Remember

Don't mess with me...

I had a lovely chat with the girls' assistant principal this morning.  (It would have been with the principal but she's out until next week.)  I explained to her how rude and condescending their registrar had been with me yesterday about obtaining records for my kids to hand-carry to their next school (4th for the soon-to-be 5th grader and 2nd for the one going into 1st grade).  I went on to tell her that the registrar had initially informed me that they didn't give out copies of records.  Then she backtracked and said that if they did, they'd have to charge for them.  I told her I'd be happy to pay for the copies.  Then she said that it was too "time-consuming," she'd be gone for 2 weeks after school let out, and that it would be mid-July before she could get to it. 

Um.  No. 

I checked the policy and they are required to provide me with copies of anything in my kids' records that I ask for within 30 days of my request.  Oh, and I don't really care how inconvenient it might be for her to do her job.

Dude, this is getting old really fast

See that lovely, large box of books on top of my washing machine?  It's not being staged or stored for a moment or anything like that.  It's being utilized.  You see, my 12 year-old washing machine decided that it just wouldn't drain without a little, um, encouragement.  The lid has to be "popped" down and then a heavy weight put on top to get the thing to do it's job through all the cycles.  We found our tool box too light for the job.  My sister and her handy-man husband found it hilarious that our wee box of books was heavier than the toolbox.  At any rate, short of me sitting on the thing to get the laundry done, I have to finesse it, a la Fonzie, then shove the box into just the right spot. 

My husband's not even gone right now, Gremlins! 

Can you smell the stress?!

It's that time again.  In 3 weeks, the kids will be out of school.  In 6 weeks, all of our "stuff" will be either in a truck or in the back of our vehicles.  And I still don't know, specifically, where we're moving.  Oh, I know the general area.  But I don't have an address. 

I have a potential address.  The housing office has assigned a house to us and I should count us lucky for that.  But my luck is holding pretty steady with housing.  It will be the 3rd condemned house I've been invited to use as my residence.  (By condemned, I mean that these places are/were scheduled to be either completely razed to the ground or to be gutted for renovations.) 

So I'm just not completely sure we will take them up on the offer.  While there would be so many positives to living on base, I'm not sure we can take the living conditions.  The place is TINY.  I've lived in some pretty small places, so I don't say this lightly.  The next tiniest place we've lived would be the doll house/apartment we lived in while in Korea.  I only lasted 2 months in that place before abandoning my husband.  This newest offering is less than half the space we have now, maybe closer to a third.

So now I'm frantically trying to consider all options while simultaneously trying to work up lists of all the items we'll need to put into storage if we take this place.  I'm also trying to figure out how to dump at least half of my kids junk stuff without them noticing too much.  Added to all this, my husband is insisting on having a yard sale, despite his scheduled trips between now and the truck pulling out of our driveway.  I hate yard sales.
 
Gotta love PCS season!

Surprise!

Yesterday afternoon, the girls came downstairs with a surprise.  Big Sis had styled and dressed Devil Pup for a performance.  They can be so goofy and cute sometimes.  I try to remember this when they are being royal stinkers! 

Speaking of being stinkers, Stretch and I had quite a surprise last night when we went upstairs to go to bed.  We found that both girls had commandeered our bed!  They had also placed sticky notes above their heads on our headboard.  The one above Big Sis read:
"Dear Mom,
Since you are smaller than daddy try please to sleep with us.  We had a tingly feeling --
[Big Sis]
(over)
PS. My head needs to be ellivated
Please allow me 2 pillows"

The one above Devil Pup read:
"Dad, you can sleep in our bed remove my fluffy pillow tho
-- [Big Sis] and [Devil Pup]"

Stretch was a little put out (not really, well, maybe a little) that they'd kicked him out of his own bed and tried to put him in one of their twin beds.  I couldn't stop laughing and almost woke them up.  Stretch ended up making up the guest bed and that's where we spent the night.

oh, yeah, she IS tall...

Every so often, I get a reminder of just how tall members of my family are. 

This week, Devil Pup turned 6, one of the last to do so in her Kindergarten class, I might add.  She had her well-child check-up where we learned she was over 90th percentile for height.  That really wasn't news as that's about where she's always been, except for that brief time as a baby when she was off the charts. 

No, the reminder came when I took her to school.  We waited in the office as her teacher sent 2 of her classmates to escort her back to the classroom.  Now, I know the little boy that was sent is probably the smallest kid in the class, just a cute little peanut.  But I swear she must have sent the 2 tiniest kids in class. 

As Devil Pup joined her friends, I noticed that she towered over them, by almost a full head! 

Then after dinner last night, both she and her sister started foraging through the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator as if they were starving.  I repeat, this was after they'd eaten dinner.  Immediately after.  I'm just glad they aren't boys.  I don't think we'd be able to afford that.

The Devil Pup is 6 today!

It's so hard to believe that it's been 6 years since our "baby" Devil Pup came into the world at a whopping 8 lbs. 14 oz. and with a head full of hair.  That was a big surprise.  But it wouldn't be the first time we noticed how different she was from her sister.  

As a baby, she was so easy-going and laid-back, even when her sister got her all "dressed up" with stacking rings: 

Now, we can't get her to stop talking or moving, unless she is drawing or coloring.  And even then, she's usually talking.  But some things don't change.  Our Devil Pup, for all her impishness, is a sweetheart who always wants to make others feel better.  She is still the go-to kid for cuddles.  And she still loves a good adventure.

I can't wait to see what she'll conquer next!

DP today after school.  I wish I could say she was meditating, but she was just being goofy.  It was the first non-blurry shot I got of her.