Uggggghhhhhh!

What a crazy week here in the Jensen household! We were all set to move into our new home today. I'm still on North Highland as I post. We had discussed with the current tenants at the home we are moving into that as soon as they were out, possibly mid-June, that we would move in towards the latter part of the month. They were paid up for June and we were to start paying rent July 1. We scheduled our movers, all utilities, water, cable, Internet, etc. to be turned off as of June 26th and transferred to the new place. I missed my church's VBS, which I absolutely love and so does Ella Ann, this week in order to move. Well Spencer and Ella Ann went to our future home on Tuesday night to get the key from the current tenant and after looking around the home he noticed that they still had a lot of stuff there and it was NOT clean, which was their responsibility. We took a couple of loads over there that evening and when I went alone later that night to do a little vacuuming and look around to figure out how I want the house to be arranged I received a call from Spencer saying come home now we are NOT moving until next week. WHAT???? Oh I was so upset! Not only had we already done everything necessary to get this move going but we had also made arrangements to have the kids go to Kentucky to stay with both my parents and Spencer's family. Long story short, the current tenants said they couldn't get out by this Friday and if we DID want to move in that day then we would have to pay for the 4 days we would live there. I don't think so. So I went back over to the house and hauled a bunch of my stuff BACK home, unpacked dishes, glasses, silverware, food, toys, etc. to hold us over until we move next Tuesday, June 30th. Can you hear me screaming?? Yes we were SO mad! I spent all of Wednesday morning calling every company back and crossing my fingers and praying that they get the dates right and not cut off our power and such in 94-degree weather when we still need it. By Wednesday night Spencer and I both calmed down and had our plans reset for everything. Ohhh and by the way, Comcast, being the oh-so smart people they are, sent a tech to come cut off our cable and Internet on Tuesday. So on top of everything else, I was on the phone with Comcast SIX times on Tuesday and twice on Wednesday trying to get my cable and Internet back on. Their mistake but, "they couldn't do anything about it at the moment." Lovely. Okay, enough of that vent. We got it back on at 8 p.m. Wednesday night. We missed Deadliest Catch. Not happy about that.

Okay so our plans as of today are as follows (in case you really wanted to know):

1. Meet my parents on Sunday in Tennessee to give them my precious cargo.
2. Rane and Ella Ann both go on Monday to my in-laws house.
3. Ella Ann returns to my parent's house on Tuesday and stays the rest of the week.
4. Tuesday we move.
5. Rane returns to my parent's house on Thursday.
6. I drive up to Kentucky to stay with my parent's and the kids on Friday and leave the following Tuesday, July 7th.

Got it?? Yes, I am confused as well but all should fall into place at some point! Spencer and I are looking forward to just being here in Atlanta alone....that's a first! We are going to a fellow's dinner Sunday night, will go out to dinner AFTER 5:00 p.m. (yes!!!!!!) a couple of times (better be sushi one night) and we plan on going to the movies one evening. Oh and I am going to unpack and organize like a mad woman while Spencer is at work Wednesday and Thursday so I can actually breathe easy while I'm at my parent's house. Whew, I'm tired now!

You know while all this was happening what was running through my head? "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's will that prevails." -Proverbs 19:21 This is what calmed me down....it was just God's will that we are still here, even though I don't know why, but I need to just be thankful that we HAVE a home to still stay in and we are not homeless for 4 days and we don't have to pay any money if we don't want to!

Sorry, no pictures this time around....no time! I will be back to blogging when we get back from our travels.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Spencer and my Dad! Two wonderful, wonderful men in my life! We are spending the day around the house. Spencer has a lot of work to do on his presentation that is next week and I have a lot of packing to do. I made Spencer breakfast this morning and Ella Ann gave him his present, which was a plate we painted at Wired & Fired last week. It is a flower with Ella Ann's hand prints as the petals and Rane's two foot prints are the leaves on the stem. I should have taken a picture of it but forgot. Ella Ann, of course, had to do her hands in pink so it is very, very light and doesn't look as good as I wanted it to but such are projects with a 3 1/2 year old! Spencer loved and appreciated it so that's all that matters, right? :) Spencer is always harping on me to have a Sunday lunch because that's what his mom always did growing up. I have never done a Sunday lunch....just not my thing to rush home and have a big meal on the table. Well today I treated Spencer to a Sunday lunch....well a little on the burnt side of a Sunday lunch! I cooked some chicken in the crock and had mashed potatoes, grilled veggies and bread but my chicken got a little over cooked because I cooked it on high while we were at church. It was still pretty good, though.....it's hard to mess up a meal in a crock pot.

