Really cute Toddler clothes

My good friend Alicia just started making toddler outfits. She has pictures of 4 of them on http://www.etsy.com/ . Go to the search username option and type in thriftygal. She will be coming out with more prints, but for those of you with girls, these are so cute for summer! They look even better in person!

Perfect Days

I realized I have been using this blog to complain too much! I thought I should at least share the good stuff too! We have actually had a lot of fun the past week because the weather has been absolutely perfect. Low to mid 80's , partly cloudy with a great breeze every day this week. It made for a nice visit from Grammy & Pop Pop (my parents); who stopped by on their drive back from visiting relatives in NC.

This is a picture of Gunner (in the only shoes he will wear..his bright green crocs that don't match ANYTHING) and Grammy by his second favorite animal, the giraffe. Although I guess the giraffe moved.

This is a rare picture with me in it...wish I had done my hair! And for those of you surprised that I didn't make a cuter shoe choice...Gunner INSISTED that I "wear crocs like Gunners". I tried to tell him I was wearing another pair of shoes and he informed me I WAS wearing "Mom's crocs!". At least they aren't bright green.

Gunner's very favorite animals at the zoo are the "roooowsters and the chickens". It is all he talked about from the time we walked through the gate.

Gunner on the giant turtle...he needed a little help getting up there, but thought it was great fun.

Last zoo pic...I feel bad because I realize I took no pictures of poor Hudson who was so good being wheeled around in his stroller and looking at all the other kids (much more interesting than a bunch of animals for a 11 month old). Anyway, this is how we end every zoo trip, which is why I never leave home without a change of clothes for the boys!

Other than the zoo, we have spent a lot of time with Gunner's little girlfriends, Marley & Mclayne, and their mom, my best buddy, "Ms. Alicia" (can't forget mentioning her, Gunner loves her like family!). We went to the pool yesterday morning at the JCC and we both forgot our camera, which was a bummer because we had the entire pool to ourselves for over an hour. Hudson had fun in the nursery and Gunner and the girls ran through the sprinklers, swam and climbed the giant "Noah's ark" with animals that spray water. Then we had a picnic and played on the playground there...that membership is the best money I have ever spent. After everyone came home and took naps, we went for a walk on the beach, which turned into me trying to keep up with three running toddlers while toting Hudson in the Baby Bjorn...everyone had fun, and I got a workout.

Today we met the girls at the mall. We took the obligatory merry-go-round ride and went to the play area where Hudson could crawl around too. They were all so cute playing with Hudson...they were making him laugh crawling through the tunnel...he would crawl through one way where one of them was waiting, laugh hysterically and crawl back the other way, making Mar, Mclayne and Gunner all laugh too.

This is a pic of his sheer bliss!

I love this picture of all three of them jammed into a ride together. Naturally, Gunner is in the middle! After two roller coaster rides we had to tell them we were out of money!

Well, that is all for now, I will probably have more pics to share from the pool tomorrow, we are trying to go as much as possible before Sept. 1st when they close down the outdoor water park.

"I wanna move to the new house where the playground is!"

The process continues for the move into our "dream" house...when I say this has been the most stressful 2 months I have had in a long time, I am not kidding! We are waiting for the refinance to happen on the 3 rental properties we sold (seller financing), so we can close on our new house. This was supposed to happen last week, but since Wachovia seems to be run by a bunch of complete morons who keep getting our buyers to jump through "just one more" hoop before approving financing, it did not. Allegedly, everything has been approved so we can close the deal tomorrow and maybe close on our new house by the end of the week (which would be good since we are set to move in Labor Day weekend)...but I haven't heard from my husband or our lawyer yet today, so who knows what new delay we have run into! Then we get a request from our lender, who already told us our loan was good to go; that they need a final approval letter from the people buying our current house. Luckily we just got a call yesterday that their loan was given final approval. However they are missing the termite letter....it is one piddly request after another, no one follows up and no one asks for everything they need up front. Are you starting to get confused yet? So far we have sold one of our lots near the Blue Ridge, 2 two family & one single family rental and our current residence...we can't just talk about "the closing" we have to remember which one. In addition, we have two lots in Norfolk and another single family rental for sale and we are trying to sell one more lot of our land near the Blue Ridge...all to alleviate future stress by downsizing and eliminating almost all of our debt. So why does trying to get rid of stress include so much darn STRESS!! This is what happens when you marry a guy whose hobby is real estate...god bless him, because he understands everything that is going on, and is actually good at turning us a profit in a tough market.

I, on the other hand, do not enjoy this process. I share Gunner's whole opinion on these transactions, I just "want to move into the house where the playground is"!!! The difference is, he thinks that we can just do it when he asks. He informed me yesterday "first we go to the pool, THEN we move into the house where the playground is". Kind of hard to explain to a 3 year old that buying a house takes longer than buying a new toy. Let's hope we don't have to explain it much longer!

