Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Movin' on

I have some time to breathe right now so I thought I would post an update on our move....

Our house is SOLD.  And the lady buying the house LOVES it.  Which is good because I really don't want it going to someone who doesn't love it as much as we do.  But today she had her 3rd visit and I'm starting to get a little tired of cleaning it for her!!!  2nd visit was with her friend, this time with her mother.  I guess they all approve because she hasn't backed out of her contract!
Lots of memories made here...

We are still working on getting a house around Peoria.  Everything is in the works, we just need to get it all finalized before I share the house we're trying to get!!

And we are all working on being Happy Hoots about this move!  Dave and I are currently ready to just be done with all of this and start working on our next house! :-)  Samuel is coming to terms with being okay with the move.  He loves his school friends and was devastated when I told him we may not be able to invite his friends for his birthday in February.  But he is a little social bug and will adjust pretty well, I'm sure.  We just may have to have a party for his school friends before we head out!  And Adrian is not concerned either way, really, but he has his bedroom picked out in the next house.  So all is well for him!!!

Now to make it sanely through the next month and we'll be doing good!!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Word Is...

The word is "out"...

As in "We are moving OUT of our house into a new one near Peoria, IL by the end of the year."

Dave has a new job with Caterpillar and they have been taking their sweet time getting things settled and getting us transferred up there.  So now that we can officially look for houses, we can't find any we like.  And now that we can get our house on the market, there's been one thing after another that's slowing things down. (Groan!!)

If I look like a blimp at the end of the year, you will know that I have just been a teensy bit stressed out and gorged on all the chocolate that I've been able to find!!!!!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

God IS in control

Samuel's school is doing a coin collection for Hurricane Sandy victims.  He asked me this morning why God let that big storm happen.  I said it was to let people know that he is still in control.  And I can never just stop "teaching" moments so I used the election today as an example of how God is still in control.  God allows things to happen, but He is the one that ultimately controls what happens.
Samuel's response to this?  "Oh, I hope Barak Obama gets to still be our president!"
Hmm... not sure if the "God is in control" lesson went well or not! ;-)

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloweenie

Well, October certainly flew by in a whirlwind!  Hello, November!  Let's see if you can make things go even faster!!!
Lots of things happened to us, but the only picture worthy event was Halloween.  We had Spiderman and Super Mario come visit our house... and a skeleton shirted shark joined us for trick-or-treating!  (That was another busy time that our camera was MIA!  Sorry, Damon, I didn't get a picture of your cute lil self!)

Getting ready to leave school for the day with his vampire friend and Scooby-Doo!
 So aside from Halloween, October consisted of my parents coming for the first weekend, parent/teacher conferences, swim lessons, car repair fiasco, Dave home for a week, and massive cleaning/purging for a garage sale.
Funny story I have to share:  Adrian was helping me clean this morning.  (If you've ever seen a boy "clean," you know it's going to have to be done again!)  I told him that he was a hard worker.  He said "Like Kamela, the worker?"  Yes, like Kamela- the hard worker.  Especially when she comes to visit us!




Friday, October 5, 2012

Fall is Here!

Just this past week we've noticed quite a few of the trees are changing color and have been looking forward to some nice "fall" weather.  Maybe I should say "nice" fall weather?  Anyway, we have been getting out our long sleeves and enjoying a little bit cooler temperatures.  Yesterday it was 82.
Yes, today we are going to the Forsyth park to have a picnic with Dave's co-workers.  It is currently 47 degrees and raining off and on.  PERFECT picnic weather!! :-)  Should I drag out the winter coats??

Thursday, September 27, 2012

August/September

Why is it so easy to get behind on things?  Posting something (anything!) on here has been on my mind for a week or more, but when I thought I had a chance a couple days ago, I realized I had to upload pictures first! That, of course, took more time and other things had to happen before I found a moment to write!  Hopefully we can make it through this without too many interruptions... I haven't posted for quite a few weeks!
Samuel started school and has been loving it and his 1st grade teacher.  He really doesn't like having homework every night, but he's getting better about it now that he realizes it's only a few seconds worth of work!


