Wow! Where do I begin??!! We officially moved in to our fabulous new house over Thanksgiving Weekend. Archie spent the first few days IN the box springs of our guest bed though! We literally had to tip the box springs up and shake him out! He's since adjusted and taken to doing laps up and down the stairs every night. It seemed to take forever to move this time and I'm not sure if it's because we actually have a ton of crap or because we knew for sure we wouldn't be moving again for a very long time. It was a long weekend for all of us, going between the old house and new house. I kind of gave up after a while and poor Dwayne ended up doing most of the moving. I think it all works out evenly though because I'm the one who unpacks and organizes EVERYTHING once it's moved. It's a daunting job let me tell you!!
We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Sandi, Eddie, "Ferfer" and their exchange student Maxi. Sandi prepared a delicious dinner and we all gave thanks for what we had. I gave thanks for them for having us for dinner because my kitchen wasn't any where near being unpacked!! Good food and wine was consumed and then it was back to the castle for more unpacking and such.
Everything was unpacked and put away long before our beautiful new furniture arrived. We spent many nights sitting on camping furniture watching Dwayne's new big TV. No one seemed to mind but Archie, he just wasn't in to curling up in the close quarters of a camping chair. We were so very excited when our leather couch, love seat, ottoman, TV console and end table FINALLY arrived in mid December! Of course we didn't have it 4 hours and Archie got a wild hair up his butt and flew across it at top speed and scratched it. I was SICK about it! Those of you who saw our last couch know what I mean.........most of that damage was done by my precious Smoochi and Ada but it was UGLY! Archie doesn't scratch he just gets super excited and runs EVERYWHERE at 100 miles per hour, and that does damage. I decided to get him declawed. I made the appointment, rounded him up and put him in his cage for Dwayne to take him in (I wasn't gonna be the bad guy!). While Dwayne was on his way to the vet I googled "how to care for a cat that was just declawed". To my surprise I only came across many articles on reasons why NOT to have your cat declawed and how inhumane it was. I called Dwayne crying hysterically and told him I couldn't declaw Archie and to my surprise he begrudgingly brought him back home. I immediately got to searching for declawing alternatives and I came across "soft paws". They're silicone tips you glue on to your cat's claws after trimming them down. I made an appointment to have a vet tech put them on Archie. The tech said that Archie took them very well, he only noticed them for about an hour after we got home and that was it. They should last about 6 to 8 weeks then they will need to be replaced. I'm sooooooo very thankful for finding them because I so didn't want to jeopardize the bond that Archie and I have made over the past year or so. "Mr Fancy Toes" come very far, he's so funny and I love him more every day.
Next up was Calvin's 8Th Birthday. We were bad parents last year and talked him out of a birthday party so this year we had to have one, so we had a bowling party. Only about 4 kids from his school showed up but it was still a good time. He got TONS and TONS of Legos, a few Transformers and quite a bit of "rectangle money". He also had his first ever sleep over, his friend Steven came and home with us and spent that night at our house. He's a sweet boy who is wise beyond his years when it comes to being kind to your siblings....let's just say he didn't like the way Calvin talked to Zach and let Calvin know it. (I thanked Steven for that!). I'm sure Calvin would agree that his 8Th birthday was a great one.
It was a great first Christmas in our new house. Dwayne put lights on the house for the first time since we've been in Vegas (Bad me, I never took a picture of it! And he worked so hard! Sorry honey!) We spent Xmas Eve at esenttric Lonnie Hammergran's house with our family here in Vegas. That night Santa came to town and brought our boys lots and lots of goodies. Since we spent Thanksgiving at Sandi's, on Xmas night Sandi and her clan came over for dinner. It was a low key first Christmas for us and that was perfect because the few weeks prior to that were very busy.
My Mom and Dad came to town for New Year's Eve! I was so very excited that they came up to see us. It meant so, so much to me! They bought us a Wii for Christmas so we all spent a lot of time playing with that. On New Year's Eve Sandi and her family came over as well as our new neighbors. We like our new neighbors, they have 2 little girls the same ages as the boys, but they definitely aren't Sandi and Eddie if you know what I mean. We LOVE Sandi and Eddie, we don't LOVE our neighbors. As usual, I drank a lot of wine but this time I don't think I made too much of a fool of myself ;0) at least no one's told me so! My Mom and Dad left the next day, unfortunately it was a very short trip but like I said, we were so glad they came.
After the new year it was back to reality for all of us....except maybe Zach =0). Calvin started his new school. At first he was very excited about it but that first day he was VERY nervous (no matter how much he denied it!). He wasn't at school 2 hours and the school nurse called to tell me he was in her office and not feeling well. I asked her if he was wheezing (we've had lots of breathing issues this year) and she said no he's seems fine. I asked to talk to him and sure enough he was wheezing (turns out it wasn't the school nurse...grrr). I ended up bringing him his inhaler, he took a few puffs and started crying. I told him everything will be ok, he can do this, he's changed schools before and played baseball and soccer and that in soccer he was the only one who spoke English and he was ok. We went outside to get some fresh air and calm down and I asked him if he was going to do this the next day...his answer was "NO, cuz it won't be my first day!" And he didn't, he's been just fine since...thank God!
I too went back to school. I'm in my last session. I'm happy to report that I again made the Dean's List!! This session though, I have to admit that I am VERY nervous about!! We learn all about instruments and such. We basically learn the BULK of our jobs!! It seems very overwhelming and daunting to me this time!! I was REALLY stressing in the beginning of the week but then I took my weekly test and I'm sure I did fine. Six more weeks and I'm done!! I finally started my vaccinations so I should be ready to start my exturnship in the beginning of March! YIKES!!! I'm so very very nervous about that so please keep your fingers crossed for me!
Ok, shwoo! That's it! Wow, that was a lot of typing!! But, now you're all caught up on our lives! I'm sorry there isn't any new pictures of our new house all put together...give me time. It is all put together but there were other more important pictures to post and many of them! I promise I will post house pictures next month. In the mean time, the Carpenter Castle is ready for visitors so just let us know when you're coming!! Last year was a good year for us despite a few major things like having to move before we were ready. I'm a firm believer that all things happen for a reason though cuz we never would have thought about buying a house were we not forced out of the one we were in. I am extremely thankful for each and everyone of you. We wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous 2010! We hope to see you all someday soon!!
Much love to all of you!!
I got a new Flip video camera for Xmas so here's the boys wishing you all a Merry Christmas....this is my life! (Click on the pause button on the green player to stop the music so you can hear the video.)
