Gone to the Dark Side

What is that thing parked in my driveway? Surely, it can't be a minivan (it is, and don't call me Shirley - just for you Court). And if it is a minivan, it most certainly can not belong to me. Because I said I would never own a minivan. Never ever ever ever ever. In my group of girlfriends, we affectionately refer to the purchase of a minivan as "crossing over to the dark side", and indeed I have done just that. Last week we bought a new 2007 Nissan Quest, and the worst part of it is, I love it.

It was hard to drive away from the car lot and wave goodbye to the X-terra, which I had loved so dearly for so long. But the simple truth is we had outgrown the X-terra. We needed a vehicle that would accomodate 3 car seats, and the X-terra couldn't hack it. Are you silently doing the math in your head and trying to figure out why the car needs to hold 3 car seats when I only have 2 children? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.

Yep, another Alderman is on the way. We found out the Tuesday of moving week that I am expecting again, and let me tell you, it added a whole new dimension to the move! I'm due at the end of February, and we are very excited about adding another member to the family. It will be total chaos around here, but I have been assured there is something freeing in that chaos, and so I am taking some comfort in that.

So, other than that, there's not a whole lot going on around here - ha! I have been enjoying the tomato plants that the previous owners left behind, and I even had a chance to make some tomato sauce last night...mmmm, so good.

Movin' Out

We're here! We're really, really here in the new house in Carmel, IN. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy. The wound is still a little too fresh to recount the entire saga of our "move from hell", but I can offer these three criteria by which to judge if the moving company you hired is run by a complete psychopath:

1) At 12:30pm on moving day, with nearly half of you belongings packed up on his truck, does your mover suggest, "If there was anything you were thinking of leaving behind, I'd go ahead and do it."

2) At 8:30pm on Day 1 of the move (which is the same time the mover had promised he would have you moved and unloaded to the new house) does your mover pull away from the old house with all of your patio furniture and your grill bungee-corded to the back of his truck to store your belongings at his house overnight?

3) Does your mover (who also happens to be president and owner of this moving company) arrive on Day 2 of the move (there was never supposed to be a Day 2) three hours late and still drunk from the night before?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then your mover is definately certifiable. On the good news side of things, we haven't found any major breaks with any of our stuff, and everything did make it here (so we think).

We love the new neighborhood and have already met many of our neighbors - Casey even attended his first birthday party last week for a little girl across the street. I'm starting to locate where everything is and can now find the essentials (Kroger, Target, Costco, etc.) on my own. I have to admit to feeling a little homesick for the old house and Louisville - I miss the familiarity of the city and having my things in all their places.

I've also been working hard this week on the new photography website, and I should have it live by the end of the week. It's really looking good, and I have already lined up a new client (a neighbor is due with a baby boy in a few weeks and asked me to do a newborn shoot). This area is full of small children and so I am hoping it will be a good move for my business. I have ordered some new equipment and am working on a marketing campaign, so stay tuned for updates on Alderman Photography.

I need to get back to unpacking and trying to keep the kids off the boxes (my living room is a bit of a death trap right now!). We're here, and I guess we're Hoosiers now (I even have the Colts license plate to prove it!).

Mutual Respect

Some mornings when the boys get up at the same time Casey likes to crawl into Connor's crib and hang out for a bit. I took this pic this morning and the way they are looking at each other just kills me. I know they're my kids and so I'm a wee bit biased, but they're so damn cute sometimes I just can't stand it.

And guess who decided to start climbing the stairs last night? Yep. Add that to the list of "Learning New Skills at the Least Convenient Time Possible for Mom."

Saturday night I saw The Police in concert with Christa, and a very good time was had by all (a better time was had by some, but that's another story, right Cree?). I have decided to go vegan and start daily yoga sessions because Sting looked way too good for his age. He just might be one of the sexiest human beings on the planet. Next to my husband, of course. :) I'm still trying to understand how I develop all these crushes on rock stars (John Mayer & Dave Matthews being past victims) and yet I managed to marry a dentist. Oh well, c'est la vie!

