How many of me?

This is a fun thing to check out. Click on this link to find out how many people in the States share your name http://ww2.howmanyofme.com/search/ According to the site I am the only one out there with my name and same with Adam, Noah, and Camille. But my mom's name is a popular one....4669 others share her name. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Fun

Some photos from our recent Halloween visit to the Jacksonville Zoo...we didn't see many animals at night but we saw lots of fun pumpkins!
And more pumpkin fun at home!

Cabinets!

Finally some progress in our kitchen! The cabinets arrived two days ago and are starting to be installed. They are not the exact cabinets we thought we would be getting, but you know what they are cabinets and they will work just fine! The bad news is that we must have really done something to anger the gods because yesterday Noah and I came down with a horrible stomach bug. So in between supervising the cabinet installation I was running back and forth to the bathroom, washing multiple loads of laundry and spraying Lyesol everywhere. I thought we were all done with it until 3am last night when Noah woke up with more "stomach issues". Luckily Adam was able to get up with him, but I woke up this morning to Adam saying "there's diareaha on the carpet in the living room". So here we are on day two of cabinet installation and sickness.

Crazy Hair

Noah calls it porcupine hair. A friend of ours calls it Asian thunder hair. Someone else called it a mohawk. I call it out of control and cute!

Wipe my bottom and give me candy!

This is what I listen to all day. My sweet monkey boy has turned into a bossy, whiny, sugar addicted fiend. Tell me why Halloween is a good holiday?! I guess we are experiencing for the first time what Halloween is really like from the parental perspective. In the past Noah has been too young or too naive to really get the candy thing (ie we swiped the goods and ate them ourselves!) but this year he fully understands the concept. This past weekend we went to several Halloween events where he took full ownership of his loot. He asks for candy all day long. Yesterday we discovered that he climbed up the top shelf of our pantry (floor to ceiling shelving) to feed his sugar craving. So now I need to find a better hiding spot or maybe I should just let him gorge himself on sugar until he is sick of it, but do you really ever get rid of a sugar addiction once it starts? Reminds me of my youngest sister's clever attempt to feed her sugar cravings. When she was about five, she took her Halloween candy and hid it in the dirt of the pot plants on our patio. My mom didn't discover her little secret until a few days later. Makes me wonder what our monkey boy might be cooking up in his little brain to get his next sugar fix. Our other little monkey delights in dumpster diving (eating out of any trash can she can get her hands on) and scavenging for crumbs under the kitchen table. I am starting to wonder if they will ever eat like normal humans....somedays I really feel like I am raising black lab puppies! And regarding the "wipe my bottom"...I am really looking forward to being at a point in my life when I don't need to wipe anyone elses bottom. Well enough of my whining...enjoy this week leading up to Halloween, eat as much candy as you can, and watch out for bats and goblins!

Family photos

Here are some long overdue photos from family visits in the past couple of months. This one was taken in August when Camille met Gramps (Adam's grandfather) for the first time.

Noah and his cousin, Brooke playing t-ball Camille and her cousin Sarah

Noah and Camille hanging out with their Nana, their Uncle Rob and their cousins Sarah, Lauren, and Brooke

Noah and his Grandpa painting during our trip to Louisiana in September

Camille and her cousin Clementine

Standing in front of my great-grandmother's house in Abbeville...Lili, Michael, Clementine, Dad, Adam, Noah, Camille and Lucia

Noah with his cousins Connor and Liam

Ups, Downs, and Puddles

Since moving I feel like I go through a million emotions a day. Yesterday is a perfect example. I woke up feeling energetic and read to tackle my neverending list of tasks. On the way to Noah's school we were nearly sideswiped by a maniac driver (have I mentioned how much I hate driving here!). I honked and swerved and I as I watched the driver speed away I read the bumper sticker on her car which said "Blow Me".....lovely. After dropping Noah off I attempted to find a fabric store (need to get those Halloween costumes going). After several wrong turns, I finally found it. I picked out fabric and got in a long line to have it measured and cut. When I finally got to my "turn" I discovered there was a number system and I had to get out of the "line" to pick a number and start all over again. Camille was starting to lose it and I was about to snap but being the compliant person I am, I did it. After leaving the store I decided to venture into a children's boutique nearby. The clerk ignored us as we entered and browsed. There were lots of cute and way overpriced items....$90 for a knit one piece...who can justify spending that much on a knit outfit that will get covered with baby drool and outgrown in two months!!! If you have that much extra money to spend, donate it.....I think $90 would probably feed an entire village in Africa for a half a year, right? I overheard the clerk speaking with a very pregnant woman about the difficulties of finding the perfect chandelier for her newborn's nursery and knew I was in the wrong place. I am tired of snobby sales clerks, superficial conversations, and running endless errands.

My day did get better after I picked up Noah from school. We turned a rainy afternoon into a splashing adventure. The lack of drainage in our backyard is a good thing in Noah's eyes and he immediatedly ripped off his clothes to jump in the puddles. Camille and I had fun cheering him on and then they both had a great time playing in the bathtub. I let the laundry piles go, ignored the unpacked boxes, and enjoyed seeing my two children laugh and play together.

Kitchen Nightmare

We knew were were taking a chance when we decided to renovate the kitchen on a home we bought without seeing in person while living halfway around the world, but being optimists/fools we decided to take the plunge. Well, turns out we were very foolish and our friends were right....we were crazy to do it this way. When we signed the contract with a kitchen designer, she assured us the project could be completed before we even arrived in Jacksonville back in August...well here we are in the middle of October living in a house with a totally gutted kitchen. Once I can find the photo thing I will upload images so imagine this...a room without any cabinets, counters, kitchen sink, appliances....nothing but live electrical wires all over the place and a hole in the middle of the floor. Not a great place for kids especially Camille who is crawling and cruising all over the place

When we arrived in August the kitchen designer told us the cabinets had been ordered but were delayed and would arrive in two weeks. And then suddenly we could not get in touch with her. She would not return phone calls and she left messages telling us she had all sorts of strange medical issues...hospitlized one week for pneunomia, another week she was in traction, followed by a stroke. We went to her office last week and met another irate client who has also been having "issues"....for over a year with this designer and her incomplete kitchen! After threatening to call a lawyer, we finally had some phone contact with her and it turns out she never ordered our cabinets and instead used our money to try to save herself from bankruptcy. She apologized profusely and swore that the cabinets would arrive on October 9th. When I told her I had spoken with the cabinet company and knew they weren't made she changed the date to Oct.14th. I am not holding my breath at this point. The company says the end of October and at this point we are just praying they show up. This has really been a nightmare and we've learned some hard lessons. Never thought I would miss a kitchen as much as I do...as my dad told Adam "she's not very domestic"...but a kitchen sink, dishwasher, and oven are suddenly very appealing to me!