Rank list is in........

And I guess because it's a public blog, I won't specifically say where....... but Brooks' rank list is officially submitted and now we wait until March's "Match Day" to find which state we'll live in:

#1- SOUTH CAROLINA

#2- Somewhere here in NORTH CAROLINA (this state rocks!)

or will it be our #3 ranking in VIRGINIA??!!?!?

(can you tell we love the South east?)

Because of Brooks' unique situation he only ended up interviewing/narrowing down to these 3 programs and that's it. He DID like them all and each had their pros, professionally speaking, but it was probably me that pushed the hardest for SC to be the #1 after I did some research on the schools (I DEFINITELY found one I fell in love with....w/ SPANISH!) there for the kids/cost of living, etc. (which is ironic because of all the programs SC gives the LEAST amount of benefits and money.....) But there were fun things about each place and thankfully there's not a "Oh no, I hope we don't get there!"-place on our list.

Change is exciting and it's HEADIN' OUR WAY!!!!!!!!!

Snow-day

Sunday is started snowing a little.........first snow of the year here! (which is weird)

I took this picture Monday morning, and I would have to say, that is an adult's perfect snow.....

NOTHING TO SHOVEL ON THE SIDEWALKS, DRIVEWAYS OR ROADS!

And considering the weather is supposed to be in the high 60s this week, I REALLY hope the kids liked it while they had it.

For some reason, snowing makes them all break out in a dance party. Who knows why. (I love this picture of the girls shaking their "boo-tays", and Royce, the innocent by-stander.

Since it WAS snowing, they dressed in snow suits to dance in (when they went outside I found them STILL w/o shirts on, a jacket and flip flops. Clearly, I haven't taught them the right snow attire)

Breakin' into the splits (I couldn't stop laughing over the snow suits....and how seriously they were taking their dancing)

and in case you were EVER wondering..........snow suits do absolutely NOTHING for your figure. hahaha.

Parenting Question

So Ariel has REALLY helped my parenting lately w/ my girls. She's kinda "it" around here right now, so I've used her quite a bit to help me out.

Example #1:

Parenting MAJOR Problem- Iris ALWAYS picks her nose

Ariel Solution- Instead of me reminding her to stop picking her nose (which has never worked), all I have to say is, "Iris, mermaids DON'T pick their nose!"

Result- SUCCESS. She immediately stops.

Example #2:

Parenting MAJOR Problem- Aleeya (like her brothers) thinks it's REALLY funny to........eh........."pass gas" or however you word it.

So once again I turned to Ariel and mermaids in general to help me out, because she's worked everytime. I went up to Aleeya and said, "Aleeya, you HAVE to stop tooting while we're here.....(here is comes).......because MERMAIDS don't toot, Aleeya."

Then she looked at me and said,

"I KNOW!!!!!!!! Because they don't even have bums!"

So my parenting question for you is, do mermaids have bums or not? Because it would REALLY help me out if Aleeya THOUGHT they had one.

Oh the joy.....

Brooks told me earlier in the last week that he was going to take the girls out on Saturday night on a daddy-daughter date. He also told me to get them dressed up........but wouldn't tell me where they were going. He assured me though he would bring the camera so he could explain it to me later. To say the girls were excited beyond all words to describe would STILL be an understatement!!!!!!!

Here they are ready to go:

Turns out good ol' Chick-Fil-A (which is the best!) was sponsoring a daddy-daughter date night. They roped off part of the restaurant and had it all fancy w/ candles, flowers and the works.

Iris drank so much pop she kept going to the bathroom. Brooks said one time she was coming out and these old ladies thought Iris was just so cute that they kept taking pictures of her. So funny.

And they EVEN rented a limo for them to ride quickly around in (all the people that went there as a daddy/daughter date). How cool is that?!?!?!

Inside the limo (for the record, I HAVE NEVER BEEN IN A LIMO!!!!!)

To say it was the most "magical night" for my girls would probably be a pretty accurate statement. Talk about pure joy. I'm so glad he took the camera, their faces are priceless.

Christmas countdown

Let me introduce you to a new obsession around the ladies here in my church:

We went over to our friend's house to clean it in November and my friend Jenny brought this steam cleaner thing. If anyone knows me, I don't do extra bulky things....... but this thing was amazing w/ baseboards, walls, sticky dining room chairs, wood floors, kitchen cupboards.....need I go on?