Winner

I very rarely enter contests, because I have so rarely ever won anything. But last week this company, Blu Domain, that designs websites for professional photographers (I have been lusting after their designs for quite some time) was celebrating their anniversary by hosting a bunch of photo contests. Late last Friday I entered one, and could hardly believe my eyes when I checked their blog this morning to find that I had won! My prize is a free website design, and a discount on a year of hosting. According to the post on their site, they had over 500 entries for this contest and picked just three winners! Here's a link to check out my goods if you're interested:http://76.163.83.176/blog.cfm?catID=4. The image I submitted isn't a new one, but it's a goodie and it was an amazing boost to my self-esteem to be chosen. I can't wait to get the new site up and running - I will be completely revamping the entire look of Jennifer Alderman Photography. Stay tuned for links to the new site when it goes online, and beware that the current site will probably go offline starting tomorrow.

Bad Dog

Sure, she looks innocent enough. But look closely at this photo. Notice the ears laid back. The tail tucked under. The look in her eyes that says, "I'm sorry I was a bad dog."

I woke up this morning to find my diaper bag knocked over on the floor with a mutilated and empty box of baby cookies lying on the floor next to the bag. The suspect soon presented herself, and it was quite obvious from her entire body language that she was guilty. I gave her a stern admonishment, and sent her outside for a doggy time-out. I took this photo after she had some time to think about what she did.

See, this isn't the first time Ani's performed this sort of crime. While we were at the grocery store on Thursday she knocked over a box of her own cookies and managed to eat half of them (without destroying the box, so I didn't notice for several days - she might be bad but at least she's usually clever). And a few years ago when I was pregnant with Casey and Rob was in Texas for several months she chewed a hole in our couch while trying to chase a sleeve of graham crackers that had fallen under the couch. Do you see the pattern of criminal activity here?

Rob was gone all last week, and he came home yesterday for a quick visit and left again very early this morning. I can only assume that Ani's compulsive cookie stealing is the result of some sort of coping mechanism to deal with missing her Daddy. I guess we all have our means of coping - Casey throws tantrums, Connor cries for two hours straight in the afternoons, Ani steals cookies, and I drink boxes of wine after everyone goes to sleep. So I suppose I shouldn't be too angry with her. She's just trying to get through the next few weeks like the rest of us. She's not really a bad dog, just a lonely one.

P.S. I stepped out on the deck Friday night after getting the boys to bed and snapped this photo of the beautiful colors in the evening sky. I'd love to paint the ceiling of my bedroom to look like this, but I'm pretty sure Rob would have me committed. I might have to settle for a painting - I wonder if Sara is up for any commissions?

I Lub You. You're My Best Friend Ever.

Overheard today from Casey talking to Connor.

The Big 32

Today is a big day for Rob. I mean, major, huge, big-time big. He was up at the crack of dawn this morning to drive to Ft. Knox to officially sign out and discharge from the Army. He then changed clothes and pointed his car north and is on his way to Indy to begin the first day of his new residency, and he has his first night of call tonight. All this, and today is his 32nd birthday! I guess if you're going start something new, start big!

And just in case anyone was wondering, I have tried a few recipes from the much-anticipated Rachel Ray cookbook. The best was this Spinach & Artichoke Pasta, which tasted like the appetizer you get in a restaurant but with cheese raviolli in it. As Rachel would say, "Yummo!" (and then I would slap her because I hate it when she says that).

The Best Parts of Summer

Last Friday we loaded up the double stroller and headed over to St. Aloysius' picnic. We didn't stay long due to the ominous dark clouds hovering over the picnic (we left just before it stormed!) but we made the most of our quick trip. Casey enjoyed the inflatable bouncers, and we enjoyed running into some folks we didn't expect to see, including Monnica's sisters and baby Adeline (Monnica - I hope you are feeling better - I wish we had run into you too!). We treated Casey to his first taste of cotton candy, and I think Rob & I enjoyed watching him as much as he enjoyed eating the treat! It made us both think about being a kid and the best parts about summer - staying up late, having special treats, and going someplace fun with your family in the warm nighttime air.

