a guilty pleasure

Okay people, we all have them. I already told you all about the show Army Wives but I figured I would share yet another.

So a few months before we left West Point my good friend Lavonne (oooh miss her sooo much!) introduced me to this guilty pleasure. She knows I simply LOVE the whole Anne and king Henry era-- who doesn't right? Well, she told me about a series on Showtime called The Tudors and well, from the very first episode, I was hooked! Oh my is this a good show! So I watched the first season on "on demand" while still in NY.

So last week while going through the channels-- which by the way my hubby insisted on the premium package with all of those channels with movies and such-- well, I discovered that season 2 was already on Showtime's "on demand" and yes, I did-- I admit it, I watched all 20 episodes in 7 days! Last weekend Frank was gone so from 9 to 3am I crammed more than half! Yep-- I sacrificed much needed rest for that darn series. Am I a die-hard fan? Probably not, but I sure love me some Tudors!

in case you were wondering...

what the student housing looks like here, I decided I would post some shots that I took the day that we were waiting for the moving truck to bring our household goods. These shots are from 4 August--

Now keep in mind that these houses were tagged and ready for demolition-- that is until some shortages and housing issues arose and of course the best thing and the easiest thing to do was to put us in these very dated and old houses-- some of which don't have a dishwasher! We do, thank heavens! But we are all paying a whole lot of

money-- and well that is all I am going to say about that.

That swing that Alexys is on is by the house-- as you can see, we have tons and tons of beautiful mature trees. They are simply breathtaking! That playground that Frank and the girls are at is one of many that are near. We have one to our left, one to our right, and yet another behind us. The pool is at the end of the block-- seriously, just feet away!

All in all, we are thankful for our home and our family. We always make the best of everything and we have a good time! The kids all like the schools and they are always busy either with friends or with activities.

As soon as we are done clearing up the patio from boxes, I will take more shots of the kids playing outdoors. With all the boxes and junk laying around, I don't really get motivated to get the camera out! Soon to change, though!

Ta-ta for now!

note to self...

Always, ALWAYS, pack all furniture hardware in one box and travel with mentioned box.

JEESH! What an ordeal it has been with a whole lot of hardware missing. Most of the missing stuff was replaced by frequent visits to Home Depot, but when it comes to the girls' bedroom set, what an ordeal!

Their bunk beds use fancy-looking bolts and screws. They can't easily be found-- as a matter of fact, they can NOT be found! The manufacturer (PJ KIDS) is no longer in business and well, it has been a headache. Being that I have quite the intelligent and resourceful husband, he figured out how to fix the situation. Hence, the girls are now finally sleeping in their own bed!

Now, the dining room table hinges... that's for another day...

Moving is not easy by any means. I am happy to report though that the basement is almost there. I have a feeling that by the weekend, it will be operable and habitable! lol

The patio is something I am dreading. It holds all the stuff that was in temporary storage in NY. It is packed! We plan on using the patio as an outdoor living room since it is closed in and screened all around. We will see...

last from the series

sniff...sniff... These shots will be the last ones I share from our last weekend in the city last month. I need to let go and move on... Deep breath.

It is hard to believe that life is back on track. The girls are in school and things are beginning to get into a groove. Grant it, we still have the basement a total disaster and the patio is still covered by the same 20-something boxes... This week hopefully we will do a little more. This past weekend we opened so many basement boxes that we filled our yard with empty, broken down boxes waiting for the garbage day. I just can't wait to be done! The basement is divided into 3 rooms. One will be the laundry room and an entertainment area for the girls. TV center, a table to craft and their kitchen. The other rooms will be an office/toy room and Frank's bike room. Yes, he actually gets one of those. While some guys long for a "dude" room, he asks for a bike room. I guess I can't blame him, he does have many many of them after all.

Alexys began volleyball practice today. We will see how this goes. She practices till 5 and at 6 she has swim practice till 8. Next month her swimming will double up to 5am practice sessions on top of the other. Busy busy girl! On top of this, she has to maintain her awesome grades-- as you can tell by her schedule, she will be one busy girl.

Alanah began gymnastics today as well. She had a blast. I would too if I had the chance to play on all the cool gymnastics equipment!

Angelene starts swim lessons and soccer shortly. She is asking and asking about doing Girl Scouts. I haven't decided on that. I just don't know... With the family's schedule and all... Oh I almost forgot to mention, Frank decided that he wants another Masters to add to the one he already has. So he will be busy with studying for that on top of studying for his regular load. I for one, contemplated getting a job at the kids' school but I just don't think I will be able to handle it with this family's schedule. If I can't have the evenings to tidy-up, then when will I? I have no choice but to have the day to do such activities. For those of you that know me well (most of you do) you know I can be pretty stubborn about house stuff (although I have backed off a bit because of the space issue--what can a girl do?).

I have been very bad about taking my camera out with me. I will definitely do a better job soon.

**NOTE: Blogger seems to be having issues, so I unable to upload shots today. I will try again tomorrow!

latest book

I just finished reading this book: green chic SAVING THE EARTH IN STYLE by Christie Matheson. It was okay--not great but okay. Do I recommend it? yes, especially for those that aren't too informed about living green. A lot of the info in the book is stuff most of us already are aware of, but it offers some savvy suggestions and alternatives. I like the no preaching style and the fact that the author is not advocating total extremist behaviour. If you want more info, look here.

wow, who knew...

That it rained so much here! Now, we lived in Ft. Riley, KS 15 years ago-- Alexys hails from there after all. But I really don't remember this much rain! And it isn't little droplets, it's gigantic showers! We were outside just now-- the girls with the neighborhood kids riding scooters and bikes while I organized my week's menu. I stepped into the house for one minute and when I came back outside, it was pouring! All the kids of course got drenched. No biggie. It is actually a good thing since now I can stay indoors and start tackling the basement boxes!

I have not downloaded any shots from my camera, so I am going to share some that we took the last weekend we were in NY-- our visit through Central Park... sniff sniff...

(BTW-the girls finally got to see Balto!)

quick update

Ok this has to be fast and short-- I am on a community library PC. My triple play with Time Warner finally got hooked up yesterday but Frank has yet to hook up the PCs and the wireless network is not up and running for me to use the laptop. I would have to use it in the basement standing up since there are about 100 boxes in there. We have yet to tackle the basement!

To make a long, LONG story short (I will give details later) I will just say that we are on day 3 of school-- girls and Frank-- and everything is going smooth. We are 90% done with the 1st and 2nd floor but still have the basement and covered patio to get to. UH!

It has been quite the move, I don't know why it is taking longer to unpack everything!

Today was the 1st day I could get a run in! Yay! This morning was the first day that I didn't have to wait at home all day waiting for some service or repair guy to show up-- how I hate the "9-12" thing!

I hope to be up and running by next week so I can add some photos!

I hope everyone is doing well!