So I sat there............coveting the whole time.

Then I got my break. She let me borrow it. YIPPEE!!!

So you see that little lever thing on the top? Good ol' Royce just put all his weight on it and cracked the thing so it didn't work. UGH!!!!! (I got the comment from Brooks, "and THIS is why we don't have nice things".....like we usually say). I got online and ordered Jenny and new one.

I had to be extra creative to fit that in the December/Christmas budget.....to be honest, it made me sick. Then Brooks came home and saw the crack, and bought this glue that seals water/steam things, and GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?

IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!! (and it's name is Sabastian, in case you were wondering) So I got to KEEP the original one from Jenny!!!! Happy Day!

I gave Brooks a BIG smack-er-oo and told him, "Merry Christmas to me! Now you don't have to worry about getting me something, because I want this anyway". :) (We women can be so weird sometimes on what we want)

So Christmas I was expected to get a nice stocking from "Santa" and that's about it. Well, I DID get a REALLY nice stocking. Along w/ treats, I got a mystery date (that was AWESOME beyond words), and a paper that sent me on a little hunt for clues. I followed the clues until I came upon this pile of papers. Hmmmmmmmm, what would PAPERS have on them? (Then I thought of last year how there was a picture of a beach house for my Christmas present in my stocking, so I started thinking along those lines.)

I opened up the papers to find a FLIGHT ITINERARY!!!!!!

Brooks and I leave for HERE towards the end of March:

No, that's not one big hotel, that's the

Missionary Training Center IN SAO PAULO, BRAZIL WHERE MY PARENTS ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I lived in Sao Paulo (ages 12-15) this MTC was just being built! I have YET to see it in person! AND I get to show Brooks around my old school, home, church, and a city I love more then almost any other.......SAO PAULO!!!! I can't wait.

And now that we've bought Brooks' mom's ticket out here (to watch the kids) and passports updated, it's finally official and I can start counting down!!!!!!!! YIPEE!!!!!

Commence operation Embarrass-myself-beyond-words-with-my-lack-of-fluency-in-Portuguese. Ready? GO.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

I spent the whole naptime getting the kids' Valentine's stuff ready for tonight.

Ever since I could remember, my parents.....eh hem, the "Valentine Vulture" (yes I realize that was a stretch, but we needed a "v") would hide our Valentines gifts from Mom and Dad. The vulture would ring the door and run (faster then I thought my parents were capable....then again, maybe it WAS a vulture that flew away....) leaving behind some hearts w/ a poem for us to help find our things. Some poems would take us a good 45 minutes to find our stash, but I always appreciate a good poem. I used to write poems for my kids but I sat around reading the poems to them over and over and.........well, since they couldn't read it didn't really work. So UNTIL more of them can read and I feel like putting my kids through the torture of looking 6 different places before they actually find their presents through a VERY clever poem, I've opted for pictures the past 2 years. And I am NOT an artist. (but I DID overhear the boys talking in their beds the other night saying, I can't wait to see the pictures mom draws on our hearts this year!) The younger ones, have more obvious pictures..........obviously. And since we have a FEW chest of drawers with 3 drawers, I decided to put Bronson through a little chase.......

But the tricky part is HOPING that the kids don't run across their prizes between after school and after dinner. The bathroom and broom places worry me.......but they can hold it for a few hours, right? ;) (don't worry, I threw something over Aleeya's gifts)

But there are two places I don't think I have to worry about them finding..........

#1

#2

Then again, Sally might try........hmmmmmm. Oh well. I'll be crossing my fingers.

UPDATE: it is now 4:30 and Iris' under the crib HAS BEEN FOUND (as Aleeya was shoving all her clothes under there "cleaning" her room...........she thought it was her lucky day.....only to find out she had been caught for stuffing things under there!) :)

And for YOU all for Valentine's Day............and treat of my favorite hymn.......along w/ the true meaning of LOVE. Luvs to all.

Future/House plans update

So THIS house, has been really good to us. (no things aren't in bloom now, this picture is from last year)

We've loved it. Loved living in this town and everything about it. BUT, Brooks Pathology residency is coming to a close this June. After his test in May, he'll be a certified Pathologist, that could TECHNICALLY (if he had chosen not to do a fellowship) go out and get a really nice job.