First, he eyed it suspiciously:

Then he jumped in for the first bite:

And found that he liked it very, very much:

Drink Your Ovaltine

Imagine my delight and excitement when checking the mail this afternoon and discovering that after 4 and a half months of waiting, my free Rachel Ray cookbook from Nabisco had finally arrived! My Mom had actually teased me a few months back that when I finally received the cookbook it would say nothing inside but "Drink Your Ovaltine" (remember the kid from "A Christmas Story"?), but nothing could dampen my anticipation about the free cookbook.

See, around the holidays last year Nabisco had this promotion for a free cookbook from Rachel Ray, and all you had to do to get one was send in 6 proofs of purchase coupons from boxes of Wheat Thins and $4.95 for shipping & handling. And that was really easy for me since I consume about 3 boxes of Wheat Thins a week. OK, that might be a slight exageration. But I could certainly plow through one in a single sitting if I didn't exercise restraint. I don't know what's in those things, but I suspect some combination of sugar, wheat, and crack, but I digress. So I saved up the cracker points, sent in my check, and began my long wait. I understand that this might seem a little pathetic, seeing as how I could just go over to Barnes & Noble at any point, plunk down $18.95 and just buy the damn cookbook, but that's not the point. There is just something about sending away for something for "free", and then the joy of receiving it in the mail. I don't know how to describe it. But I know this - if you make fun of me for getting so worked up over a free cookbook, I will not cook for you. You'll have Ovaltine for dinner instead.

This is Indiana

Hmmm, somehow I thought it would be bigger. OK, so this isn't really Indiana, but that was the announcement Casey made as he was putting these blocks together this morning. As he was playing he looked up and exclaimed, "Mommy! This is Indiana, and I am moving to my new house in Indiana." It was a bit of a relief to hear that he has some understanding of everything going on around here, and that he seems to be OK with all the "newness". Things are progressing as we cross more and more details of moving off our list, and the closer we get the harder it becomes to think about the reality of leaving this house, this city.

Equally hard to leave will be our neighbors, who we have developed a genuine friendship with, not to mention Casey LOVES playing with them all. He's become sorta' like Norm from "Cheers" - when he walks outside they all shout "Casey!". Saturday night the kids got to stay up late and play in their inflatable pool. It was one of those great summer nights - a spontaneous gathering of friends where the kids chased each other and caught fireflies. We will miss these occasions immensely.

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday, and Casey & Rob celebrated the Card's win in the College World Series by playing a little T-ball in the backyard. Connor watched from the sidelines with that look in his eye that said, "If I could walk I'd go over there and knock one out of the yard.", and no doubt he will be before too long.

Eight's the Magic Number

On Monday we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary by working on the 5th & 6th counter-offers on the new house in Carmel (more on that later), eating leftovers for dinner, and doing the boys' laundry. I know, I know, the romance is almost sickening around here. Actually, Rob did surprise me with the beautiful bouquet pictured above, which was very sweet and very unexpected. He knows how much I like purple and he thought this would be different than your typical arrangement of roses, and I love that he put some thought into what to order. I find it hard to believe it has been EIGHT years, and yet I find it hard to believe it has ONLY been eight years.

On the homefront, we put a contract on a house in Carmel Saturday evening, and 8 (yes, count 'em folks, 8!) counter-offers later we finally reached an agreement. Whew! I thought buying a house would be the easy part. Our inspection was last Friday, and the buyer's realtor said it was the cleanest inspection report she had ever seen (which convinced us even further that our first inspector was a complete whack-job). So we finally have a rough date penciled in for our closings, July 13 (which is also a Friday - HA,HA,HA,HA,CHE,CHE,CHE,CHE) and now we're down to the dreaded details of packing all our belongings and moving them 130 miles north. Ugh, I can't even think about that right now. I'd much prefer to think about these 2 boys who couldn't possibly be any cuter playing in their $8 Wal-Mart baby pool. I'm starting to think maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket using only the number 8 since this seems to be the magic number this week.

