update and misc thoughts... i'm just happy i blogged :)

I hope everyone hasn't completely given up on me and my blogging abilities.  I have big plans to catch up people. BIG plans. And let it be stated that I WILL blog about Thailand as soon as I get the chance because if I don't blog about one of the most incredible trips we have ever taken, then there is no hope for me as a blogger or as a human being. Until I do my catching up and blog consistently, I am going to do a little catch up and jot some thoughts and experiences down before I forget to do it.  Deep breath...

Purely Update:

- After we moved, we went to Seattle for a few days for a house hunting trip. We almost found a place that was just beautiful and I fell in love and it was in our price range, and then the owner decided to rent to his brother.  Lame. Long story short, we didn't find anything on our house hunting trip.  

-From Seattle we went to California to visit family.  We did lots of driving, visiting, swimming, playing with all sorts of animals, and we even got to have a little reunion with some of our Duke friends.  These are friends that you don't really expect to see in person for years as we all spread out all over the country for various jobs and internships and so it was a really big treat. 

- After Cali we went to visit my brother Scott and his family in Henderson, NV.  Long story short, it was so fun, relaxing, and HOT!  We also celebrated Nate's birthday there.

- From Cali we went to UT for a couple of weeks to visit family, friends, and to participate in the first half of our Wright family reunion.  Big news since we got there... Nate got a haircut.  I liked his long hair (when he actually styled it) but I have to admit, he is looking fine with the shorter hair! We went to seven peaks like a bajillion times, trafalga, and we had some non-stop cousin play time.Plus, I got to meet my MS pen-pals that I've been emailing for months!  I LOVE those girls!  It was pretty awesome.

- And now we are here in Seattle.  Nate started work and he is enjoying it so far. We have been in corporate housing on the beautiful Mercer Island with a pool in our apartment complex (read: heaven). I've been spending my days with my kids and friends that I made last year during all our internships.  It's been so fun seeing familiar faces and it's like we haven't spent any time apart at all. We found a home in Bothell, which is about 35 minutes north of downtown. I was really really hoping to be close to the city, but let's be honest, when you have student loans like we do and want to live in a decent place, that option just becomes pretty unrealistic. The commute to downtown is probably the only down side to this place because it's a great house, it's pretty big (for us at least), has a fenced in yard, and we got a heck of a deal for it. Plus, almost everyone rides the bus into the city anyway and since Amazon gives their employee's a bus pass so we don't have to worry about gas. Win-win-win... win. :)

Thoughts/Experiences:

- It seems like the blogs that are really popular are ones where the author never uses capital letters, comma's, and/or proper sentence formation and heck, I kind of love those writer's too. However, whenever I try this on my own, I get a yucky feeling and I hang my head in shame for my inability to write in such a cool, trendy way.  It should also be noted that I am definitely an over-user of exclamation points, I probably misuse comma's and I have no idea if it's over-user, overuser, or over user.  I just guess and convince myself it's wright.  I mean right. :)

- With the constant access to our pool, Lyla has learned to swim without her floaties!  At first she was too afraid to try, but since our pool is only 3ft 3in at its deepest, she can stand with her head about the water, making her feel much more confident.  

- Is it me or is the curriculum at preschool's a total joke?  Lyla will start kindergarten next year and we are trying to make sure she is nice and ready.  But it seems to me that the preschools I've looked at are more of a daycare program than anything else.  The biggest thing they learn is their letters and sounds they make, but that is something we've been teaching the kids in our preschool co-op for the past two years!  Lyla knows this stuff already and she is starting to read words and is ready to start reading books!  Not re-learn her letters! Grrr!  I'm having a hard time justifying paying for preschool when it really will be more of a daycare than anything else.  

- Apparently our house is right on the border of the cruddy school district.  Lyla would probably just do kindergarten and possibly 1st grade there so I'm not sure how much it matters.  But with my annoyance at preschool curriculum out here, maybe I should just do home school.  

- We saw Monster's University and it was really cute!  My girls mostly loved it but the part where they are teaching them how to really scare little children in their beds at night was a little scary for my little children.  Duh.

- I have been the worst at making dinner's lately.  Between Nate suddenly going vegetarian, moving, traveling and just not being settled, I've probably only made 5 normal dinner's. The other night I made my first real meal in a while and Lyla proclaimed that it was a delicious dinner and Ruby gobbled it up.  It was only tortellini, bread, salad and fruit.  I guess I can only go up from here. My kids really need some normalcy here.

- I am realizing that my ever-so-obedient daughter Lyla has her limits.  We've been going non-stop and playing really hard the past several weeks and twice, when Lyla was just sooo tired, she had epic meltodown's/tantrums.  The first happened in Utah.  The trigger?  She told me she was tired and wanted to sleep, and when I said "Ok, why don't we lay down for a nap"?, she exploded.  It starts as a fuss and when we tried to talk to her calmly about it, it turned into crazy Lyla. There was crying, screaming, yelling, hitting and kicking. She threw everything within reach at me because I was blocking her way out her door (which I told her she needed to calm down before we let her out).  She even screamed "I HATE you! I HATE Seattle!" Honestly, Nate and I were so surprised at this because it was SO out of character for our sweet girl that we just did our best not to laugh.  Seriously, it was so weird and it was like a demon had taken over her body.  She was not herself! 45 minutes later, she calmed down and took a nap because she was, of course, exhausted. Tantrum #2 happened just yesterday except it was in the car while we were stuck in traffic.  We were at the zoo all day, then drove 45 minutes to get Lyla a place in a preschool in case we decide to do it, and then we drove home right during rush hour.  LONG day and Lyla was super tired.  I'll spare you the details but let's just say it was another 45-minute long explosion, there were expressions of hatred toward me, she threw a bottle at my head while I was driving, and there were moments where she truly reminded me of a hungry zombie from the Walking Dead.  Did I mention this was all while sitting in traffic?  She eventually calmed down about 10 minutes after we got home and she was very sweet afterwards and was trying to make up for her behavior.  I was exhausted and I don't think I really realized it until Nate walked in the door and I just started sobbing because I was so glad he was home.  So, moral of the story, we need to get back into a routine and I need to make sure my kids aren't pushed past their limits or they will eat your brains. :)

