The long story

We drove to Columbus in July to look for houses and drove back to Boston in the dumps, no dream homes to be found.

Before leaving Boston, we found a temporary, furnished, month-to-month, apartment over the phone and then had a few days once we got here to search for that dream home before Greg started his new job. In my mind we could find the perfect house and get Superman registered for Kindergarten, and be all set in no time.

Well, we found another bunch of not what we wanted. Then we found this house:
A custom 1960's house that was being sold by it's original owner's children. It was a bit of a stretch, but we liked it. Then when they weren't willing to fix anything, we walked away. We were sad but we had to start looking again.

Another thing, I thought it would be no big deal to get SM registered for school, but when we showed up to the school, they informed me that they have more students then room for them, and that he would have to be bused to another Elementary school in the district for the year. I was a little worried, but then I thought, "which ever school he ends up in, that's where we will buy our house." The DAY BEFORE school stared we still didn't know where he would be going, and suddenly I got a call from me favorite school secretary EVER telling me that he could go to the school just in our neighborhood! What a relief! That means we could look for our house in the neighborhood we were in already and getting to know. And I've always wanted to walk Superman to Elementary school, and there are LOTS of houses for sale in this area. And that's when we found this house.

Now I know why buying a house is so crazy confusing and takes so dang long. So much rides on finding the right house, in the right place, and price and has what you want and what you want to change.

Friends

Me:"who did you play with at recess?"
Superman:"No one, just me. I have a best friend, and it is me. I miss Allen and Shamus, because we moved here."
Me:"I miss them, too."

AllenShamus

Me to Superman:"please don't put that there."
Superman--says nothing.
Again, me to SM:"please don't put that there, say 'yes, mom' "
Superman--says nothing
Mimi:"look at me 'yes, mom' "
Me to myself about Mimi:"showoff"

Housing Update

While I had a celebratory lunch at Panera Bread today, I wanted to tell the clerk, bus boy, and the lady next to me that WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! But I couldn't because earlier, Superman had wondered off and I (and several other customers) had spent 2 full minutes looking for him and I was still getting over the scare.

We did it and if you'd like the full details I'll post them (and pictures) later on, but for now above is our little house. Below is the the way our house might look one day...

Match

Superman in '05, age 2 1/2, boxes on feet

Mimi in '08, age 2 1/2, boxes on feet, and saying "I a tarm trooper!"[storm trooper]
I can't make this stuff up
Also, I don't think I could make up how messy this living room is, sorry you have to witness it.

The beginings of Sibling Rivalry

Since Superman is now old enough, I agreed to let Greg take him to jujitsu. We've been trying to decide what SM would do well in for a long time. We've done swimming lessons and we will continue that, but I always wanted him to go into gymnastics. Now that Greg is home more, he has the time to take our Superman to something and while making the decision, here was one of the conversations:

Greg:"Do you want to kick and punch or roll and wrestle?"
Superman:"Roll and wrestle"

So Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu it is. He went for his first class last Thursday and LOVED it. As most of you know SM isn't much of a talker, but when he came home that night he couldn't stop talking about it. "Mom, this was my favorite part..." and went on and on, and showed off all his new moves.

Then on Saturday while Greg and SM were practicing, suddenly SM did a move (an arm bar) that he saw but was not taught or practiced during his class! Greg seriously had a tear in his eye, he's so happy--or maybe his arm hurt. It's been 14 years since Greg's won his second state wrestling championship, but wrestling is on his mind all the time.
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Frustrated with all the wrestling on the ground Mimi demanded of Greg: "be tall, be tall!"
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I was really surprised at this display of sibling rivalry--
Greg and I were surrounding Superman and admiring his first loose tooth, then Mimi came up to us and before jumping into SM's place said: "look at me, I a cute baby!"...




Check out SM throw Greg to the ground.

Superman:"How was that, mom?"

Halloween already

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but I do like putting together the costumes. After a few years of hiatus, we are back to Star Wars. Mimi has chosen to be R2D2, not sure how I'm going to put that costume together--but I'm looking forward to the challenge and as one of my friends once said and I'm finding to be true, "there is nothing that felt and hot glue can't do".

Me:"what do you want to be?"
Mimi--translated:"A robot! A robot!, it says 'bee bee boo, bee bee boo'!"

playtime

One of the biggest reasons to move to Ohio was to have Greg around more, and that has been WONDERFUL!!!
Mimi:"I Jesse, you Bullseye,Yee Haa!"

Greg's Shares Too

You may not notice, but most bloggers about families are moms. I do know one dad that's into it though. Greg does contribute sometimes, but mostly it's things he tells me that he thinks are funny and then I bet him to the computer to add them here. Anyway look to the right, you'll see that he adds "shared items" now and them. The one "Pop vs. Soda" is FASCINATING to me!

drums

"Hit it Mom!"

Can't wait to someday introduce these kids to the Monkees.
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Nana (after Superman used the bathroom):"Did you wash your hands?"
SM:"I was in a hurry, so I licked them"
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Mimi:"you da baby, I da MOMMMY!"
me:"I'm the mommy."
Mimi:"No, you the baby, mom!"

Columbus Zoo

After Superman's first day of school, he promptly had a 4 day weekend. We went to the zoo for one whole day. Thanks Nana, and happy birthday!**random quote**
me:"good thinking!"
SM:"I'm a thinker-brainer"

Ever hear of Jack Hanna? Well he's at the zoo here. Most of the time the closest we get to the animals is the statues. This time though, we made friends with some ducks.

More school

Superman:"I reminding you about homework."
Me:"we did your homework, it was about talking about school rules"
SM:"homework is writing down something"
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Greg:"How was school?"
SM:"They made me draw a story. And I don't like that, so I just drew an 'X'."
Greg and I--LOL!
SM:"Then I drew a better 'X', a blue 'X', a green 'X'."
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In this issue of Reader's Digest (you can click on the picture, it's a link) they reprinted a bunch of old stories that readers have sent in over the years. This is my favorite part of RD every month and this month's had so much to enjoy. This story was cute and funny:

15. The teacher in one of our local grade schools was showing a copy of the Declaration of Independence to her pupils. It passed from desk to desk and finally to Luigi, a first-generation American. The boy studied the document reverently. Then, before passing it on, he gravely added his own signature.
--Katherine T. Floyd

Cleaning up

Superman:"Mom, I see you all choppy!"
Mimi, post bath, really sad about getting dressed, until I brought out the camera.