It's spring. Yes, the wind chill was 7 this morning, yes, the flannel sheets are still on the beds, and yes, the calendar says spring doesn't actually start until March 20. But I'm done with winter. I have a pair of capri pants on the way and some new t-shirts arrived last week. (Really, that's the last time I'm ordering anything maternity. I'm serious this time.) So start your cleaning, open the windows, and enjoy your three extra weeks of spring. You're welcome.
We've been on vacation in our hometown for the past week. It wore me out. Here's the blow by blow I know you've all been waiting for!
Saturday: Jack and I left Saturday to go to my parents' house. Between filling up the car, getting lunch, going back to get some forgotten toys, and dealing with a cat who hates to travel, we got on the road 47 minutes after we first got in the car. Jack spent the rest of the day playing with his cousins and I went to my sister's house to scrapbook.
Sunday: More of the above. Jay came into town.
Monday: Jay and I spent the morning meeting with the builder. We signed a contract on the new house. It is really weird that you can be spending that much money and you just fill in the blanks on a form. Afterward, we went to the bank to make sure they still wanted to give us the money we just agreed to pay. They do. Our appraisal went through, and once a few paperwork things are taken care of, we should be ready to start!
After that, we went to my grandma's house for lunch. Jack got his own chocolate pie.
Later in the afternoon we headed to the hotel. Jay's former neighbor was nice enough to get us the friends and family deal--thanks again, Rachel! They had a play area that was about three feet deep at the deepest part. We had the whole pool to ourselves almost the entire time we were there. Jack loved it!
Tuesday: We spent the morning goofing off and watching Scooby-Doo at the hotel before meeting Jay's sister and her fiance for lunch. Then it was back to the hotel for more swimming.
That evening we had dinner at Incredible Pizza and then swam some more.
Jack had his own queen-sized bed. He only had to share with Spots, the dog he made at Build-a-Bear (where he has never actually built a bear) that afternoon.
Wednesday: We went to Taco Bueno with my parents and then headed to a new kids' museum. 
That night we went to Jay's parents' house and Jack got to play with some of his favorite animals. (I guess I never got my camera out after we left the museum, because this is where the pictures stop.)
Thursday: Jay headed home and Jack and I went back to my parents'. That night we went to Zio's with my parents and my sister and her family.
Friday: Jack and I went back to my grandma's to have lunch. We made it back to our house around 3:30. I slept like a rock last night and I have done eight loads of laundry since we got back. Vacation can be rough!
We've been on vacation for the last week. I have started the laundry and made my way through my inbox. I'm hoping to have pictures up this weekend!
Last fall I wrote about my efforts to stay home more during the week. When I wrote that post, we were about to start a couple of busy weeks, but then I was going to get back on track. It was three days after I found out I was pregnant. You can guess what happened from there.It seems that lately we are gone all the time--grocery shopping, library, speech, etc. Combining things was exhausting but doable when I started, but with pregnancy thrown in, it was often just impossible. I hit a panic point. How on earth was I ever going to maintain my routines? Would my house ever look normal again? Did Jack really need to do school? And then it occurred to me: the routine around here is for there to be no strict routine.Since Jay and I got engaged in 1999, my life has been one constant transition. For the first two years we were married we knew we would be moving; next we spent three years in Omaha; finally, we moved here--again, a temporary home. Though we've been here almost four years, there are still a few things in boxes. Something is always on the horizon: a new home, another child, a job change...or this year, all three at once. And in the last decade, my daily routine has always varied, too. When Jay was in school, I might drive down for the weekend. If he wasn't coming home, I might work all weekend. Residency was worse. It was not uncommon to make a midnight Taco Bell delivery to UNMC, even with a baby. (The stroller actually made it easier to cart the food.) Here we have a more stable work schedule, but there has always been the changing schedule of a child to keep things interesting.Now we're getting ready for another huge wave of transitions, and I've decided that my best defense is to do whatever we feel like doing. I do have some things I try to do consistently: a load of laundry must be started as soon as I get out of bed and the dishwasher needs to be started after dinner each night. Other than that, though, we are taking it day by day. We have memberships to several places around town that I'm trying to get our money's worth from and we have friends that we will not be able to see as often once we move. Don't even get me started on how much I'm going to miss the library here.When we are finally settled in the new house I am hoping to come up with some kind of routine for us that we can use consistently. We'll have a new baby by then, though, so it just may not happen. On the bright side, I realized this weekend that after seven years, the cat finally has me on a routine much like the one described in The Baby Whisperer. At least it worked for one of the babies around here.
You have to wonder what's going on when your mom hands you your breakfast and it's the wrong color and on fire. Today was Dr. Seuss's birthday, of course! After reading Green Eggs and Ham, Jack was willing to play along. (Ignore the fact that those pajamas look pretty wintery. Jack can't read yet, so he didn't see yesterday's post.)
