long upstairs renters, so long flooding bathroom, so long, so long. By the way, THANKS MOM! :)

Montana-the wildlife

This post is mostly for my blog book along with one of the next ones.

One of the neat parts of Montana is seeing the animals. You can really spot a lot if you keep an eye out. Nothing like seeing animals walking in the yard in the morning. Most of these were taken in my Aunt and Uncles house.Something I don't think of when you say Montana is frogs or little lizards but they are there and so cute.I caught one jumping. Its blurry but I love its little skinny legs.They have wolf spiders. Yuck. They can get pretty big and they stand on their hind legs and jump. Talk about creepy. This one was a "little one" as my Aunt Audrey put it, about as big as a biscuit cutter.Wild Turkeys.

They have these crazy orange grasshoppers.This was my little bunny friend. They have quite a few little bunny rabbits running around but this one would always hang out in the same area and watch me while I talked on the phone. My cell phone would only get reception in certain areas of the yard so we hung out a lot.This was in a neighbors yard. A mommy and her twins. We saw them almost everytime we went out.Antelope while we were on the road.

Elk in a field. We were going 70 when I took this picture but you get the idea.We went to Prairie Dog town. This one was a little curious and was coming up to the car. The kids thought it was so funny when they got freaked out and chirped and wagged their tails at us.This is the same one who came up to the car.

Just had to take this pic, notice they are not on the sidewalk. :) We didn't see any rattlesnakes or bear or moose. We saw all three last trip but not this one. Maybe next time.

Montana-the fun stuff-part 1

One of the things we like to do when we go to Montana is trail riding. My kids have been to young up until this year and they have been talking about it non stop. I am sooooo glad my Uncle Bob got us in because my kids would have never let me live it down! I am eternally grateful! :) As you can tell they had to pack all the horse riding stuff they owned. Jase even took 2 pairs of boots--just in case.
Saddlin' up on George, doesn't she look like a natural.

We took turns walking them around because Jayda is still to young to go on the trails. They take you up around the hills through the trees and the water. Next time!
Jayda looked a little uneasy so I offered her my hand and she only held it a little while and then it was "I can do it Mom."

If you weren't careful good ole George (he was the same age as me) would get the best of ya and go for the green stuff. It was to funny watching Mom pushing and pulling a horse back on track!And they had one lonely goat, Hudini, who would just sit like this and wait for you to give him something...anything!He sure loved his horse cake though!And it's tradition-after horse riding we go to a little outside ice cream shop and have something. They have some pretty good huckleberry ice cream. Yum.

The crew minus Jayda.She had to sit at the "tiny" table, little miss independent.I finally convinced Jase to try some fried alligator and it was pretty hilarious. And since Jayda was so far away she didn't know what was going on so I got her to do it by telling her it was chicken.

You can tell by her tongue she didn't even chew it she just held it in her mouth and then spit it out! Ha! Thanks Aunt Aud and Uncle Bobby you sure know how to give 2 little girls a good time!

Montana-the trip

I have been having a terrible time with the computer. I don't know if we have a virus or what but it's been on the fritz that's why it has taken so long for this post.

We went back to Mom's roots! And man does Montana have roots. I love it there. It is relaxing and fun and I love, love, love my Great Aunt Audrey and Uncle Bob!

We are always smiling at the beginning of the trip and the end of the trip. Ha!

(excuse my crazy hair and no make up, that's how I travel!)There was plenty of this...a lot of this...and some of this...
for this.

To see...
and these guys...AND...We really did have a great time. A LOT of driving for how many days we were gone but it was worth it!! I slept really good (and I've never seen Mom sleep that much) and the kids had a blast. I saw the far eastern side (my Grandma's side of the family) for the first time in a looong time. We were so dang close to North Dakota, I think I could have spit across the state line.

We usually stay about in the middle (my Grandpa's side) and

I decided after this trip-it's not that far after all.

We're back!

We are back from Montana and oh what a trip! We spent about 36 hours driving and the kids didn't love it but did pretty good considering. I am so glad we bought the portable DVD player 6 yrs ago when we went to Canada. LIFE SAVER then and now! I took about 500 pictures (seriously) so I am going to break up my posts into quite a few (don't worry I won't post All the pics). I know some of you don't care to see so much about a trip but we did some fun stuff and I did a lot of photo practicing. It took me about an hour to download all the pics and I don't think I'm going to edit them. Too Lazy! I'm not posting tonight because I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids to the last free movie this morning when we had got home and in bed only 8 hours before. Posting galore tomorrow!!

Hannah Montana

That's what Jayda calls it anyway. We are headed to Montana. Wahoo! I look forward to this trip every year (even though some years we don't make it) and this year is no different. I'm excited, the kids are excited, Sean's not so excited. He's not going. He can't hardly stand that we won't see him from Friday to Wednesday. I'm hoping he's gonna miss more than my cooking! Look for some posts on Swimming Lessons (someone borrowed my SD card so I don't have my pics), Montana, and progress on the house when I get back. One more Wahoo for Montana. Wahoo!!!!

Bugs, bugs and more bugs.

Our house is a bug zoo and the girls absolutely love it! I don't mind it so much except for the ear wigs and spiders. I have to say I squish the scary ones. At any other house we have had I just let them be but there are just SO many I have to do it or I wouldn't sleep at night! Here is Jase with her beloved Roll. Yes, they name them. And Jayda with Tiny.

Here is where I found they were keeping them.

And once I realized they were better in here than on my floor I looked up what they need to survive and so here is our little Rollie Pollie Farm. I am proud to say it has been a few days and we have had no deaths. Didn't know I was such a good bug caretaker.

The only problem is my bathroom floor still looks like this. Only until my girls find them that is!

Disclosure: Only a few bugs were harmed during the making of this post.

Wahoo We're moving.......again!

Only this time we're excited!! Our house finally closed. We FINALLY got our keys! Our next flip is in the works! We are excited to stay here for a few years and then make some money! This house is pretty cute and big enough for us for awhile. And we are still in ML.

Here are the before pics. It was built in the 50's and has a lot of charm. Here's the cute little entryway.

With someone's baby footprint I'm thinking about leaving. A mat would cover it up anyway.

Here's the Living room. Love the hardwoods!!

And it has a little phone nook too.
And these amazing curved ceilings!!!

The one bathroom needs a little (ok-a lot) of work.

One of the two bedrooms.

With a goofy half closet. They had to make room for the stairs. We don't know what we are gonna do with that yet. The other one.

The right side of the kitchen.

The left side and dining area in the kitchen.

Then you go downstairs.And you walk into the family room.
And around the corner is another little area they used as a bedroom. The kids were totally stoked about them leaving the toy net.

And then the other half of the basement isn't really finished. We need to redo everything anyway because it has flooded a couple times and there is mold in the walls. One flood was the day after they accepted our offer. Notice the bent sheetrock leaning against the wall it was soggy when they put it there.

This area is where the problem is. You can see faint new paint from about knee down where they tried to cover it up.

And the beautiful back yard! This is first on the list. Grass and a fence, gotta keep the kids and animals in the backyard while we work!

So thats it! We are excited!! When things are done I will post afters and you just wait to be wowed!!!