Time is in short supply these days. I'm kind of living for the "when they move" moment, because at this time I'm trying to keep myself available for any free moment my brother has before he leaves.

I am excited about moving into their house; in fact, we have our first "party" (i.e. open house, don't mind if we have no furniture though) scheduled for July 3rd!  I've been looking at furniture and decorations for the kids' rooms online (not that I can afford anything, but I want to have a direction at least), and we have paint already.  Sean doesn't want to "rush" moving in (meaning he wants to paint and stuff before we move our furniture.  Duh.), so he's thinking I'm crazy for have a get-together so soon.  I told him that I haven't exactly broadcast the information, so he can relax; it isn't set in stone!  Anyway, point being, I'm looking forward to actually hosting get-togethers rather than always needing an invitation!

In honor of the movie Gnomeo and Juliet which my husband and The Older saw last weekend and thought was great, I thought I'd mention a game we have going on at our house.

I'm not sure how it started, but I believe it was when The Older was sick.  About a year ago, my parents bought a set of 3 garden gnomes from Big Lots.  They came over when we were not here or busy doing something and placed them around the yard in strategic places.  When The Older saw them, he declared they were "magic" and had adopted us as their family.

This has grown into a great adventure for us all!  Since they came to our yard, we move them during the week so he believes they are "magically moving."  We do it at night so he doesn't see, and if my parents are driving by they'll stop and move them so when we look outside (or come home from where ever we are), we see that they've changed positions once again!  My parents will even pick up "friends" and drop them off in the yard as well, so The Older thinks that the gnomes are telling their friends about us!

The Older is at the age now where he's starting to question the reality of what's going on, but in his heart he loves the idea of the magic so much, he's keeping the game going.  In fact, he even started leaving them water to drink, so now we empty out the water so he thinks they drank it during the night.

This is what met him outside the front door the other morning when he was ready to go to school:

As you can see, they've all been loved a lot, especially the one with half his hat missing.  We can't get rid of him though, because it would break The Older's heart.

I'm going downtown for a girls night. I'm pretty excited; we're going to see a show, drink wine, and eat cheese. I'm looking forward to it, especially since the last night I was out (other than with my family), was for the I Can Do It! conference in November.

Life is funny. I am so cut off from my "friends," but then I realize that it's a two-way street. I'm beginning to find myself not even missing what apparently wasn't even there to begin with, meaning that the friendships I have worked so hard to hold on too probably weren't even worth trying to salvage anyway. I have been trying to keep relationships going where I am pretty sure the other person isn't even interested in trying to remain friends, so I am now just letting it go. I'm getting busy at Ian's school, re-connecting with the good friends that I do have, and am accepting of the fact that people were in my life for whatever reason, and now it is time to let everyone move on...

Reilly's (and Ian's) birthday-at-Animal-Kingdom day was fantastic!

We got there right at opening (okay, maybe 30 minutes later), and we manged to walk by the Bug Movie at the Tree of Life with 5 minutes until the showing. I wasn't sure about taking Roo in, but the cast member told me a lot of preschoolers like it. Um, not mine! She wore the 3D glasses, and I think it was a bit much for her. She did fine in the beginning, but then climbed into my lap and hid for the majority of it.

We hit Everest after that to get a Fast Pass, but their Fast Pass was broken. The line was only 10 minutes long, so I told the boys to go ahead and go ( I had Sean go on that with Ian once I heard it spun around backwards!). They loved it; even Sean was impressed!

We then went over to Africa to pick up a Fast Pass for the Preserve ride, and then we walked through an animal area and rode the train (which, I admit, sucked). We got back from that, had a snack, and then rode the preserve ride. It was AMAZING! We saw a ton of animals up close, and even had a giraffe come right up to the bus. The topper though was the rhino and her baby who came out of the grass and was close enough for me to touch! It was so close, seriously, that I was actually scared it was going to hit us.

Lunch at the buffet was next, and we surprised the kids with cupcakes with a candle for each of them. I was going to order a cake, but I read that the restaurants will give kids a free birthday cupcake, so we went with that instead, LOL! They were thrilled, and we even got tickets for reserved seating for the Nemo show, so after that we headed over to Dino land.

I have never been so terrified. They have a ride there called Dinosaur that was so scary I almost cried. Ian "only cried a little," and he wanted to go again. I suffered through it again, but I have to tell you that it was a ride that I would NOT go on again if I have anything to say about it. It was dark and loud, and I couldn't keep my eye on my kid. That is not okay for me...

Ian decided against the show and said he would rather dig and play at the Boneyard. So, that's how we ended our day.

It was great. It was relaxing yet exciting too, and we had such a great time as a family... I can't believe how wonderful life has been treating me!!!

I forgot Ian at school today. Now that I'm home I have no excuse, other than I had no idea it was another half day, and I was working.

Life has found itself molded into a pretty great routine for now, and I am really enjoying being home with the kids. Ian tells me daily how much he "loves hanging out" with me and Roo, and he has had NO behavior issues in school at all. I love being able to play with both my kids and not be tired and frustrated all the time! I can't believe life is really and truly working out; it's even more impressive than I thought it was going to be!  I wish I was more productive at work, but I'm going to get there eventually. I know I will.

The kids' birthdays are coming up too, and I'm excited for the day. It's always proven to be amazing in past years and I'm hoping I can match 2007! Ian wants a fish theme (again), so I'm going to use what was left over (yes, this is why I am a packrat) and get a few more things like a fish pinata. I'm going to handmake some stuff too, so I'm really hoping I won't kill anyone.

There's going to be 1 less person in attendance this year. It's been really, really tense around here the last few days, and I'm hoping that this person really won't show up. I'm not one for family drama, and if this person does anything to ruin the kids' day, I will have to go Jenn-Psycho on their ass.  I've calmed down considerably the past few months, but there are still some things in my life where I will always have a short fuse