- Lyla is probably the healthiest child I know.  She loves all fruits and vegetables.  She actually prefers them over everything else.  She eats tomatoes like they are apples. And she loves salad. She tells Ruby that water is the best drink for your body. She once told me her tummy was hurting and she thought it was because she had too much candy. Who is this kid?

- Ruby, on the other hand, is the total opposite.  While she does love most fruits, she does not like most vegetables.  She doesn't like salad. She likes carbs and candy. I just found out she LOVES tortellini. She also loves to eat slices of lemon and lime and when she finishes she says, "I don't like it". 

- Rube has also hit the terrible two's.  She is really into fussing.  I swear it's because we don't have a routine. I think all problems will be solved once we are settled into a routine.  Anxiously awaiting this day.

- We get to move into our new house in 1 week! We actually get the keys in six days but then we get our stuff in 7. 

- Several months ago, Lyla started requesting 3-4 times a day for us to tell her a story or a dream that we had.  It's actually pretty cute but after a couple of days you just run out of stories! I was terrible at making up stories but let me brag about myself a moment, I am becoming a pretty awesome story teller these days.  My stories are much more complex, have life lessons mixed in, and the girls love them. Excuse me while I go pat myself on the back.

- A little while ago I accidentally showed Lyla a video of a giraffe giving birth.  Ever since then, she keeps requesting the giraffe video where the baby giraffe comes out of the mom's butt.  Nice.

- I recently went to Ikea for the first time.  $65 later, I am a convert.  That place is amazing.

- Nate and I have seriously struggled with FHE.  It's kind of embarrassing and not something I like to admit and I won't even get into how bad at it we are.  But, we have made some serious improvements and I feel like we finally have a desire and excitement to get into it and just back on track.  Wish us luck.

- Living out of your suitcase for a month is doable. Living out of your suitcase beyond that month is when people start to go a little crazy.  We are about 2 weeks into crazy town. 1 week to go.

- Lyla makes me laugh every time she dances.  She is such a goober. :)

- Ruby has one of the most convincing fake laugh's I've ever heard.  It's pretty funny when you catch it.

- My girls truly are best buds and they adore each other. I love that about them.

- The girls also LOVE to take pictures.  This has been a new and exciting thing in our house and they are getting pretty good.  However, I will often find hundreds of photo's of nothing or the same thing that they took when I wasn't looking. But Lyla was taking pics of our apartment and she said it was because she liked it and wanted to remember it when we left. Way to document! So cute! 

- We live next to an exotic bird store and there is this huge blue parrot there that is the store owner's pet.  Hatchling's of such a species go for around $15,000. For a bird.  

- What I'm about to say has nothing to do with what I think about how my children look.  I think they are both so beautiful and in different ways.  Seriously, they're pretty cute.  But, we have discovered what our kids look like when they sleep.  Ruby is a beautiful sleeper.  She looks like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, just calmly sleeping like an angel with a peaceful expression on her face.  Lyla, bless her heart, sleeps like an ogre.  She smashes her face in the corners, falls off the bed, sleeps in positions that can only be described as uncomfortable, has her mouth hanging open and usually one eye is partially open as well.  And when she sleeps in the car, she looks like she is dead.  Ruby takes after Nate. Lyla takes after me. Sorry, Ly. 

- I have realized I am a blanket girl.  I feel so uncomfortable sitting on couches with no blanket. Needless to say, we bought a blanket to tie us over until we get our stuff back.

- I posted this on instagram, so this is kind of a repeat. For the past 3 years I have bought Nate various gifts (watches, a guitar, an electric shaver), all things he has said he wanted. Almost every single gift went returned at the store.  Finally, I gave him a late Father's Day gift and he actually loves it, uses it every day, and it makes him feel like a man. What is it?  A small basketball hoop that hangs on a door.  He's like a big kid.

- Getting a king size bed was one of the best purchases we have made as a couple. It probably saved our marriage.  Not that it needed saving. 

- And lastly, jetted bathtubs gross me out, especially if you are not the first to use it.  I had a bad experience with this a few years back and haven't used one since.  

Get ready for some amazing phone pics:

Nate on his first day of work at Amazon.  Or as we like to see it, the first day of the rest of our lives.

One of Ruby's photo's.  I usually have to fix her aim at the last second but she has started to get most of our heads.

Ruby chose to take her one-armed lion for her stuffed animal while everything else went in storage.

Lyla stole a flower from Grandma Dana's grave.  I don't think Grandma Dana minded :)

Isn't Nate sooo lucky to have such an attractive wife? ;)

We're getting pretty good at silly selfie's.