Birthdays!!!

Couldn't forget the most important post of all! On Sept 12th Juliana turned 2 and we celebrated both girls' birthdays with a My Little Pony Party. Madison was very excited by the box of yoo-hoo my parents brought for her, as well as a strawberry shortcake doll. Juliana was thrilled by her new backpack and her Dora tricycle. Their big gift was a swing set, given by mommy, daddy, and my parents. It is, as I type this, still being put together, but should be done tomorrow. Then I think that will be the highlight of their birthdays! Here are some pics...

No move for us..

At least not for awhile. Back in August Rich and I went to look at 6 houses in the Gig Harbor area. 3 of them were flat out disgusting, 1 was a great house but too far away from his work, one was too expensive, and one was nice but not much bigger than our current house. We really went through our budget and considered what was available in our price range, and decided that this is not the right time to buy for us. We will reconsider it in 3 years when our current house is paid off and we can rent it out. For now we are staying put, unless of course we win the lottery!

Rich is back teaching and coaching. I am of course looking forward to the end of the season, even though now that he is taking over the head cross country coaching position, he will never really have an off season.

Work is going fine for me. After waiting for a year I was finally able to get a part time position, so I will have my own medical benefits and we can get me off Rich's policy, which is going to save us I think $250-300a month yay! I was already working part time, but this benefitted position is different in that I now have to work 2x a week, whereas before I only HAD to work 4x a month. It will out though. We are still really tightly staffed and expecting an increase in deliveries in November so it should be a busy time.

On to September...

At the beginning of September, our babysitter abruptly announced that she was no longer going to be working for us. By abrupt I mean she gave us 5 days notice. That caused some serious stress and me scrambling around, trying to get my Thursday night shifts covered. Luckily I was able to get them covered, and now we have a new babysitter. Rich's aunt has graciously offered to watch the girls for me. I am so very grateful for this!
While I happened to be searching craigslist for a new sitter, I noticed an ad for a preschool that still had openings. I still didn't have Madison enrolled anywhere because I had thought we would be moving (see next post). We went to visit the preschool right away and loved it. The teacher told me that they only reason they had posted an ad on craigslist was because they and the church they are affiliated with had been mistakenly left out of the phone book. This preschool is usually full in the spring, so were very lucky to get her enrolled there. So I guess I can thank the babysitter for that one! She started the 3rd week of September and so far she loves it. Here are some pics from the first day...

Where do I even begin...

It has been so long since I posted a real update that I have no idea where to begin!

We went to the ocean in August, and it was a ton of fun! The girls had a blast playing in the sand and flying kites. I managed to convince Rich that we should stay the night, so we stayed at The Quinalt Beach Resort and Casino. We have stayed there before and it's really nice. I figured Rich would go for it since he could go down and play in the casino :-). We had a great experience staying in a hotel with the girls at The Great Wolf Lodge so I thought this time would be good too. Wrong! Madison fell asleep as we were waiting in line to eat dinner, and that little 10 minute nap resulted in her being awake until 11pm. Oh well! Here are some pics of our fun!