House Hunting in Colorado, Day #1

I suppose this is technically day two, but since yesterday was pretty much taken up in traveling, I don't really count it as part of the real house hunting venture.

The flight yesterday was not too bad. We managed to keep Sean occupied for the first hour and a half or so, and then I finally got him to fall asleep. He slept for a while, but woke up really grumpy. I'm not sure if it was because he didn't get enough sleep, or if our descent was bothering his ears. At any rate, he cried for the last 20-30 minutes. One lady a couple of rows ahead glared back at me. I was thinking, "What do you want? Do you think I want him to cry?" It was very annoying. I finally got him to stop crying by sticking one earpiece from some headphones in his ear. He was distracted enough by the History Channel that he stopped crying (the TV was free on that flight because of antenna problems).

We arrived at the Air Force Academy at about 9:00pm, which to us felt like 11:00pm with the time difference. When we originally made reservations to stay here, we were told that we'd stay in a normal hotel-like room the first couple of nights, and then we could move to a more family-friendly room the rest of the time. There must've been a cancellation or something, though, because when we got here, we were in the family-friendly lodging. It's really nice, more like a one-room apartment than a hotel room. There is a bedroom, bathroom, and a full kitchen/living room, and even a washer/dryer. It's great, because we can put Sean down for a nap and still get work done out in the living room. We also don't have to eat out every meal. There's even a pack-n-play for Sean to sleep in and a high chair for him to eat in. It's perfect. It's also WAY cheaper than we could get a normal hotel room for.

We met our real estate agent this morning at 10:00 and started looking at some of the listings she'd sent us that we liked. I think we saw six houses today. Of the six, there were two that were possibilities, and the rest we pretty much rejected. We only went until about 1:00, because our agent had a closing or something this afternoon, but that's okay because it gave us time to go back to our room and put Sean down for a nap. The poor guy was pretty tired. He'd been up late (at least two hours past bedtime) for two nights in a row, with only a tiny nap on the plane yesterday, so it was good to give him some time to rest.

We ate lunch at a place called Ted's Smokehouse, or something like that, on our realtor's commendation. For $40, we got two bison burgers. They were great burgers, but the price was a little crazy. They also had paper straws instead of plastic straws. It was their contribution towards recyling and a cleaner planet, etc. It was like drinking through a mini paper towel roll.

We have some friends in the area that used to be in our ward in Enon, who have also moved here to teach at the Academy. We had plans to meet up with them and look at some things in their area and have dinner, but Marci's day got really crazy and so we pushed it back to Friday. But then she told us of another guy we knew from ROTC, Scott, who is also here teaching. I called him up, and he had several of his neighbors selling homes, so we went to look at those and ended up having dinner with them. His area seems really nice, and there are a lot of members there. There are two more houses there that we want to look at.

On our way back from Scott's we passed a Coldstone. Nate was tempted to stop, but kept driving. It took another block or two, but then he decided that he really wanted some ice cream, so we turned around and went back. They had a new flavor of ice cream that I kind of liked: oatmeal cookie dough. Sean liked it, too. I kept feeding him bits of it while Nate's ice cream was being finished. He screamed when we went back to the car and put him in his seat and he wasn't getting any more. He must have the ice cream gene. Nate was in a really good mood the rest of the way back to our room. He must've been looking forward to the ice cream.

Tomorrow we have a very full day of looking at houses nonstop. I think I'll turn in early. Hopefully we'll see some good ones.

Oh, poop!

This is really gross, but today I changed a kind of smelly diaper of Sean's, just before he took a nap. I put the garbage can out in the hallway so he didn't have to smell it while he took his nap, and then I rushed off to a doctor's appointment and forgot about the garbage can. After my appointment, I was in the kitchen, cleaning up after Sean's snack, and he comes wandering in with this big brown thing. Yeah, I bet you can guess what it was. I was just glad it wasn't softer, or he'd have smeared it all over. As it was, it was only on his hands. I think.

"But I keep talking..."

So, the other night, Meagan and Bethany were talking up a storm, instead of going to sleep. I finally had enough and decided to split them up. I moved Meagan into our bed until they both fell asleep, and then we shifted her back to her bed. Instead of the discipline this was supposed to be, it was apparently some kind of reward. The next night they were back to talking and making lots of noise, and when I went in to get after them, Meagan pops out of bed, walks right past me and hops into my bed. I asked her what she was doing, and she just said, "But I keep talking," in her oh-so-innocent-little-princess voice. She got really mad when I sent her back to bed. Now every night since then, when I tell them to be quiet, she protests, "But I keep talking!", hoping that I'll relent and let her go back to my bed.

And yet more photos

Nate got up with Sean in the middle of the night the other night. When I got up in the morning, this is what I found. How cute!