Don't Stop

Or actually I should have titled this post "Can't Stop". After watching the series finale of "The Sopranos" Sunday night, I can't seem to stop singing that damn Journey song they used at the end. I can't stop thinking about the ending, or the episode as a whole. I can't stop believing that it truly was the perfect ending for this unique show. Sure, at first I was irritated along with the majority of other fans for the abrupt ending leaving us all hanging (not to mention momentarily thinking that our DVR was broken). But the more time I've had to reflect on the entire series, (and watch it over again) and although I can think of a few more satisfying endings, I cannot imagine a more perfect one. Not to mention that we watched the final episode with Christa & John after enjoying Carmella's Ziti made from the recipe in The Soprano Family Cookbook. I also made cannolis in honor of poor Bobby Bacalieri and in homage to "The Godfather" ("Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.")

My theory is that David Chase finally proved the point he's been trying to make for 8 years. We are who we are, and no amount of money, power, family, or therapy can change that. If you were raised by a mother who withheld love and a violent mob-boss father, chances are you are going to be pretty screwed up. And if you are raised by a pampering, passive mother and a violent mob-boss father, again, chances are you are going to spend a good chunk of adulthood paying for some shrink's new Lexus. And the words of Livia Soprano rang true, "You are all alone in this world". Tony was left with more widows than earners on his payroll, and although his family is intact, are they still together because of love and loyalty, or because of the individual benefits each is receiving? Do I agree with Chase's take on family? Not necessarily. But did I enjoy the heck out of watching it all play out? You betcha. Not to mention that the finale was full of the hilarious little moments that only this can provide, such as:

*Our last image of Paulie, sunning himself with a reflector in front of Satriales, after being teased by Tony for admitting that he once saw the Virgin Mary at The Bing.

*Meadow: "What I said was, the state can crush the individual"

Tony: "New Jersey?"

*Agent Harris slapping his desk and exclaiming "We're gonna' win this thing!" after hearing of Phil's death

*The look Carmela gave Tony as he began to "go on and pity about" himself with AJ's shrink

*When Janice told Uncle Junior that Bobby was dead, his response was "Ambassador Hotel"

Anyway, it was a great ride, and I don't think we'll ever see anything quite like it again.

A Real Deal

We finally got the call on Friday, and after a bit of negotiating we agreed to a contract on the house Saturday night! We're very pleased with how things have progressed so far, and are keeping our fingers crossed that we sail through the inspection, etc. It seems to be one of those rare situations where everyone involved is happy with the outcome. We'll be heading back to Indy this weekend to look at another round of houses with the hopes of this being the last trip. Our neighbors threw us an impromptu celebration in the driveway last night. We all sat around in tailgate chairs drinking cold Coronas while the kids chased each other and lamented that we really didn't want to leave this place. And in the midst of all this house craziness, Connor started crawling. He's been scooting around for the past few weeks, but as of Friday he's in full-on crawl mode, and as expected into EVERYTHING!

Waiting is the Hardest Part

We've been basically watching the phone and waiting for it to ring for the past 2 days. We had a potential buyer come through the house on Sunday and received word from her realtor Monday that it was her top choice, that the couple needed to make a decision this week, and that she just wanted to come by again with her mother to take another look since her husband was unable to come in town to see it in person (she apparently took tons of pics and sent to him over the weekend). She asked for our disclaimer and basically said we were getting an offer without directly saying we were getting an offer. She came back with her mom late Tuesday evening, and we haven't heard anything since. The waiting is killing us. So keep all your fingers and toes crossed for us - we are ready to move forward!

Embarrassed in Target; Part II

I knew it would happen again, it was only a matter of time. Last week during our bi-weekly trip to Target, I was browsing some tops in the ladies department, which sits right across the aisle from ladies lingerie. A huge poster of a woman modeling the newest bra style hung over a large rack (no pun intended) of bras, and much to my dismay this display did not escape Casey's eagle eyes. Here's how the following exchange went:

Casey: "What are those, Mommy?"
Me: "Bras, Casey." (as quietly as possible)
Casey: (in his LOUDEST "inside" voice) "Nope, those are boobs Mommy!"
Me: (again, quietly) "OK, thank you."
Casey: (loud voice) "And YOU have BOOBS Mommy!"
Me: (now trying to hide under my cart) "Yes, Casey. I have boobs."
Casey: "Those are boobs. And you have boobs. Boobs. Boooooobs. BOOOOBS!!!"
And then he began to sing a little song - "Boooobs, boobs, boouuaaaahhhuuuubs!"