Which is exactly what we've decided NOT to do. ;)

This July Brooks will start ANOTHER residency in Family Practice. (3 years)

It started a while ago when he thought about it. He's LOVES Path and loves learning everything at the cellular level, where EVERYTHING started. He's loved getting specimens from surgery, doing FNAs and even autopsies. Every few months he did a different rotation and he liked that. But in real life, he would be doing the same thing everyday and mostly w/ a microscope. He just couldn't see himself doing that everyday for the rest of his life. His goal in family practice is to combine the two (hence, not leaving his Path residency early). He would like to see a patient, and also do their labwork. Have both aspects of medicine that he loves.

When he told me this, it wasn't a shock. I always tease him he has "Professional ADHD" and can't do the same thing everyday. My dad followed his dream in his vocation and went for what he loved instead of just going for the money. I just looked at him and said, "If from 10 years from now you'll look back and regret that you never did another residency, you better do it now."

So that's where we're at..........applying for programs once again (like we did 4 years ago), going through interviews and waiting for Match Day to come in March to tell us where we'll be headed.

Either way, we're moving from here. That was sad. I didn't really WANT to leave this place, but on the other hand, wanted to meet new people and off to a new adventure. We've decided to RENT out house out and not try to sell it, with the hope in mind (or at least in MINE!) that after his 3 year Family residency that Brooks will do his Pathology Fellowship back here. And I can come back to my house!!!!

(This is getting long, so feel free to quit reading, but I've had so many ask what our plans are....)

We were obviously planning on selling this house all along, and KNEW we would be going to a place (fellowship most likely) that we wouldn't be making much money. Ever since we moved here we decided to pay a LOT extra on our principle of the house each month to get it as low as we can. We did this so when we sold the house and moved, we could leave w/ a really good chunk of money to either put down on another house or start paying of med school debt. We sacrificed and Brooks took extra jobs to make this happen and we felt peace knowing that we could never have to "eat it" at closing or have to take out a loan to SELL the house.

We have ended up over 7 years ahead of schedule on the payments in paying down our principle. Brooks is basically married to amortization schedule calculators. It's kinda his thing. ;)

Then some realtors came to our house and said that the market has gone down and we should sell it for 10,000-15,000 less then we bought it for. Which is FINE because we've paid off well over that, but we were disappointed w/ the fact that it wasn't what we had in mind. We ended up putting $500 extra to the house each month to just eat it and not leave w/ as much as we had hoped?!?! As I said, at least if we sold it, because of this sacrifice we would've been fine. And could've even sold it for a lot less...................but we decided to rent it instead.

That way, Brooks could keep his little hobby of watching his principle get paid off even MORE (it really is his little obsession) by someone else, while we go rent wherever we move.

So there you have it. Our plans in the next few months. IDEALLY we could have someone rent our home w/ a 3 year contract so if by some chance we DO come back for a fellowship, the place would be available.

We actually had a resident who emailed and wanted to come see the house last week. He was going to be here for 3 years. He said he was super interested. PERFECT (I thought!) and I was going to give this the BEST shot I had. I had no idea where he was from, kids? (surely he would if he was looking at a 3 bedroom w/ a LARGE yard, right?), etc. But I didn't care. I went to WORK. A few things I did last week in a matter of 4 days:

-got a storage unit and filled it up (Brooks took it down there though)

-painted the garage

-painted all the doors and frames

-pressure washed the house (my friend Jim came over and helped too, what a stud)

-shampoo-ed the carpets

-bought mulch and spread it in every flower bed

-took out 50% of EVERYTHING in the closets (shoes/shirts) and threw them in storage tubs in the back of the Yeti so the closets looked more open

-cleaned out every cupboard and closet, etc.

-cleaned out the garage/organized it

-Need I remind you that keeping a house spotless w/ 6 kidlings running around is pretty hard in and of ITSELF!!!!????

-I had even made bread that came out 5 minutes before he came so it would smell perfect

I was giving this my best shot and frankly was getting my hopes up SUPER high. Afterall, who WOULDN'T want this house? It's awesome!

Friday came and the guy showed up early, so yes, I pulled a few tricks and threw some things in the dryer and shoved some papers under the chairs. This younger looking man walked in and introduced me to HIS GIRLFRIEND!!!!!!!

