Random Thoughts

* It's nice when your two year old lets you nap at 6:30 am, after keeping you up since 3am. I was very proud that when I woke up from the 20 minutes of sleep she let me have, she'd helped herself to a bowl of olives, someone's unfinished juice box and a granola bar.

* I have no problem if you don't like the same candidate as I do, but instead of personal attacks against my choice, why not educate me on why you think your choice is better? I'm likely not to change my vote, but I have more respect for people who positively promote their positions rather than negatively attack mine.

* My BFF and I have decided that we are going to start talking to our mother in laws like a 4 year old, and our 4 year olds like our mother in laws. I'll be back with an update.

* 4 year olds who put gold earrings in their noses will hopefully never do it again. Thank goodness my mom can get a sneeze out of any child, because I had the "9" dialed in 9-1-1.

* Honey is cracking me up lately. He's the type that doesn't walk around cracking jokes, but when he does, they are good:) I'll need that kind of humor when I have to pack up 2700 sq feet of our lives and put them into boxes!!

* My next birthday wish will be that Check E Cheese goes bankrupt. Enough said.

*Some video of a suspect I had to interview yesterday. I found a whole granola bar in the garbage, and the suspect wasn't folding under questioning, even with her brother the rat helping;)

Birthdays:)

Our littlest is now 2 years old. This is my third time celebrating a two year old, I know how it goes from here. She's going to transform into an almost-little girl this year:*) I'm praying she keeps her baby chunk and baby voice for as long as she can:)

We celebrate Honey's birthday a day later. It's a great excuse to party twice;)

House for sale!!

Have you ever sold a home? Tried to sell a home, but gave up because your muscles were just not willing to endure one more day of super deep "we have to clean in case they call with a showing!" Welcome to my world! Month 8, at least 60 people have viewed our home, and about 20 have cancelled or not shown up at all. It's fun keeping it spotless with 3 little kids, really! Throw in the fact that I work from home. Not at a little desk with a small laptop and a file cabinet. Nope, not me, I have to do things the hard way and make bath & body products! By the time my work day is in full swing, I've used 3 huge bowls, 3 pots, measuring cups, hand mixers, countless oils and butters, spoons, bottles, caps, spritzers..................... That describes the kitchen. The dining room becomes the packing and shipping station, and my office is the bottling and labeling department. Lots to clean up when a buyer decides they want to see the goods!

As of today we've lowered the price of the house to a level that my first grader can afford. No, not exactly true, but we've worked really hard on our home, and we have to let it go for less than we know it's worth.

If you are currently in the market for a home, I have some suggestions for you.
1) Please cancel your appointment if you are not going to make it. And stop making up stories about "family emergencies" and "sick child." Just a simple "we can't make the appointment" will do just fine. Calling before the appointment would be fabulous, this way I am not sitting on 3 innocent children to keep them from pulling out 250 Lite Brite bulbs, while we await your possible arrival;)
2) Don't let your savage children cough and sneeze on my kids' toys. And please stop leaving said savages unattended, with your real estate agent, or WITH ME! I love children (THAT I KNOW) and I am NOT a babysitter for your kids while you discuss directions to the NEXT APPOINTMENT with your broker.
3) Stop asking me what's in my garage. If you can't identify an authentic COCKPIT and SOAP then you need some sort of help. Besides, what is in my garage is none of your darn business, because it's not staying and has no impact on your life. And yes, it is a ONE CAR GARAGE. You have likely looked at my house on MLS, driven past it, and oh, yes, you are STANDING in front of it when you ask! People, please, I can hide dark chocolate covered almonds from my kids, but an additional garage? NO!
4) Please limit your stay if you are not making an offer on my home. Yes, my very sweet and charming Honey is a pilot, but that does not mean you are invited to ask him every meaningless question you can think of. He can't advise you if your Disney flight in 2 months might be delayed, and no, he really doesn't have time to name all the cities he flies to, because although he is nice to look at, I'm not sure he's ENTIRELY on top of silly things like where he's been. He's too busy reading "Graphics Programming with Direct X 9 :Module1. (We'll get back to that later, that clearly needs a post of it's own) And yes, the soap in the garage that I make is to BATHE with, aren't you BRIGHT!!! So please, if we are not doing business that involves a CONTRACT, just get out!
5) Most important, pay attention. Please don't poop in my house. If you need to use a bathroom, #1 is fine, weak bladders happen. If you eat something funny and don't feel quite right, STOP AT A GAS STATION. Or, better yet, be ON TIME for your appointment, instead of stopping to stuff your face first. Just because I have 3 kids 6 and under does not mean I am a punching bag for all things bathroom related.

The stars at night, are big and bright.....