Needless to say, we were the hit of the ladies department. Several woman just snickered to themselves, but a few others had enough pity on me to giggle while nodding sympathetically at us. I shiver to think what my next public embarrassment will entail.

Getting Better

I've been really working hard lately on my photography - trying to take lots of practice shots and really trying hard to better understand the best way to operate the camera in different lighting conditions. Most professional photographers will say that it is not the camera that matters, but the light. Anyway, I've had 3 photo sessions this month (a new record - ring the bell!) and feel like I am improving with each one. However, my poor children remain my primary test subjects. Connor is a bit easier at this stage than Casey, and trying to get one of the two of them together is nearly impossible, but here are a few recent pics that I am pretty proud of.

Here's What Connor Thinks About Teething

Mother's Day

It's a beautiful day here in Louisville and we've been enjoying this Mother's Day together. The boys gave me a silver frame from Pottery Barn, and we went to brunch at The Bristol and then to the park. I took lots of photos, and it's going to be a tough decision on which one to chose to fill my new frame. You can check out some of the photos here: www.flickr.com/gp/68805461@N00/77Wi2K

New Pastimes

Lately it feels like all we do is clean, organize, and then get the heck out of the house so someone else can come in and poke around through our belongings. But we do other stuff, too. Like when it's rainy outside, we build castles so Casey can pretend he's a "knipe".

And Casey has finally taken up golf. Whew! We were starting to worry that our hopes of him becoming the next Tiger Woods were in vain. Look at that swing! He's a natural!

Connor continues to teethe - but look! Results! His first two teeth appeared early last week. Although he is sleeping better, as you can tell from the photo they have not helped to improve his overall disposition. Actually, he is a pretty happy boy. When he's not screaming.

Puppy Love

One of the sweetest elements of life around here is the mutual love between Ani & the boys. I'm always surprised at our pet's capacity to love, and that nobody ever had to show Ani how to love these babies - she just knew. I feel so deeply for the people who have lost pets recently with the pet food contaminations, and it makes me all the more thankful that we have had her for nearly ten years now.

Not A Morning Person

I may have to order this on a coffee mug from cafepress.com for myself and all the women in my family...

Trouble

On Saturday, I got into the shower while Casey was watching a video in our room and Connor was napping. When I got out of the shower this is what I found...

Psych!

Silly, silly girl. You actually believed you had sold your house? Not so! You might as well have been playing with the school bully who, after offering you the Oreos from his lunch bag, snatched them back from your little fingers while yelling, "Psyyych!". MAJOR burn, dude.
Actually, not so much burned as unwilling to give in to unreasonable demands made on the behalf of your buyer. Or maybe just naive to think that just because you sold your house at a discount from the asking price that you didn't have to pay for upgrades that the buyer desired. Oh well, another day, another lesson learned.
And we feel quite a bit better about the whole situation now that we have this guy out of our hair, and we're ready to move on and sell this baby to someone who will appreciate her as we have. Or at least not want to knock out walls and expect us to pay for it.

Peep!

I decided to distract myself from "The Great Move of '07" by crocheting a bunch of these little chicks to put in the boys' Easter baskets. The yarn is really fuzzy which made it a challenge at first, but now I'm totally addicted to making them and can make several an hour.

Casey is getting into the Easter spirit by sporting these bunny ears he made at storytime this morning.

And Connor just keeps rolling with it. Literally. Since he isn't really mobile yet, if he sees something on the floor he wants he just rolls himself over and over until he gets there. Pretty clever, if you ask me (but I'm his mother so I think everything he does is genius).

Housing Blues

The good news: We sold our house! The bad news: We sold our house!