Speaking of sleep, the cat's favorite spot to sleep is the back of the couch. There is a permanent slump there now. He looked so cute with his paw around his nose the other day that I had to take a picture.

Bethany's class had Dr. Suess week last week to celebrate his birthday. One of their activities was to make these hats. Bethany called it her Cat in the Hat.

Bethany got some Lincoln logs for Christmas. Up until now, she hasn't really built much on her own, she just wanted me to build houses from the pictures on the box. She finally built one all by herself the other day, and called it her "sticky" house.

Fire! Fire!

Bethany and Meagan are into pretending there are fires in our house lately. I think they got it from a Land Before Time episode they watched where a clearing caught on fire, and everyone put it out by dumping wet leaves and dirt on the flames. It's kind of irritating when they play it, because their version of putting out the fire involves finding every small toy they can find, and dumping it on the 'flames'. It makes a big mess. Here's a typical example:

When I found this pile on my bedroom floor the other day, I thought Meagan had been putting out fires again, but she told me that this was a snowman. Go figure.

Going fishing

The cat was having a lot of fun watching Nate's fish the other day, and it reminded me of something my niece, Evelyn, asked the last time she was here. She asked if Nate was growing fish for the cats to eat. Hee hee.

Meagan's first aquarium

The other day, Meagan tried to put a toy fish in one of Nate's aquariums. When he wouldn't let her, she got really sad, so Nate suggested she make her own aquarium. They found this plastic bin, and Meagan went around the house collecting stuffed animals that might go in an aquarium. She's got two alligators, an octopus, a seahorse and a jellyfish. Quite the collection.

A little bit of Meagan

Yesterday morning, Meagan woke me up at 7:00am, and said that she was hungry. She went away, and I fell asleep again. About an hour and a half later, she came back and crawled into bed with me. Her hands were sticky. I asked her what she'd been doing, and she said she ate some ketchup. I went to the kitchen, and sure enough, there was the bottle of ketchup on the table. Yum, yum.

***
Meagan has been going around for a while saying that when she gets a little bit bigger, then she can go to school. Ever since we told her and Bethany about just Mommy and Daddy and Sean going to the airport to go look for a new house, she's amended her statement. Now it's when she gets a little bit bigger, she can go to work and then she can go to school and then she can go to the airport and get on an airplane. I have no idea where the work part came from, but she's sure excited to get bigger.

Apparently today, though, she decided she's big enough. Just as Bethany's bus pulled up, she came running up the stairs (barefoot) and announced that she was going to school with Bethany. She was so sad when I wouldn't let her go; she sat in my lap for probably ten minutes crying. I'm definitely going to have to send her to preschool next year.

***

We're having serious trouble getting the kids to listen to us lately, so I've decided to start some obedience charts. They get a sticker for doing what I ask the first time I ask. If I have to ask repeatedly, no sticker. When they fill up a row, they get a small treat. When all their rows are filled, they get a toy. I had some errands to run this afternoon, so Meagan was with me when I went to the store and got the bribes for the charts. I got a couple of My Little Pony Ponyville sets. They have a couple of these sets already, and love them. They have lots of little pieces to them, so I was hesitant at first to get any, but they've been fairly good about not scattering them all over the house. Anyway, Meagan thought I was getting them for her birthday, and she was very sad when I wouldn't let her open them.

While we were at the store though, I called her "punkin". She said, "I'm not punkin. Punkins are those orange things." So I said, "I know you're not a pumpkin, but sometimes I call you that, just like I sometimes call you 'dear' or 'honey' even though you aren't made of honey." She replied, "I'm not made of honey, I'm made of Meagan." It made me laugh, even if she didn't get what I was saying.

Tonight just before bedtime, I introduced the obedience charts. Bethany was so excited to start, she wanted to run off and put her pajamas on before I was even done explaining. (They sat and looked at the ponies for a few minutes before I started explaining the charts). Then when I was done, she ran off and got her pajamas on without me even telling them to. They came and brushed their teeth the first time I asked, they actually sat still and paid attention during scriptures and got right in their beds when I asked them to. It was a wonderful bedtime, the best we've had in ages. All told, they each got four stickers. I promised them each another one in the morning if they would go right to sleep and not talk. Lately, they've been up talking for an hour or more before going to sleep, which is part of what is making Meagan so cranky. Tonight, though, it's been blissfully quiet. It's wonderful. I know the novelty will probably wear off soon, but hopefully they will stay with it for several days at least. If not, then they can just keep looking at the ponies I bought without being able to play with them.

"I am a sad face"

The other day, Meagan just burst out crying in the middle of dinner. When we aksed why, all she would say was, "I want to cry, I am a sad face."