So I am slightly nervous about our second attempt at story time. Two weeks ago we went to our first story time at the library. I was excited to see if I could handle it all by myself. I thought it should be painless, the kids LOVE books, music, dancing and playing with other children. What could go wrong you ask? Well let me try to paint you a picture.
We talk a beautiful walk to the library. It takes about 20 minutes to get there but it is gorgeous outside! We enter the library and check in for story time all good so far. We gather our books and song sheet. Some other kids are sitting with their mom's around a carpet. I get the kids out of the stroller and Cate promptly runs to the middle of the rug and starts clapping with joy of all the new kids she sees. Meanwhile, Cooper clings to my leg unsure of all this new stuff. I finally wrangle Cate back to my side and show them the books we'll be reading. Cue fighting over the same book (one copy per family, yeah right!). Cooper then decides he's comfortable enough now to start exploring. I take off chasing him down as he starts to tip over the recycling containers in the hallway; Cate takes off in the opposite direction picking up others song sheets, and books. The librarian comes in to start. All the other children are now sitting nicely in their mother's lap doing the hand motions with the opening songs, while I am struggling to coordinate my two toddlers into some sort of order. After the screeching starts I decided that it wasn't worth ruining every one's story time, so I stopped trying to get them to sit down.
For the next 30 minutes the kids were off to the side in the large room toddling around not paying a bit of attention (except when the shakers came out). The shakers were a big hit and then I had to stop Cate from gathering them up from all of her friends. Eventually story time ended and they brought out large bins of toys for all the kids to play with. Well, Cate and Cooper promptly sat down and played nice and quietly with the toys. They shared with others and made some new friends. Made me kind of proud actually, maybe I am doing some things right?
Well then came pick up time and Cate nominated herself head of the cleaning crew. She went around to all the children grabbing the toys and put them back in the bins. I will say I hope her desire to always pick up stays with her throughout the teenage years. One boy was brave enough to take out a toy after Cate had put it in the bin and you should have seen the death glare she gave him. She promptly snatched it back and put it away again.
All in all not too painful, but several moms did stop to tell me that I did a good job and that they are glad they only have one at story time. I never regret that I have two, but they do provide some unique challenges.
So last week, we ended up not going to story time because it was cold and rainy (not good for walking) and the kids had picked up a small cold from "sharing toys" I'm sure. So a few days later, I am out shopping with them in another city and Cate starts screeching (as I have obviously gone over my allotted shopping time) and a lady stops me.
"Excuse me, "
"Yes?"
"Were you at story time last week?"
insert confused look on my face
"Story time in Apple Valley?"
"oh, yes we were."
"I thought so, I remember her!"
"Oh, yes sorry I know she's being loud. I'm on my way to the checkout."
"No she's fine. I just remembered her because she so spunky and has the bluest eyes."
Well okay then!
Oh lord, help me! We are attempting story time again tomorrow. I hope the more we go the better it will be but we'll see.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
home is where the heart is
Home is where the heart is how the saying goes. I would do well to remember that! I have been stressing for the last year about where we are going to live. I am stressed that we are not in a permanent home for our rambunctious toddlers. I hate carrying groceries and babies through the apartment. I hate the arguments about what kind of house we should get and where it should be located. We can't even get a house because we still own this stupid property in TEXAS!!! As I sit here tonight thinking of all the changes we have made in the last year, I am reminded of what is truly important.
So about a year ago, we were living in Texas with a set of 4 month old twins. We never imagined we would be living in Texas but a good job opportunity took us to Frisco, TX. Man what a BIG change for our family! I had never lived more than 5 hours from family. We could take a quick trip to visit on a weekend. After the move we were facing a minimum of a 12 hour drive to see family on my side and 15 hours to see family on Brandon's side. We lived in Frisco for six years and had begun to think of it as home: for now, and we made due with infrequent visits with family and old friends.
When we left Minnesota, Brandon promised that one day we could move back if we wanted. I never thought we actually would. I thought he was just telling me this to get me to stop crying about leaving. No, I am not kidding, I think I cried for the first 7 hours of the trip and I was driving!!! We never intended for Texas to be our final destination but we weren't sure we would ever be back in Minnesota, either. We knew that we wanted our kids to have the kind of life that we did with close relationships with our grandparents and extended family and living in Texas wasn't going to provide that. We had decided, I would stay at home with the kids. So, for the first time in my adult life, I didn't have a paying job that prevented us from making a change. Brandon was working from home so his office could be wherever we wanted as long as he had access to an airport. We decided this was the time to make a move. We were going to move to Omaha Nebraska to be closer to my parents and sister as soon as we sold our house. During this process our plans changed a bit as Brandon decided on a new job that brought us back to Minneapolis a little sooner than we planned and my newly engaged sister moved cross country to Baltimore.
