News, news, news

So while posting on facebook tonight, I realized I hadn't posted here in a long time. And when I checked the posts it appears I haven't even mentioned we are moving. To South Bend. Well, technically to Granger, IN which is a 15 minute drive to campus...where Mike will be teaching starting late August this summer.

And we've sold our house in Athens. Well, we have a contract and a closing date of June 15. And we've bought a house in Granger. Well, we have a closing date of June 1 or 3 for that house. But the schedule for our move is a bit crazy. Ends up the folks who currently own our new house needed to stay in the house until June 26. So, we will be without a home from June 15 to the 26. And Mike will be teaching the first summer session at Ohio University which goes until July 23.

So our schedule goes a little like this:
Movers arrive June 9 and pack up our stuff. They drive away with our belongings June 10 or 11. June 12 we drive to Asheville, NC to spend the night and a little time with our ND friends the Olingers. June 13 we drive to Duluth GA to spend a couple days with our friends the Kaplans. June 16 we drive to Forsyth GA to spend 3 weeks with Gram and Pop. June 19 Mike flies back to Ohio to teach. He returns to Forsyth the following weekend to celebrate Addison's and Lily's birthday. On July 1 I fly to Ohio and drive with Mike to Granger where we will have our belongings delivered on July 2. We spend the weekend without the girls settling into our new house. July 5 I return to Forsyth. July 9 Mike flies to Atlanta and we begin driving to our new home in Indiana. July 10 we arrive in Indiana for good. July 16 or 17 or there abouts Brenda (aka Grandma) comes to help out in Granger for a week or so.

There are actually even more moving parts than these, but this helps show the grizzly life we will be leading for the next few months.

Interesting stuff about the girls. Addison and Lily have their last week of preschool next week. We have definitely seen a few changes in them thanks to this experience. During the last story of the day Lily chooses to sit with her friend Mailey rather than her daddy. At our parent/teacher conference a few weeks back, Addison's teacher said they were starting to worry about Addison's socialization because it seemed like she was pulling back and not engaging as much as she had been. But their worries subsided when she struck up a friendship with a little boy in class. Maybe the Snow White thing is just a ruse and Addison will end up being a tom boy after all.

Today Lily drew her first real picture. She drew a tree. She drew stairs on both sides of the tree so Cinderella (aka Lily) and Snow White (aka Addison) could climb up at the same time. Kelsey will have to wait her turn. Lily is quite good these days at coloring inside the lines. Addison is still working on it and while she is working on it all of her pictures still look like scribbled pictures.

Puzzles are a favorite activity for all of the girls. Addison, when asked to do something, frequently replies with "Just a minute, I'm doing this puzzle." And literally you can count on it being just a minute or so because she is getting to be so fast at the puzzles we have. Kelsey can also do puzzles "all to herself" Sometimes she needs a little verbal assistance, but she is quite good at figuring out where pieces go and how to put them in.

I like playing the game of "I spell a word and you tell me what it is" The other day we were doing the guess the animal game (i.e. an animal that has black and white stripes and looks a little like a horse). Then I switched to what animal is spelled C-A-T. Addison and Lily both got that one quickly. Then I did D-O-G. While Addison and Lily paused for moment Kelsey spoke right up with "Dog."

Kelsey has officially hit the terrible twos. Primarily she wants to do things "all to herself," but she forgets to communicate this to Mike and myself. And when that happens she throws a tantrum. And when she does communicate what she wants she changes her mind. After going wee wee, I asked if she wanted help getting up her pants. "Yes" then when I started to pull them up, she started WAILING "I want to do it all to myself!" Then 10 seconds later through her crying she says "I need help", so I go to help her again. "NO! I WANT TO DO IT ALL TO MYSELF!" WAILING louder (if that is possible). Even Addison chimed in then and said "Why do you keep changing your mind?" Me: "Thank you, Addison. So I'm not the only one who thinks she keeps changing her mind."

Addison is a daredevil these days. She loves jumping off of things like chairs, couches and beds. She is quite tricky in figuring out exactly what she knows. The other day I wrote the sentence "My pony is blue." because she has a pony that is blue. She wouldn't read the sentence to me, but she said "It's a puppy." because she was pretending it was one of Pongo and Perdita's puppies. So I'm pretty sure she at least knew the jist of the sentence. And another day I was quizzing Lily by writing color words (red, yellow, green, black). Lily was busy sounding out B-L-A-C-K and Addison walks behind me and under her breath says "black." I just hope she doesn't hide how much she knows when she gets to real school.

Lily loves to narrate her life. Lily: "'Can I have something to eat?' asked Cinderella as she walked into the kitchen." Lily: "'I jumped down" said Cinderella bravely." Me: "Lily, are you done with your dinner?" Lily: "'No' Cinderella replied."

We are sad to be leaving our wonderful neighbors and friends in Athens. When Mike got the job at Notre Dame, he received two cards of congratulations from friends here. He commented that he had never received a congratulatory card for a job before. Kelsey and I will especially miss Carter and his mom Jenny. They live just two doors down from us and I can say with confidence that Carter is Kelsey's best friend and Jenny has been mine. I only hope that the number of swing sets that are visible from our new house are an indication of the number of children our girls will be able to befriend in Indiana.

Addison and Lily are already signed up for preschool in the Fall. They will be going to school 3 days a week in the afternoons. It should be interesting because they still take naps most afternoons. I hope it works out well.

I imagine that is plenty of news and updates for now.