After receiving a ridiculously low initial offer (try almost 6% less than asking price plus an additional cash request to pay for his closing and to "change the paint colors of the home") and several subsiquent days of negotiations, a buyer finally agreed to our second counter-offer on the house, and we rejoiced momentarily. Then the reality of our timeline set in - closing and moving in 5 weeks! I was informed at 10pm on Sunday night that the house inspection was at 12:30pm the next day, and so after spending another somewhat disapointing day on the hunt for a new house in Indy, I scurried around and straightened the house up so it was presentable for inspection. Our buyer apparently hired the team from C.S.I. to come out here and inspect every nook and cranny of our house as the inspection took 3.5 hours to complete. I was just waiting for them to break out the blacklight and scan the carpet for blood stains, and I'm pretty sure he took hair samples from my brush for DNA analysis. This morning we received his laundry list of requests, which basically amounted to a bunch of stuff he wants us to pay to have done in an effort to get us back down to his original asking price. I've had a bad feeling about this whole deal since the first offer came in - I feel like the turtle in "Over the Hedge" whose tail tingles when something isn't right, and my tail has been working overtime for the past week. All I keep asking myself is, "Does it really have to be this hard?". We're trying to keep our humor and sanity intact, but the stress of this entire process is starting to wear on the entire family (is Casey "playing" with Connor, or taking out his 2 yr-old frustrations? You be the judge.)

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share a shot of the jersey Brian Brohm autographed for me. I think Rob is just a wee bit more excited about it than I am, but since Brohm is becoming Rob's Manning, I guess I can understand.

Go Sit in the Port-A-Let!

While sitting here waiting for our real estate agent to call us back about ANOTHER counter-offer we have made (jeez people, just buy our damn house already!) I thought I would share with you the funniest skit on SNL in a long time.

Stressed Out

All this moving business has me stressed to the max. Seriously stressed. Drinking-vodka-from-the-bottle-at-1-in-the-afternoon-in-my-closet kinda' stressed. Between all the showings last week (8 total) and driving to Indy on Saturday to look at houses (and realizing that we were going to have to spend more than we wanted to) and the crappy offer we received on our house Sunday, Momma is VERY close to the end of her rope. I was laying in bed last night internally debating about whether or not to go out today and buy annuals to plant out front to help with "curb appeal", and also considering performing a little voodoo Catholicism by burying a St. Joseph statue upside down in the backyard (family folklore swears by this method to help you sell your house) when I realized that this whole process is quickly making me a crazy person.

So I've decided I need 2 things to help bring me back to a peaceful, tranquil state (ha!):

1) A pedicure, because my toes were not prepared for this unseasonably warm weather we are having, and looking at their shaggy condition makes me sad;

2) This new bubble machine, because Casey LOVES bubble machines (who doesn't?!?) and this one is the mack-daddy - it blows bubbles inside giant bubbles!

I'm pretty sure that playing outside with our new awesome bubble machine while staring at my perfectly manicured toes will make me feel much, much better, regardless of whether or not St. Joe is out there with us.

Erin Go Braugh

You'd expect a girl with "Erin" as her middle name to be up on all the St. Patrick's Day celebrations, and although I've unofficially celebrated Green Beer Day a few times with my friends, I had no idea that an actual celebration existed. Those clever students at Miami University of Ohio created "Green Beer Day" (some say the tradition was started in 1952), celebrated every Thursday before St. Pat's day to help kick off their spring break. Bars in the small college town of Oxford open at 5:30am so that patrons can enjoy a full day of green beer before students head out of town on Friday (with, one could assume, the largest annual collective hangover on record). Here's the link if you don't believe me: www.greenbeerday.com. Apparently, the administration of Miami highly disapproves of GBD, which seems to strengthen it's appeal to students. Go figure.

I'm hoping to partake in some sort of St. Patty's celebration tommorow as Kathy and Courtney will be in town to run the City Run. The mastitis I've been battling this week made the decision for me not to join them, but I still hope to toast their successes at some point. And I'll have to dig out the "'Tis Himself" T and see if it fits either of the boys, as that has become tradition in our house.