Well that one decision has been the best and one of the worst that we have made. In terms of things that really matter it has been the best decision we could make for our family. We now are closer to friends and family (with the exception of my sister moving to Baltimore at the same time we moved from Texas to Minnesota. Made me sad, but that is another post!) I am loving being at home with my twins and being back "home". In other ways leaving our "temporary" home in Frisco brought some challenges as well. After six years, we had made a life for ourselves there, had built a beautiful home that we had brought our babies home to and we had to leave all that behind. We have had so many trials with selling our home in Frisco. Our first realtor was a nightmare to work with and we wasted so much time waiting for her to sell our place with the only suggestion to keep lowering the price, even though others were selling above our price. Needless to say, the contract expired without a sale. Our original plan was to move when the house sold and we were on our own time line. Well with Brandon's new job suddenly we were moving to Minnesota in January! Minnesota, January??? We must be crazy! We packed up our HUGE house in Texas and moved to a tiny tiny townhouse apartment with the majority of our stuff in a storage unit until our home sold. We never thought we would be here longer than 6 months. We could do anything for 6 months right? But that time frame came and went. We had two accepted offers late this summer and we were so excited to be done dealing with a house in another state. Unfortunately, real estate laws in TX allow the buyer to back out for any reason during the option period. So basically both people were from out of state and liked out house enough to reserve it but then "just didn't love it" REALLY???? Ugh so here we are a year later and we have finally made it though the option period with our 3rd buyer. We still have to wait to make sure that they secure financing, but I am knocking on wood, as I type that I feel we can finally move forward with establishing our new "forever" home.
I'm looking forward to creating our new home (if Brandon and I can agree on a new place). I am thinking about the kids and I decorating for the holidays, playing in the backyard, hosting friends and family, and creating lasting memories. I am very much a person that can get bogged down in the details and not look at the big picture. There are always trials and tribulations as we make changes in our life, but what we must always remember is that home, is home where ever you are as long as you have the people you love.
So about a year ago, we were living in Texas with a set of 4 month old twins. We never imagined we would be living in Texas but a good job opportunity took us to Frisco, TX. Man what a BIG change for our family! I had never lived more than 5 hours from family. We could take a quick trip to visit on a weekend. After the move we were facing a minimum of a 12 hour drive to see family on my side and 15 hours to see family on Brandon's side. We lived in Frisco for six years and had begun to think of it as home: for now, and we made due with infrequent visits with family and old friends.
When we left Minnesota, Brandon promised that one day we could move back if we wanted. I never thought we actually would. I thought he was just telling me this to get me to stop crying about leaving. No, I am not kidding, I think I cried for the first 7 hours of the trip and I was driving!!! We never intended for Texas to be our final destination but we weren't sure we would ever be back in Minnesota, either. We knew that we wanted our kids to have the kind of life that we did with close relationships with our grandparents and extended family and living in Texas wasn't going to provide that. We had decided, I would stay at home with the kids. So, for the first time in my adult life, I didn't have a paying job that prevented us from making a change. Brandon was working from home so his office could be wherever we wanted as long as he had access to an airport. We decided this was the time to make a move. We were going to move to Omaha Nebraska to be closer to my parents and sister as soon as we sold our house. During this process our plans changed a bit as Brandon decided on a new job that brought us back to Minneapolis a little sooner than we planned and my newly engaged sister moved cross country to Baltimore.
Well that one decision has been the best and one of the worst that we have made. In terms of things that really matter it has been the best decision we could make for our family. We now are closer to friends and family (with the exception of my sister moving to Baltimore at the same time we moved from Texas to Minnesota. Made me sad, but that is another post!) I am loving being at home with my twins and being back "home". In other ways leaving our "temporary" home in Frisco brought some challenges as well. After six years, we had made a life for ourselves there, had built a beautiful home that we had brought our babies home to and we had to leave all that behind. We have had so many trials with selling our home in Frisco. Our first realtor was a nightmare to work with and we wasted so much time waiting for her to sell our place with the only suggestion to keep lowering the price, even though others were selling above our price. Needless to say, the contract expired without a sale. Our original plan was to move when the house sold and we were on our own time line. Well with Brandon's new job suddenly we were moving to Minnesota in January! Minnesota, January??? We must be crazy! We packed up our HUGE house in Texas and moved to a tiny tiny townhouse apartment with the majority of our stuff in a storage unit until our home sold. We never thought we would be here longer than 6 months. We could do anything for 6 months right? But that time frame came and went. We had two accepted offers late this summer and we were so excited to be done dealing with a house in another state. Unfortunately, real estate laws in TX allow the buyer to back out for any reason during the option period. So basically both people were from out of state and liked out house enough to reserve it but then "just didn't love it" REALLY???? Ugh so here we are a year later and we have finally made it though the option period with our 3rd buyer. We still have to wait to make sure that they secure financing, but I am knocking on wood, as I type that I feel we can finally move forward with establishing our new "forever" home.
I'm looking forward to creating our new home (if Brandon and I can agree on a new place). I am thinking about the kids and I decorating for the holidays, playing in the backyard, hosting friends and family, and creating lasting memories. I am very much a person that can get bogged down in the details and not look at the big picture. There are always trials and tribulations as we make changes in our life, but what we must always remember is that home, is home where ever you are as long as you have the people you love.
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