It's Official!

Today was a rather productive day. We are now official residents of FL. I can definitely say it was a relief to be done with that. We also got some paperwork filled out and ready to mail. But most importantly, today was a day off for me and I got to get caught up on a few things around the house and spend time with my boys. Mr. X had to go to school.

It was a bit foggy this morning but Mr. X was ready to go. He has a four day weekend. It's too bad I work two out of the four days.

WB had to come back for GQ. How dare he be left behind!

One thing I have to say is that the humidity here does create adorable curls on GQ.

Like most boys, mine love trains. Today not long after Mr. X was off to school, GQ and Doc were setting up the train set out of Mr. X's room. They called for help from Mom and then went to work driving the trains around the track. Mom spent much of the time stabilizing the bridge or putting it back up.

Then it was time for GQ to ride the motorcycle. Our rental house has a circle that he can ride around if he goes through the kitchen.

I love his grin.

He's driving fast.

The boys climbed up on our bed for a quick rest before getting back to playing. That blanket goes everywhere with Doc and the thumb goes in the mouth every time the blanket is near. Rarely he'll put his thumb in his mouth and hunt down the blanket. I'm not sure how to break this habit. I'm OK with the blanket but really would like him to stop sucking his thumb. I really think that is part of his speech troubles. Unfortunately, I fear we are going to have to take away the blanket to get rid of the thumb. That is going to be rough and I don't relish the thought of it. When he was in preschool, he didn't take the blanket to school with him so that's a plus. Unfortunately, he isn't in preschool here so that doesn't occupy him either. I've heard that most kids will stop by about age 4 on their own. I'm hoping that he does but with how attached he is, I'm not counting on it. After their quick "rest", they were "big helpers" as Doc calls it. They cleaned up the train set while Mom folded some laundry. Doc stole the laundry basket for a boat. I think all kids love playing in the laundry basket at some point.

 It's back to work for me tomorrow. I'm looking forward to this weekend though. It's suppose to be in the 70s and I'm hoping to get the kids outside. I had some ideas about some topics to write about. Then when I sit down to write my post, my ideas disappear. I might start keeping a piece of paper with me to jot down my ideas as I go about my days.

Happy Valentine's and Other Stuff

Happy Valentine's Day! We don't usually do a whole lot for Valentine's. I expected this year to just pass unnoticed since we are monitoring our budget while we pay for 2 houses. We spent the day just hanging out and getting things done that needed to be done. GQ passed his hearing test with flying colors! Doc did well in speech. I finally have my new driver's license after 3 trips to the tax collector. I would say it was a productive day. We also just spent time hanging out.

The boys love climbing all over Dad. It's good to see them having fun.

Notice Doc has Batman on. This is a T-shirt with a long sleeve under it since the day started out chilly. That started back in MI when he insisted on wearing his summer Batman PJs during winter. The house was too cold for that so we compromised. He could wear the Batman PJs over his winter PJs. He thought it was great!

GQ took a dive onto Doc and they conked heads. WB just goes with it. They smacked heads so hard you could hear it and yet neither of them cried.

This all started because WB laid down to stretch and Doc climbed on. Of course, GQ couldn't be left out of the fun.

Brothers handing out. Doc misses Mr. X while he's at school all day. We got Mr. X the leapster for the long car rides and we use it as a privilege for having a good day at school. Unfortunately, he gets sucked into it and it's hard to get him to put it down sometimes. It does wonders for keeping the kids occupied in the car and quiet in restaurants though so I consider it a necessary evil. We limit him to about 30 min a day but he can't jump between that and the TV....it's one or the other. After dinner, WB surprised me with a card from him and a card from the boys. They also gave me a box of chocolates (I love my sweets) and a meditation book for mothers. It has passages and verses in it. It was the perfect reminder on Valentine's Day of how blessed I am. I have a such a wonderful, sweet husband that would do just about anything for me. He takes great care of the kids while I'm working and does his best to help out around the house. I couldn't ask for more!

On another note, I just wanted to mention Congenital Heart Defects. I believe today ends the week of CHD awareness. I am not going to go into all the factoids of CHD because I don't claim to know them all. The heart is an amazing, intricate organ in the body and it is vital to the functioning of every other system. CHDs are heart-breaking for the families facing them. I have followed a number of blogs about kids with a CHD and I see them in my line of work. I can only imagine what the families go through. Please do your part in raising awareness for CHDs. It is truly a matter of life and death for many.

Now something totally unrelated...

We do not have a step ladder, so WB took a lesson from the boys in reaching items.

