Monday, June 16, 2008

Zero Hour


Nate sits on the roof trying to de-bird our chimney and other various roof fixtures. Our roof is VERY steep, and our house is VERY tall, so he had to use his climbing gear to get to the top!



Gabriel makes a sign that says "Indy Hoem," meant to say "Indy's Home" as he plays Indiana Jones in our empty UHAUL this past weekend.


Me and my work friends celebrate good friendship at lunch today. It was a great chance to see everybody before I leave. I'll miss you all!!


Well -- it has begun.
Oh my, pray for me dear readers.
It is zero hour.
You've probably been wondering where the heck I've been in the last week! Well, we sold the house! And I have to pack up the entire thing, by myself, in the next four days. How am I doing so far?
WElllllll.... at first I had no fear. I am a WOMAN of course! I can multi-task -- wipe noses, clean poopy diapers, entertain three, make meals and pack an entire household all in one fell swoop!
But today -- so far -- all I've gotten done is the kitchen. And I'm starting to panic a bit. Everyone is showing up on SAtruday morning -- (some on Friday) to load up our two ginormous UHAUL trucks. And I have a terrible fear that I'll be sobbing in a corner, rocking back and forth, mumbling about boxes. (I spent most of today driving all over the place looking for various boxes, because I don't want to break down and spend $3 a box at the UHAUL place. Yes, I'm cheap.
So, while I'm ecstatic to be moving, (even though we don't have a house to move to ... just a storage facility) This week will bring me ulcers never the less! If I survive ... I think Nathan should buy me something sparkly! ;)

Monday, June 09, 2008

Gabe's Graduation

Gabriel graduated kindergarten on Friday. He was so proud, and so were Nathan and I! They celebrated by singing several songs for us and putting on a play, in which Gabriel starred as a monkey. It was great fun! Then they got to do their graduation march, complete with paper hats and "diplomas" with gold ribbons. Check it out!


Me and Gabriel at his big "Graduation" ceremony. I can't believe he's almost a first grader!!!

Rhylah got all dressed up for the occassion, even if she was left out of the action in her umbrella stroller for most of the half hour. Poor girl!

Gabriel and his super cool teacher, Mrs. Foster.

The big graduate! On to Harvard!


I'm not really happy with how blurry this video came out on YouTube...if you could see the real thing, you'd see how big Gabriel is grinning and how pink his face is! Too cute! However, at the beginning, you can hear Asher shouting out "Where's Gabe?" which is mildly entertaining.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Memories worth Making

Other than holding her mouth open like a baby bird -- as far as it will possibly go -- Rhy doesn't usually show much emotion when eating dinner. So this was a huge change. Check out these photos of my little girl having a blast waving her arms around and getting rice cereal ALL over the place!






I'm discovering new joys with my children that I never did before. Being with them, 24/7 as the only parent on duty for most of the week will (I figure) either 1) Make me insane or 2)teach me new things about parenting and patience that I needed to learn anyway. So far, I'm happy to say it's been mostly No. 2 with a few sporadic periods of No. 1 thrown in there for good measure.
Case in point: We had HORRIBLE weather this morning. At 6 a.m. I awoke to the first rumblings of what would be a terrific storm blowing out toward the lake. It was BAD. Well not at first. At first, I relished the feeling of being snug and warm in my bed while the rain beat a staccato rhythm on my window -- you all know that feeling. Our house is one of the tallest in the neighborhood, so I enjoyed the sensation of curling into a ball like a bird high in its nest and grinning into my blankets at the thought of another hour to sleep before my kids woke up. But then the thunder and lightning started. Yee gad. It got ROUGH. And, not having a sleeping bear of a hubby, who is usually so nice about letting me crawl up his armpit when it gets nasty outside and I get frightened -- I did the next best thing. I grabbed Rhylah. She was awake anyway, so I snagged the little cutie and brought her to bed with me, where we held each other like the fraide-cat girls we were. Within minutes, Gabriel and Asher were charging in and under the blankets -- piling in until we were a sort of snug Harrmann pita pocket, with Roxie laying on our feet (yes, she was scared too). The point of this whole story is that this morning was wonderful. We hugged each other and giggled into the covers -- we jumped at the loud lightning and Gabriel counted the distance between the flash and the sound while Rhylah clutched Asher's hand (Roxie tried as best as she could to get into Rhylah's lap ... those two have a strange bond -- I'm convinced Roxy thinks Rhy is her pup or something...)
So we made a memory. A rather good one at that. And I'm finding that these days that we're marching through so VERY slowly without Nathan, can be useful afterall. Can be GOOD, even if we miss our sweetie with all our hearts.
So yes, I'm having some good parenting moments in this whole moving mess. It's nice to know that life has it's moments of beauty, even in the midst of chaos!

(addendum: I found out later, to my shock, that we were under a tornado watch all morning ... so perhaps next time it sounds bad out, I will get my lazy butt out of bed and head to lower ground a bit sooner! YIKES!)

Sunday, June 01, 2008

A nice day for the world to change...

Here are some photos of our fun time down at the beach this afternoon! It was Rhylah's first experience with sand! It's also our last day of normalcy, as Nathan heads to his new job, which he starts tomorrow! WOW. A whole lot of change for us Harrmanns!



Rhylah and mommy on the beach


Miss Rhylah with a mouth full of sand. Yummy!



Asher grins at the camera.


Gabriel, crossing the Delaware.


A "Team Harrmann" pile of sandals.


I know she's making a weird face here, but I LOVE the seagull footprints in the sand all around her.


Daddy gets some snuggle time with his princess.