Hot Child in the suburbs

Just put the peanuts down for a nap and I am thinking about taking one myself! Our air conditioner is on the fritz (apparently it was hit by lightning!), and although we have been lucky because the weather has been really nice this week (minus the lightning); it is still 80 degrees in the house right now. Not real motivating...my floors might have to stay dirty another day! Luckily it should be fixed soon and we had a great weekend otherwise.

This is a pic of Gunner kicking around in our friend Kristen and Dave's new pool. Len & Gunner spent all day Saturday in the pool and I spent Hudson's nap time in the pool. We tried to put Hudson in a little floating boat in the pool, but he kept trying to jump ship; so we tried to let him crawl around in the grass, but he tried to crawl into the pool! Gunner swam for a couple hours, ate some lunch, swam another couple hours and then informed us that he needed to "put on dry clothes and take a nap for a little minute". So he sacked out for over an hour on a sleeping bag in Kristen's guestroom, and then came back and swam for 2 more hours! He must have had fun, because he did not throw a single tantrum or whine the entire day. I told Kristen we were going to be using her pool all the time!

At least the kids are in a good mood today too, despite the heat. They were doing their version of "playing" together. Hudson would crawl really fast out the door of Gunner's bedroom and Gunner would close the door for a minute, then open it again and run away while Hudson crawled after him as fast as he could...not sure why this was fun, but they were both laughing so hard they could barely contain themselves and no one shut a finger in the door, so it was a successful game! I, on the other hand, am too hot to even keep typing!

Am I Crazy?

Today is the perfect day, perfect temperature, not too windy and not too humid....I shouldn't have anything to vent about, but I do!
Gunner, Hudson & I met Alicia and her girls down at the beach where Hudson had a great time being held in the surf (he had to be held tightly because he really does try to crawl straight into the ocean); and Gunner had a great time chasing Marley and Mclayne. After a couple hours of fun in the surf & sun we loaded everything back in the wagon for the schlep home.

That is when I see that someone has parked their truck right in the middle of our driveway with only a note on the windshield "if you need the truck moved, call this number...". I ask both my neighbors if they have any idea who it is and they have no idea and can't believe someone has decided to just park in my driveway, we assume, to walk to the beach. So my neighbor offers to call the number and the person on the line says "Oh we are friends of Jeff and Jodi who are buying your house, they told us we could park there". Another words, the people who DO NOT even OWN our house yet have told friends, who are in town for their wedding, that they can park in our driveway to walk to the beach, without even calling me to ask first!!! If Gunner broke his arm and I wanted to pull my car out of the garage to take him to the hospital, I couldn't, because people I don't even know thought it was OK to use my driveway as free beach parking. Am I crazy or is that totally insane??

This is after Jodi (one of the buyers), shows up on my doorstep yesterday with her mother and sister-in-law to ask if "it's OK" for them to come in and see the house...I had not even made the bed yet, but what am I supposed to say? Then she gives me this big hug before she leaves as if we are best buddies (most of you know how I feel about strange people getting in my space, but for those of you who don't, let's just say that indiscriminate hugging makes me uncomfortable.). Am I crazy to think that this is a business transaction with complete strangers, not some emotional kissy-huggy love-fest; I am not your friend, I am selling you a house, so you can't have people park in my driveway! OK, I feel better now...just had to vent...plus once you write something down, it doesn't seem like anything to really be all that upset about anymore...I like this blogging thing.

Our little exhibitionist..

This story begs to be shared....Gunner asked to go to lunch at Chic-Fil-a (or "the Chicken place" as he calls it) for lunch the other day for a treat. We all like it there, because they have a glassed-in playground and give Gunner a free soft serve kids ice cream if he turns in his toy from the kids meal (this is good because while he eats his ice cream I can actually eat my, now cold, lunch in some semblance of peace). Anyway, I told Gunner he could go into the play area and go down the slide two more times before we left, so he goes in by himself while I am busy getting Hudson into his stroller and cleaning up the carnage from our table. I get a tap on my shoulder from a mom at the next table "Um, your son pulled his pants down". I look into the play area, and there is Gunner with his shorts and underwear around his ankles, facing the entire restaurant and playing with his "junk"! I ran in , quickly pull up his pants and ask him, calmly, why he pulled down his pants...all I got was one of his "what answer is it that I think Mom is looking for here". So he never did give me a reason for why he did that... but I explained that Chic-Fil-a would not let us come back if he did it again! I am not sure which was funnier, that he did it, or the matter-a-fact way the mom next to me informed me he did it...as if there are always boys pulling down their pants in Chic-fil-a at lunch time!