Do you see? He pulled the table over and placed a chair on top. He then stood on the chair to reach the lights in the cathedral ceiling so he could change them out. What else do you do when you do not have a ladder? Maybe it's time we get one... By the way, the red things are silicone hot pads to protect the table from the chair legs. I have to give it to him, he's inventive. He did make sure it was all sturdy before he climbed up, which is more than I can say for kids. And yes, the kids were already in bed so they didn't see Dad doing a no-no.

It is off to work for me tomorrow. I have two long days coming up. I work 12 hr shifts plus have my 45 min to hour commute which makes for 14-15 hour days. Thankfully, I only work 3 days a week.

Game Day!

Game day for us is Red Wings. We had a great day today. We went to church this morning (the boys love this church and I'm so glad for that) and headed over to my brother's to watch the game.

The boys love wearing their sunglasses and they get to do that a lot here! This is on our way to my brother's.

I love all the water we have down here.

Anyways, back to game day..... We won!!! The boys loved spending time with my brother and his family. It was a great afternoon. Hockey isn't really a big sport to follow but up in Michigan it wasn't totally unheard of. Down here, it's all about football. I just can't get into football so I'll stick with my hockey. It was neat to see another car on the road with a Red Wings sticker today on our way to watch the game. I don't understand the  sports culture and why some sports are more prominent than others. Football seems to be a big deal nationwide but the rest just aren't huge. At least not that I know of. Maybe I'm just not into sports enough. Many of the hockey players come from other countries too like Sweden and Canada. Since hockey isn't that big here, I haven't fully figured out why they come here to play. Either way, I'm glad that they keep hockey alive here. Watching hockey games, especially the Wings, is no longer a luxury I have. I use to be able to watch every Wings game on TV and now I don't get to watch many at all. I have an app on my phone that will tell me when someone scores during the Wings games so I rely on that a lot. Yesterday I wasn't so sure we would be able to go to my brother's to watch the game.

GQ wasn't feeling the best. He woke up from his nap with a 102* fever. He lounged on the couch for a bit and then ate dinner. After dinner he had his bath.

He tried to smile so hard for the camera with his rosy little cheeks. He still wasn't feeling well and shivered throughout his bath. After bath time, he went right to bed. He woke up this morning feeling great. The big boys had baths last night too. After bath they like to style their hair.

These are Doc's horns. He thinks they look like Batman's ears so he insists that we help him style his hair this way. He loves Batman.

The other style they like to do is "J-style". My sister's boyfriend styles his hair this way and so the kids and my mom dubbed it "J-style". They think it's hilarious....probably because it's spiky.

Not thinking about it, I put my kids in their Red Wings attire yesterday, which meant no game day attire to be had today. Maybe next time.

Stepping Out of My Box

This is the first time I have tried this blogging business. I have followed other blogs for years now and finally am stepping out of my box to give it a shot. Keep on truckin' says a lot about our family. We strive not to let life get us down. We know God provides and we trust in Him to continue providing no matter the situation. We just recently took a huge leap of faith. We moved from Michigan to Florida leaving behind the majority of our families. So far things seem to be going well, but we all know how life can throw wrenches at you in the blink of an eye. This blog is to chronicle the happenings of our lives since I'm not a huge scrap booker. I wish I would have thought of this before my kids were born. I also hope that on some level this can keep family back in Michigan updated on what's going on with us.

Florida has definitely been an adjustment. I love the weather right now but I'm not sure how much I will like it when it's 95 degrees and humid. We will surely find out this summer though. Schooling options for the kids are different. Doc doesn't get to go to preschool here. It's a big change for him so he's trying to adjust to that. Mr. X goes to school earlier and has a shorter day. He also has a longer bus ride. Again, more adjustments. He is adjusting amazingly well. I was expecting a more difficult transition from him. I haven't fully stared my new job yet but I will finally get on the floor this next week. I'm excited about that. WB is returning to school after an 8 year leave. He is going back for computer networking and security. It will be right up his ally. We are both excited with this new opportunity. This also means that I am the breadwinner and he will be the stay-at-home parent for now. Another huge adjustment for our family. Doc is having a hard time with that since he is so attached to me. He tells me almost daily, "No Mama, you stay home. Daddy go work." Hopefully the adjustment won't take too long. GQ is doing fine with the whole thing. He's a little too young to understand it fully but he is loving having Daddy home all the time. He is Daddy's side-kick. I am especially excited that I now live closer to my brother. We haven't lived in the same state in 10 years so this is very nice. We don't live close enough to hang out every day or even every week which is OK. However, we work on the same campus so we can do lunch without the distraction of kids on occasion. Overall, I think this is going to be a positive move for our family. Now if only the traffic didn't drive me crazy.... I'm not use to the constant congestion and the increased length of time to get ANYWHERE. We will adjust. That is our mantra for right now.