Here are a few pictures we tried to snap of Spencer being the perfect father that he is today!!! You can see we tried.......

I think this one is my fav! :)

Ella Ann spread out her bobbie yesterday on the couch and wanted Rane to lay on it with her. She also kept showing him her nasty, dingy, matted, brown-that-used-to-be-white horsey. Yuck! Of course he still wanted to chew on that grossness! :)

Sweet

This is the word I use to describe Ella Ann and Rane's relationship. When I say they adore each other it is no exaggeration. Ella Ann loves to lavish attention on Rane and he soaks it up like crazy! The newness of Rane I guess will never wear off for her because she still wants to help change him, dress him, feed him a bottle and nowdays she wants to feed him his food which I do not allow because she will shove that spoon down his throat! :) The sweetest thing I have seen, though, thus far is earlier this week when we were driving and I look back at Ella Ann and her and Rane are holding hands across the middle seat. Love her heart!!

I often let Ella Ann sit with Rane in his room to play and Sunday after church I walked in to see this.......

She loves to read to him and he will sit/lay for a very long time listening to her and watching. She will explain everything that is going on in the book (even if it is totally made up) and will point out the characters. Rane loves it!



What a good big sister!!!!

On Monday I met some friends at the pool we always go to and we had a great time, although 2 kids is much, much harder to deal with all alone when a body of water is involved! Ella Ann mostly stayed where she could touch but I had to fetch her a couple of times from the deeper water because she won't hold her head up with her water wings on so she sucks in water. Rane got in the pool for the very first time and got to wear his little swim trunks! He loved to kick his legs! It was just too much for me to have to worry with a camera so I don't have pictures of that outting but I promise to take pictures next time!

Today I am keeping Mara Kate while Jana and a friend drive up to Jana's new home in Rome to start cleaning. I love keeping Mara Kate. She is a doll and is such a good girl. Of course her and Ella Ann play very well together and I never, ever have any problems with them. They are so funny. I walked in this morning to Ella Ann's room and they are facing each other sitting on the floor and putting on all of Ella Ann's jewelry and pretend makeup! I asked where they were going and they said to Kroger and Target but Ella Ann said she needed to go start the car first with her keys! :) They set up a beauty shop on my bed and were drying each other's hair and curling it with the (pretend) curling iron! I also took them outside to play and I asked Ella Ann what they were doing and both of them start yelling, "We're playing with Holy Polleys!!!", a.k.a., rolly polleys. Gotta love it! When Rane was taking his nap earlier the girls were walking around the house in Ella Ann's princess costumes and I told them they needed to stay up towards the front of the house because Rane was sleeping. Ella Ann said, "Well our Prince Charmings are back there in the hallway so we need to stay with them." I laughed SO hard!

Ella Ann is telling me where they are going.


Putting on eyeshadow!


Their beauty shop.

The girls had a picnic lunch so that I could have a super easy clean up and they thought that was the best thing ever! Notice Rane.....he watched them like a hawk and was just as entertained!

My sweet little man!!!!


Rane loves to put his feet in his mouth now but I have to keep socks on him often because he will scratch his feet and legs up and they bleed! He's also working on his thumb again and I pray he would hurry up and love it so that he will soothe himself at naps and bedtime!

The Week

Now that school is out for the summer and we are left with nada to do I am filling our week with activities with friends, errands, pool and in between all that....naps. Glorious naps. Rane usually takes three naps a day that are anywhere from 1-2 hours. This schedule really does put a damper on MY schedule! I can't go anywhere! Thankfully, though, I think he is beginning to drop that third nap and lengthen (hallelujah!) his second nap which oh-so wonderfully coincides with Ella Ann's afternoon snoozer! So lately he has taken a 1-hour nap in the morning and then a 2 to 3-hour nap in the afternoon. Yippee! This leaves me time to clean and pack, pack, pack for our move in the next couple of weeks.

Okay so now that we can have somewhat of a life with the summer months we had the girls over this week for our weekly time of chatting, encouragement and prayer. The kids play very well together while we do all of this. Rane loved having all these little ones to watch! The kids played in Ella Ann's room, for the most part, and we could hear them in their little pretend world. So cute!

On Thursday morning we met up with Janelle and her two kids, Anna-Kate and Ryan, at the zoo. We have several friends that are members so I do not plan on ever going to the zoo alone...what fun would that be? :) The girls had so much fun running around together and there was hardly anyone there so it was perfect! Once we made all the stops we wanted to with looking at the animals we stopped and let the girls ride the carousel and play on the playground. Thankfully Ella Ann didn't notice the petting zoo as we walked by it. I hate that thing.

