more from Halloween

Kat's first real Halloween, that is one spent trick or treating outside in WNY with her cousins (last year was inside at the mall by ourselves).

She was a very polite and warm(?) kitty cat who really dug the whole concept....CANDY!!!

These aren't the greatest pics (clearly not Liza's), but Alison's idea to take the pics was a great one.

Our front side yard appears to be the vortex of flying leaves. Much to Kat's delight!

The whole crew

Halloween

The three stooges in the leaves

Kat's home run

Leaves

If you haven't been to Liza's blog lately, be sure to check it out for unbelievably cute pics of Kat & her cousins. Jumping. What else? The link is in my list if you don't have it handy.

Well, Kat likely doesn't realize it, but we've waited for YEARS for reall fall again! There were no trees in Calgary and Seattle has lots of big trees, but few decidious trees, so Kat has limited experience with fall leaves. But she understands the important concepts!
Here they are racing cars down the mountain.

And here come the leaves!

Sorry. I swear I turned this one, but apparently it hadn't saved yet....

More goofy girls on stairs-- new perspective

Still crazy cousins

Crazy cousins

You can hear them before you see them

Today at the zoo. The first time they did it, I wasn't ready, but they had a pile up at the end, which was really, really funny.

Kat loves her Ben...

We closed on Tuesday!!! Finally I can paint and rip up carpets. Oh yeah. I already did.

Here is an extremely cute video of the girls. The eldest two know the song/routine from school. Kat is trying to follow along as best she can.

One more....getting licked (or hair pulled) by an alpaca

Part mountain goat

I was very impressed that she learned to climb up without the rope.

Hearing aids

Test of video sending abilities

Kat's 3rd birthday and various other pics

Well, sorry it's been so long. We're making huge progress here. The house is nearly all unpacked and put away (I think I have 2 boxes of my 'desk" crap left; oh and a few bags of clothes Dan brought on his second trip) and I know where almost everything is. I think we even have a home phone as of tomorrow (maybe even as of 22 minutes ago?). Though, in truth, the phones are the only items I'm aware of that I don't know where are.... maybe in my boxes?

The big news here is that Kat is now sporting her hearing aids (and I don't think I have a pic of her in them at all. Will have to take one tomorrow). She is now being poked and prodded and tested in every regard on both her Drs orders (Ct scan, MRI, vision test, blood work) and by the school district which needs to evaluate her to figure out what services to provide for her. So we've been in limbo, again, waiting to see what they will do. I haven't enrolled her in preschool yet, as there is a fulltime preschool for the hearing impaired that I'm hoping they will send her to that program and I don't want to bounce her around more than necessary. And all of her little playmates (namely her cousins) have gone back to school.

Dan has his office downtown up and running. And he had his second class tonight (he's teaching it, grad level Int'l Tax), so that's going well. This week is tough for him with 9/15 coming at him at 90mph. He lost a few to several weeks of work in the move (and the two trips across the country) so is playing some serious catch up.

I think that's the bulk of the update. Oh yeah, I think we close on the house on Tuesday. Cause Dan needs one more thing to do before 9/15. But it will be good to finish it up so that nothing can go wrong. And we have the added bonus of NOT having the moving in and settling in ahead of us after we close! It's so nice to have that behind us. Oh yeah, we had our party on Labor Day Monday (our going away party was on Labor Day Monday 7 years ago, so it seemed symmetrical to have it on that day). We had 40 or so of our friends and family stop by to check out the house (and the torture chamber) and hang out with us. It was really great. We are so happy to be home and the kids had SO MUCH fun playing that day. There were 7 girls, Kat was the littlest, and up to 5 of them played non-stop hide and seek throughout the house and yard for hours. It was a riot. Of course I have no pics of that craziness.....oh well, here are a bunch of other pics that I finally downloaded from my cameras. Oh yeah, and I got a new iPhone, as the new software for the iphone 4 pretty much made any earlier phones inoperable--what a marketing strategy! I will work on getting some pics and video tomorrow to see how it looks. Pony ride at the Vikings.

Kat and Leslie on John's porch. With her sprinkle doughnut.

Kat's 3rd birthday cake.

THIS is why I did NOT take Kat appliance shopping with me when Dan wan't here.....

I need to sign this kid up for gymnastics. NOW.

Leslie, myself and John at our big 25th reunion. How could it possibly be 25 years?

This is after the tornado in Mayville that Kat and I nearly drove through when we first got to town. There was lots of water to be played in.

This is Dan and his nearly 2 weeks of beard. There used to be a lot of red in there, but I saw mostly gray.

A new going, going, gone series......

My stupid Olympus camera (couldn't locate the good one) can't be bothered to focus on faces, but it did capture the dispersing water beautifully.

This is Kat showing off her new bunny and kitchen presents from Wendy. They work perfectly in her doll/playhouse.

I love that look.

If this video comes out...cause every kid today needs backyard movies that look like they're filmed with a super8 camera.....did I mention that that camera sucks?

updates...finally!

I swear, when I find my camera, the appropriate cord and 10 minutes of waking time, I will catch up on posts. We're missing Kat's 3rd b-day party, the house, the 3 girls (Kat's bigger cousins) playing on the slip and slide, the house, and who knows what else by then....

Anyway, we are all in the house! We're still renting and haven't yet closed, however, as the folks at Dan's 401K brilliantly sent the check that we'll be using for the down payment to the address in Bellevue....after Dan left. We have no idea where it is at present....luckily, the paralegal's first reading of the occupancy letter was wrong and it says we have to close by the date on the sales contract (8/31) OR by the expiration date on the mortgage commitment letter (9/21?). So, we're not getting nailed for not yet having closed. Hopefully we'll see the check tomorrow. Else we'll be asking whomever to stop payment and issue (and overnight to US) a new one.

