Two Houses Too Many

Josh's house hunting trip to St. Louis last month was a success, we will be renting a place for 3 years starting June 15. I haven't seen the house in person yet, but it looks pretty good in the pictures. It's a 3 bed/3 bath ranch style home with a basement. It's a little smaller than our house now, but I'm looking forward to the new layout, and not having so many stairs to deal with. Not all the houses he saw were great, one he viewed had so much clutter it was hard to walk around. When he got to the bedroom there was cat poop on the floor! Why would you show your house like that? Josh said he thought an alcoholic lived there because there were bottles of tequila everywhere. Here's the list of pros and cons he emailed to me after he saw the house...

Pro's: Ranch

Con's: Crazy cat lady house

I couldn't make it through the whole house

Funky smell

I needed shots once I left

Noise from the interstate

The kitchen minus the tequila bottles

I'll post some pictures of the house we are renting when we move in later this month. Josh didn't take any pictures of it, because there were lots on the website. Josh starts his family practice residency at Scott AFB (just southeast of St. Louis) on June 8, so he's leaving Sunday. The girls and I are staying for a while to take care of the house while it's on the market, and to visit Rolla one last time before we move further away. The moving company is coming June 29 whether the house has sold or not, and then we'll be off to our new home!

This Week

The fun stuff...

We visited the animal shelter for fun. The girls love to do this, and never want to leave. Ally squealed with glee watching the baby kittens play. They both also love to watch the ferrets play.

We love to play Guitar Hero as a family. I thought Josh was such a dork for requesting this game for Christmas, but it really is fun to play. The girls both have little play guitars , and they will get out their drums too, and make a band. Ally usually just dances. Anya is learning to play on beginner, and is proud when she doesn't get booed off the stage.

We found this little bird nest in the fern hanging on our front porch.

Anya wants to check on the eggs everyday now.

The girls both had check-ups at the pediatrician's this week. They are both healthy happy girls, which I already knew. Ally's rash is much better, and hardly shows up at all in photos. She did get it on her scalp which is pretty yucky - think bad dandruff. Both girls are 90 percentile for their height and 75 percentile for their weight. Big girls! Anya refused to pee in a cup, even after I demonstrated. Geez! Ally refused to stand on the scale, and had to be forced down on the baby table to be weighed. The visit wasn't terrible, but not great either. Ally kept saying 'I scared," so I felt bad for her, Anya was just being a brat.

I had to go to the dentist on Wednesday. I had to get 2 crowns, and a wisdom tooth pulled. No fun! My jaw is still sore, and so is our bank account.

After much deliberation we decided that Josh was going on a last minute house hunting trip Friday and Saturday in St. Louis. He will be looking at several rental houses that we've been eyeing on the Internet. I really wanted to go, but decided it was best for the girls if we stayed home. They are still catching up on sleep from our vacation. If we all went we would have missed Anya's preschool singing in church Sunday, and I would have had to get someone to teach Sunday school.

I almost forgot the best part of the week, the homeowners association is making us redo our brand new $7000 roof, because we used the wrong shingle color. I don't know if I've mentioned this saga, but we have been pleading with the board for awhile now, and legally we are stuck. At this point it's just another lesson learned the hard way. My advice for anyone who lives under a homeowners associations rules, read the contract very thoroughly before you even think about making any changes to your home.

Disney World

We got home from our Disney vacation on Saturday evening. We had so much fun, and although we were all really tired, I would have loved another day or two there. We have so many pictures I don't know where to start. I think I'll work on that later. :)

On Saturday when we arrived we checked in at our condo, and then went to Downtown Disney to shop & eat. I wanted to buy Ally a princess costume to wear on the day Anya was going to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I intended to get her Snow White, but she had her own ideas. She went straight for Tinker Bell, and wouldn't let go.

Then next day we had breakfast at the Magic Kingdom with Winnie the Pooh and friends. The food was really good, and Anya loved the characters and took pictures with all of them. Ally on the other hand clung to Josh in fear, and would play possum pretending to be asleep. We spent the whole day at the Magic Kingdom riding rides, seeing shows, watching parades, and finally seeing fireworks.


Monday we slept late, and went back to the Magic Kingdom in time for Anya's Princess Makeover. Anya took being a princess for the day very seriously, and was very careful not to get dirty. Later we headed over to Epcot for our dinner with the princesses. We got out Ally's costume, and she refused to wear it. Kids!! Anya was star struck at dinner, and totally believed that it was all real. Ally was even scared of the princesses!

Tuesday we went to the Animal Kingdom. We went on a safari, saw some great shows, had a really yummy lunch at the Tusker House, and scared the kids to death at a Bug's Life 3D movie. That night we went swimming at the pool.

Wednesday we went to Hollywood Studios and spent the day seeing shows mostly. Josh got in a really cool roller coaster, and we had lunch at a fun 50's diner. The girls also loved playing at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play ground. We went back to Epcot in the evening to see the Nemo stuff, and eat at Germany.

Thursday we went back to the Magic Kingdom, and then to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park in the afternoon. The girls had a love/hate relationship with the wave pool. They had a blast until it would knock them down. That night we went to Mickey's Backyard Barbeque at the Wilderness Lodge. I was expecting the characters to put on a show, but it was more of a country dance hall kind of thing with the characters dancing with the kids. The girls loved it.

Friday we had breakfast at the Polynesian resort with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto. The resort was beautiful, and it felt like we were in Hawaii. The food was really good too! By this time Ally had gotten used to the characters somewhat, and could say Mickey, but she still wasn't taking pictures with them. After breakfast we went off to Sea World. The girls loved the dolphin show, and we fed sea lions. I think Sea World might have been Ally's favorite park. That evening we had dinner at the T-Rex restaurant at Downtown Disney. It was such a neat place for kids, and they even had a Build a Dino store like Build-a-Bear.

It was such a fun vacation. We all had our moments of meltdown, some more than others, but I think we made a lot of really great memories. Sorry about that Ally, I promise we'll go back when you are older!