Sciarpa

I finally finished my "DIY" Christmas gift from my Mom. She brought me back 4 skeins of this really beautiful yarn from her trip to Italy so I could make myself a really long, skinny scarf. I rarely treat myself to expensive yarn so this was alot of fun to work with, and I love the way it turned out. But by far the most interesting part about this project was my effort to find the Italian word for scarf to use as a title for this post. I found an English-to-Italian online dictionary, and was given 3 results for my query of the word "scarf". Sciarpa is the translation of the noun scarf, and mettere la sciarpa is the translation of "to wear a scarf". And then for the third translation I received: "masturbarsi strangolandosi", which means "to masterbate while strangling oneself". Hello, I'm sorry? What? Is this a phrase that commonly needs translating into Italian? What kind of freak is checking on this phrase before vacationing in Italy? Mom - maybe you should check with Carol on her Italian, because we may have solved the mystery of why the man at the drugstore was so rude to you two.

Pop-aholic

While searching online for bubble wrap that has adhesive on one side to help make the packing process a bit easier (I had read about it in a magazine) I found this seriously addictive website that lets you virtually pop packing bubbles, which happens to be one of my favorite pasttimes. This has helped me find my "happy place" in the middle of all this moving insanity...
http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml

On the Market

Yep - that's a "For Sale" sign in our front yard, as we officially put the house on the market yesterday. We've told Casey that he can pick out the color of his room in the new house (current pick: yellow. We'll be working on that.) and that we will get a swingset for the backyard of the new house, so we are fielding daily questions about where his new house is and when can he go play on his swingset. In hindsight we may have jumped the gun on the new house discussions with him just a little bit.

We've been busting our butts getting the house cleaned and ready to show, and I can't help but notice the irony that our houses never seem to look better than when we are about to leave them. Perhaps that's something to work on in new the house, but I don't know how realistic (or fun) that idea is with two kids and a dog. Maybe "lived in yet organized" is a better goal.

What Snow?

Perhaps allowing Casey to watch the Caillou episode about "winter fun" several times was a mistake, because now he is obsessed with playing out in the snow. The only problem is that we've only received a few pitiful inches here in Louisville, which is not nearly enough of the white stuff to go out and enjoy. But that didn't stop Casey from trying to make the best of the half inch of accumulation we received last week. There wasn't even enough to make a small snowman, but he did make "snow faces" (he lays face first in the snow and waves his arms and legs. I have idea who this child belongs to). Meanwhile, Connor is staying inside and just getting cuter.

Hoosiers Now

We found out this morning that Rob matched with the residency program at IU in Indianapolis. This means we will be moving to Indy in just a few months. I don't think we have fully wrapped our brains around this news, but we're both excited. I'm already sweating some of the details (finding new pediatrician, etc.) and am a little worried about the process of selling our house. However, I am delighted to be in the same city as Peyton so that I can stalk him up close instead of from afar! Go Colts!

Winning the AFC Championship: Priceless

I'm still a little giddy over the Colt's win last night. I have to admit that I spent much of the first half sweating and swearing, and when Peyton threw the interception for a Patriots TD, I was inches from just turning the damn thing off. But I hung in there and was rewarded with another fine example of Peyton completely dismantling a defense. I almost felt a little sorry for Tom Brady as he watched helplessly from the sidelines as Peyton controlled the game clock and ultimately the game. Now all he has to do is win the SuperBowl. I predict more sweating and swearing in the Alderman house in 13 days.

My sister and brother-in-law noticed that Peyton mutters something under his breath during the last scene in his most recent Mastercard commercial. I found this "behind-the-scenes" short on Youtube and I'm pretty sure he's saying "That kid's got a cannon". Or perhaps he's saying "Bill Belichick can suck it". Here's the link, you be the judge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBalnYaqVXI

Funny & True

I found this little cartoon on babycenter.com and thought it was right on the money!

My Boys

I had to build a backdrop for a photo session this past weekend, and so I took some practice shots with Rob & the boys. This one pretty accurately captures life around here...