Not flattering of either of us, but at least there were smiles at this point!
Then we had our church conventions and Adrian's 4th birthday.   He requested a camping birthday... so we had a little fun with that.  The camp-out party was 3 days after I got my wisdom teeth pulled, so that made it a little difficult, but it wasn't too bad.  It worked out beautifully, actually, knowing that Dave might have had (but didn't) to go on a trip that week!!



4 Silly boys eating breakfast camping style!  Pancakes and 3 sips of hot chocolate each!

Samuel & Collin doing what boys do best... playing with fire!

And somewhere in there we had a surprise birthday for Marguerite's 75th birthday!  It was a box social theme and Dave got to be the auctioneer!  Too bad I don't have a video function on the camera!   We failed to get any pictures of the birthday girl... Guess we were busy with other things!

Old picnic party decor

Auctioneer Dave

With his silly boys!
Taking care of business?

All the cake boxes


Action during the Auction
Right after Adrian's camp out party, we spent some time at the Caterpillar plant for the family day.  They had all kinds of fun things for kids to do, free food, and a small tour area of the factories.  It was pretty cool and the boys really liked their Spiderman face paintings!



This is Adrian... the picture I got of Samuel was taken a little too late!

I had to capture a moment of brotherly love!

This is one of Dave's completed projects... Small truck axle

This was from sometime this summer... sacked out in the car!

Good thing Doggie isn't going anywhere either!

I took Adrian out for his birthday... he was pretty excited to eat outside!
  This past weekend I ended up in Oklahoma visiting with some friends for a scrapbooking retreat!  I did finish up a scrapbook I've been working on for years (the vacation was 5 years ago now!) but I had several other projects going on.... card making, organizing cards we've gotten over the years, my recipe binder.  Yeah, boring stuff I just never make the time for to sit down and get it done!  I need to quit "saving" my projects for times like that and work on them little by little... but it doesn't feel quite as productive I guess!?!
Anyway, now you are caught up with the Hoots family!  .... Until next time!


Thursday, August 16, 2012

Pictures... finally!

I was going to post some pictures from our Europe trip.  How do I just pick a few "highlights?"  We did not have a day where we just rested or didn't have tons of pictures taken!!  So I finally decided if anyone REALLY wants to see the rest of our pictures (other than what I share on here), you will have to visit us or make time for us to come visit you!  Then we can share more of our pictures... and promptly put you to sleep! :-)
I was asked by several people how our vacation was about 2 weeks after we had gotten home.  By that time I was back in the full swing of reality (it took the full 2 weeks!) and I could hardly remember our vacation!  I love going places, I get jealous of people going on vacation ALL the time, but the places themselves aren't as important as the memories we made.  And especially who we were with.  Although we (I?) often feel like time off should be "productive," I think spending it with friends and family should be a bigger priority.  (This is starting to sound weird!)  Not to say I don't like vacation, but I think I'd rather be with special people than go on tons of vacations away from everyone... (Does that make any sense at all??)
Anyway.... here are some pictures!
Tower Bridge- ready for the Olympics

Big Ben

In the London Eye

Afternoon Tea at Harrod's

Tower Bridge


Tour Guide Dave at Versailles in France.
This was our way of locating each other if we got separated...
(It was a super funny story that I can't fit in here!)

Paris streetside

Eye-full Tower

Bakery!!!

Louvre

Chateau de Versailles

The folks we met with in Paris

We actually found both our kids names on personalized stuff!!
We never find Adrian here... and over there we found it more than Samuel!
This is in Zurich, Switzerland

The lake at Zurich


Going up into the Alps- SO pretty!

Vineyards on the hillsides in Italy

So excited to eat Italian!!! 

Dave and his pizza!  It was really good, too!

Glass maker


St Marks' square

Gelato... Yes, we went a BIT overboard!!  But it was DEEElicious!!!



Cliffs of Moher in Ireland

Irish countryside

Our crazy bus driver/tour guide trying to get us all to go down the cliffs!


We loved the signage!!
It was an awesome trip- these pictures hardly touch what all we did!  I'm glad we took all the pictures... no way we can forget what we saw!