Honey and I are both born and raised on Long Island, NY. Naturally we were raised ethnocentric and believed that this was THE place to live, forever. With both of us being exposed to other cities, we always knew that there was something better out there for us, and our children. It's a hard decision to make when your roots are planted, and you have both sets of parents nearby, and even grandparents. The factor that pushed our decicion to move to Houston was Honey's career. He had a great paying job as a charter pilot, but we only saw him about one week a month. He had to have his phone on 24/7, and he missed countless birthdays, holidays, parties, things that he could have been here for if he had any kind of schedule. He made the move to airline pilot last year, and life has been much different for us. We know when he's going to be home, he's not anxious waiting for a call when he is home, and there are rules that are applied to make sure he has adequate rest between flights, something that always concerned me with charter.
We visited friends in Houston last year, and fell in love with it. As soon as our house here sells, we're leaving for TX. I am SO excited to get there. I love the culture, the clean air, the people are SO nice. It's taking longer than we thought to get there, but in reality it should only be delayed by 6-9 months.
One of the funny things about our venture is that nothing ever comes easy for us. We're used to it by now. If Mike is going to catch the flu or Norovirus, it's going to be mid-flight to Austria. If I am going to have a miscarriage, it's going to be on our second day touring Rome. If we want to sell our house, it's going to be in the worst housing market EVER! If Mike wants a long career with this airline, you can bet that oil prices will skyrocket and leave him at risk for furlough. That's the kind of chaos we have here, but we are pretty calm and have learned that this is US, and we just let things roll. But, whatever! Our children are healthy and happy, and we have unlimited support from (most of) our family members.

A Beautiful Mind

One of the first things that struck me about Al was his direct stare. We spent the first few days of his life bonding in the hospital, and I remember thinking that I didn't realize newborns could stare at you like that. When they handed him to me in recovery, he stopped crying and his eyes locked onto mine. He was a peaceful baby and all he wanted to do was stare at me and his Daddy. To this day, when I see him looking at something new, I know he's memorizing it, just as he did those first few days.
Over the next few months, he did the typical baby things. A few weeks of minor colic, rolled over at 3 months, smiled and laughed by a month old. He developed infant asthma around 6 months old, and I was so busy learning the ropes of treating him while juggling full time work and daycare, that I didn't pay too much attention to his daycare teachers when they described his play behavior. "Al loves this set of blocks, he arranges them into the same pattern every time he plays! Al loves to spin this toy around, if we don't take him away he'll sit there all day and spin it!"
Around 8-9 months he started to cruise around, and he loved our coffee table. He would place an object on the table, and cruise around the table checking it out from all angles. Once he began walking, he would collect certain toys, usually plain blocks, and arrange them into the ROYGBIV rainbow spectrum. We didn't know for another year that he was using that pattern, until we called to get him evaluated for speech at 2. The first thing the woman noticed was that ROYGBIV, and told us we needed to get him into an autism specialist ASAP. I started to read, and research, and read some more. My mommy instinct was screaming at me not to allow the full 50 hour per week therapy that the state was recommending. I agreed to 6 hours, with the option to increase if needed. I felt I had to let him lead me to what he needed, because through all the confusion and concern about Al not uttering one word, he and I were still communicating, without words, as we had from day one.
We officially had him diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism when he turned 4 years old. He has made amazing progress, and I can't believe that God trusted us with him. Honey and I could barely do our own laundry, and here we were handed this angel and expected to not only raise him, but advocate for him for the rest of his life. He's so peaceful, and super smart, and we are so grateful that he's here:)

Here I go~

I've always said I never understood the point of a blog, but I'm guessing it's something I will understand as time goes on. I surely hope so, because typing out your thoughts is time consuming, and Lord knows I am very short on time these days. More about that later.
A little bit about the main characters I'll be posting about.
Yours truly;) I'm Amanda, daughter of 2 really cool parents who divorced when I was a teenager. I have one brother, a few years younger than I. I was bit by the travel bug at a young age, and spent a few years taking flying lessons, renting a plane with a good friend and cutting school to fly anywhere but NY, and eventually becoming a flight attendant. After 2 years of waitress-in-the-sky, I was laid off, and met
"Honey." He's known as Honey in my Blackberry address book, it's what I call him, and it's a great description. Honey is naturally occuring, great in desserts and soap, and soothes you when you're sick. That's my husband, and he's the best thing that ever happened to me. Of course, until these small people came along:
"Al." He's my first-born, he's 6 now. It took us 2 years and a loss to conceive him, and he's been a joy from his first little cry. He was the type of baby that makes parents immediately feel confident enough to add a sibling, because he made parenting so easy on us. How hard can this parenting thing be? Enter............
"Gem" From the womb, we knew this little firecracker was going to shake things up a bit. First of all, she toyed with us by clamping those little legs closed so we couldn't tell her gender. Then she started making attempts to come early, and early she did. By 2-3 weeks. I think people in the next town heard her screech into the world, and she's still making a statement. While recovering from the shock of Gem, somehow.......
"Simpson" made her way into the world. She's a typical 3rd kid, she has anti-collision avoidance which allows her to naviagate into any situation the older kids are in, and she's been speaking since she turned one. "You are lucky you're adorable!!!" is something we tell her every day:)
We live on Long Island, NY. Not for long, however. We are selling our house and moving to Houston, TX.