We have been busy here. Dan arrived after yet anoter cross country trek on Friday. And he had to dive right into work, as he'd been putting it off to drive 3500 miles (I'll get the exact # from him). So we're all here and settling in. I have ripped up the carpets in the LR & DR and painted the LR. Just finished the carpet removal tonite (garbage day tomorrow). All boxes are empty and most are recycled on Craigslist. Just a matter of putting the final layer of stuff currently laying around away.

We have already dog-sat for a few days and are now rat-sitting for Derek & Liza. The dogs and Hermy are very interested in these new occupants.

Kat has had endless fun playing with her cousins. If she knows they are coming over, as in this AM, she waits at the door staring out and then start yelling and screaming that Grace & Charlotte are here. It's quite cute. She still pitches a fit when they leave....we'll have to work on that.

Kat got her hearing aids today. They are bright pink (looks like bubble gum stuck in her ears). SO far so good, though she did remove them a few times, despite being told not to. And at the end of the night she was saying 'no want hearing aids'. Poor little thing, but hopefully she'll adjust to them quickly. SHe did keep saying 'hi mommy' over and over and over when they first went in. Hearing herself clearly was definitely interesting to her.

We're having our big party here on Monday if there's anyone reading who can make it but whom I neglected to invite.

I think that mostly sums up what's happening. I will now post random pics from the iphone (which sucks at this point now that the new software for the new unit has slowed it to a crawl). I tried to e-mail pics from the phone but it didn't feel they were worthy. Nor does it feel that I'm worthy of voicemail. I don't know why, but it doesn't tell me people called, nor will tell me about/or let me retrieve messages. I have a new phone on order. I can't wait!

We're in the new house!

And the movers came today and emptied 28' of stuff into the place.... So it's a bit chaotic in here. But it's air conditioned chaos. Though the heat has broken and it's not as steamy as it was.... The boys still appreciated it after our walk today.

But we're in! Took the boys for a stroll around their new hood today. Not sure that Ben remembered where home used to be, but he'll know this one soon enough.

No Internet or landline phone yet. Funny, those things are hard to take care of without internet..... I will see what I can do.

Washer, dryer and fridge showed up yesterday. Now it's just a matter of putting the all of pieces together.

Think I might start tomorrow. Have a book I've been dying to read long before this journey started and I've hardly had the chance to open it.

Kat has enjoyed seeing some of her favorite (and forgotten?) toys again. I'll post more pics Thursday.

progress? and frustrations....

the very cool wading pool in Clarence.

After our Sunday AM boatride with Jim & Lisa.

Watering the plants at Grandpa & Grandma's.....

With Charlotte & Grace at the Chautauqua County Fair

Watering plants at Bruce & Corey's (with Jordan and Ben).

News about the house, other than the seller or their attorney is an (insert your favorite word here).....we should have our mortgage commitment by the end of the week, or shortly thereafter. BUT, as the sellers now want $52/day (supposed to be their mortgage, etc, maybe it is and that's not unreasonable) and then $100/day for every day after the closing date listed on the contract (8/31), allegedly as incentive for us to close fast (like we need incentive, seems more like incentive for their lawyer to stall), AND, as of today, and $2500 deposit! Unless our realtor can make their realtor see sense, we won't be renting it out beforehand, and no one will be offering to pay their mortgage and insurance for the next few weeks.

It's too bad cause the appraisal is done and the paperwork is flowing. I guess I'll just have to continue to make my daily phone calls to the mortgage weasel and his minions for a few more weeks....they also have incentive for this to close fast....

John has been an excellent sport about us transforming his house. From an unnamed human amongst us peeing in his plants on the porch, to some unnamed canine stealing his bagel and other foods, and all of the Kat detritus and dog hair in between.....he's been great. Even takes the boys around the block now and again.

Our morning routine involves the boys, Bob (stroller) and sprinkle doughnuts (well, one, if I get anything it's a muffin). The 5 of us get a lot of looks moseying around the block. And, that's about all we do, as it's been so hot and they truly are a handful for just me, so we don't do much more than that.

Yesterday Kat went to see her new Dr. And today had a hearing test. To be followed by another tomorrow with 2 audiologists. We knew before that there may be an issue with some frequencies and they confirmed that today. After today's tests, the audiologist told me that hearing aids were probably the way to go. We will see what we learn tomorrow, but I expect it will be along those lines. Now my frustration increases, because I KNOW she will need services from the school district after age 3 (that would be Sunday), but we're not actually in the district yet so I can't register her and get the ball moving (I don't know how long the process takes, but I would love to get her registered and tested by the school so that they can determine what she needs (I'm certain that she needs speech therapy at least) and start whatever her program is....but thanks to the weasel sellers/attorney, that's not likely. I did send a note to our realtor telling her what I had just found, in the event that the family with 5 kids mights show some sympathy, but it seems unlikely.

So, as Dad said in his blog, we are definitely living in limbo. We can't go to community pools, because we don't have a community. I don't want to sign her up for daycare/preschool because I don't know where the school district will provide services to her.... I can't buy the washer/dryer and fridge because I don't knwo when I want it delivered..... The only thing I can do is sit in my (now) air-conditioned room eating ice cream and whine about things. I'll try to limit that.

Dan will be in town for Kat's big 3rd b-day! I have no idea what to do for that event either. I figure at this point it will be a small family gathering for those who can make it on short notice. I think her real party (such as it will be) and Dan's b-day and our housewarming party will be inthe new house at the beginning of September. I think.