AH!

No family. Single guy. Super nice guy, but in my mind I couldn't figure out why HE would want a house the big w/ a yard w/ such an upkeep. The walk through lasted all of 7 minutes.....not a closet was opened or anything!!!!!!!!!! AND, they didn't even want any bread. ;)

After they walked out Brooks and I collapsed in the chairs and just kept saying, "Unbelievable" over and over. Then we giggled and I said,

"I'm going to get a hot fudge sundae at McDonalds"..........and I did.

And yes, it helped.

So that's where we're at. In the process of finding renters and also looking ahead to our own move. WISH US LUCK!

Can you tell.....

which princess we're into right now?

And it's probably a better idea if you do NOT ask me what is on her face when I found her singing. She walked in with it taped to her mouth.

(But if you're REALLY curious, there happened to be a shoe heel insert thing on my seat at church. Apparently I sat on it, and it got stuck to my skirt and brought it home that way. Aleeya found it, ripped it off my skirt, and decided it might be fun to have something sticky taped to her face?!?!? I still don't quite get it, but yes, it's from someone's shoe that we have NO CLUE who........and if you're reading this and want your insert back, sorry, because it found it's home in my trash. Nasty..........thankfully it didn't hinder her singing too much, as she seems to get into quite well with it on.)

Mamacita

That's what we call Aleeya, "MAMACITA" because she really is like a little Mommy and that's all she wants to be, pretend to be, etc. Her BIGGEST goal in life is to find a "Daddy for her to marry", not a husband. She just wants to find a man, marry him, so she can finally be a Mommy.

Oh yea, and "kiss on the boca" because she ALWAYS reminds me that she "Loooooooooooves besos!" We're CLEARLY watched too many princess shows. :)

Anyway, so Mamacita was sitting at the table this week while we had chicken wings (Brooks' mom's FAMOUS recipe of wings she makes every year for New Year's.....but the kids had it Jan. 1st and begged for it again, so I made them this week). She LOVES them, and kept asking for more. I told her she had to eat her potatoes and peas first. Surprisingly, she DID, so I handed her a bunch of wings.

After dinner, as I was cleaning up, I found this:

Sneaky little thing. (I'll make sure to remind her of it when SHE'S a mom!)

But this picture is my favorite of the week. This is during family scripture study at night. We usually all sit around w/ our own books, but I couldn't stop Aleeya, she was just too cute. So the whole time she sat there holding her baby and kind of bouncing it up and down as she rocked back and forth. Every once and a while saying, "Sh, sh sh sh".

She LITERALLY rocked her baby the WHOLE TIME!!

And what does THIS picture have to do w/ Aleeya the Mamacita?!?!?

Well, those would be HER PANTS that Emerson had on while he was brushing his teeth and JUST ABOUT READY TO WALK OUT THE DOOR TO SCHOOL!!!! I ALMOST let him out like that because I hadn't noticed!!!! AH! You should've seen how tight it was on his hiney w/ all the girly designs on it. Classic.

This is crazy.

The weather here has felt like spring!!! Today it should be 63 and tomorrow 69. Pretty sure I could get used to this. But with weather THIS nice, there are definitely more trips to the park.

(I assure you, Aleeya IS in this picture, but she's behind the little boy, Corbin, who happened to follow my family around everywhere. I mean when there's a party, better stick with it, right?)

Royce loves walking around and doesn't think TWICE about staying near me......which is FINE, because I just follow him around. But when the WHOLE family wanted to play a good ol' game of tackle football on the field by the park, well, Royce's adventurous attitude wasn't going to fly.

So once again, my husband's ingenuity came through in how to keep him close.....

Not sure if you can notice the round shape in the back of Royce's pants.......but Brooks stuck the handle of Sally's leash down there, so he was connected to Sally. You're PROBABLY thinking this is a bad idea, but you clearly don't know Sally. She will NOT leave my side for anything. She always is around me, so it was perfect......and Royce had no clue it was in there!

He would walk and sometimes Sally would go a few feet away with him.

But when he wanted to go away from the family, Sally stood her ground and sat down.

Yep, I think that's about as far away as Royce got during the whole football game. HAHAHA.

It was awesome. Thanks Sally.