Saturday I went shopping at the mall with the kids. Spencer is currently working on a big presentation for the end of the month so we needed to give him some time alone. Ella Ann loves going to the mall and keeps up with me very well. The downside to her walking in every store with me is that she likes to touch....everything. If it is breakable it is like it has a neon sign over it saying "Ella Ann, please pick me up!" I don't know how many times I said, "Put that down Ella Ann. No, we cannot buy that." She's cool with it, though.

Well that's all for this past week. I plan on majorly packing up what is left of our house this week and hanging with the gals again.

Anjuli and Ella Ann played with baby dolls pretty much the entire two hours!



Diego was all about the doll house van! Please notice the four other wooden cars of Ella Ann's that he managed to squeeze into the van! I looked for those cars everywhere and didn't find them until I uploaded this picture!


Luke "fixing" Megan with Rane's tool rattle!




Playing Elafun. It was SO cute to watch the big kids try to get the butterflies. Little Alexia (green shirt) tried to get in on the game but all she could do was pick up the fallen butterflies!





Keona checking out Rane's exersaucer.



Watching the elephants with Anna-Kate and Janelle.


The girls held hands the whole time we walked around! Awwww!


Finding the baby gorillas.


Riding the carousel.


Playing on the see-saw.



I baked a Mississippi Mud Cake on Friday that is SO good! I know you wanna make it now that you heard that title so I will post the recipe after these pictures. Ella Ann has never, ever asked to eat the batter. As you know she just ate cake for the first time on her 3rd birthday so eating the batter was never an issue. I would just shoo her out of the kitchen while I licked the beaters and bowl! :) Friday was the day that changed her life.....she ate the triple chocolate cake batter and will never be the same!

This was the easiest cake I have ever made and it is wonderful. I found it on a food blog I keep up with called Big Red Kitchen. Make it!

Mississippi Mud Cake
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 jar of marshmallow cream
1 stick of butter
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Bake the cake according to package directions. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven dump the jar of marshmallow cream on top and let it melt over the cake. D o not spread it until the cake has cooled a bit. Melt the butter on the stove and stir in the chips. Stir until chips melt. Pour over the cream and swirl with a knife. Done! Sorry, no pictures of the cake!

Mush

Well I'm back on the baby food-making bandwagon. I was on it when Ella Ann was a baby but quickly jumped wagon when I realized it took up too much of my time and was annoying. So you ask, mush, what is mush? Yeah, it sounds gooooooooood, doesn't it? I thought the same thing when I heard about it from a friend. I had actually heard of mush when Ella Ann was a baby but never tried to figure out what it was. Well when I was talking to a friend at church about feeding Rane she had asked if I was going to try mush. Well now I know what mush is and now I know why she told me her 3-year-old daughter STILL asks to eat it when her baby brother is delving into it! Rane l-o-v-e-s it! Okay so here it is:

applesauce (used unsweetened)
spinach (used a box of frozen)
green beans (used a bag of frozen)
sweet potatoes (used 1 very large one)
bananas (used 3)

Directions: Blend. Yup, that's it. I simply cooked the veggies and then threw it all together in my food processor and ta da! Well, not really ta da yet.....I then used my emulsion blender to better blend the mush because the spinach was not getting as pureed as I wanted it to be. Side note: I love these two kitchen appliances. I use them both at least 5-8 times a week. My mother-in-law gave me the blender for Christmas and it is so handy! I use it to puree soups, cream up soups and puree all kinds of fruits and veggies for Rane and Ella Ann. Oh and it's good for smoothies too! I plan on just emulsifing what we eat for dinner and giving it to Rane once he is bigger. This should save me lots of money since I will NOT be buying baby food. I'll let you know if I'm still hyped up on my baby food making in a few months! :) Back to mushing......Ella Ann and I made it this morning and we both tested it and thought it was delish! Really! Honestly it just tastes like bananas. I made a massive amount, poured it into ice cube trays and froze it. Now I can just take out as many servings as I need each time and it will be great on the go because the cubes can defrost on my way. I served it to Rane cold and since he likes his bottles super warm I didn't know if he would go for it but he started going "Ahhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhh!!" with his arms out, stiff as boards and trying to grab my hand to put the spoon back in his mouth! It's a hit! So, you mommys that read my blog and don't do mush you should try it. The cost of the never-ending bowl of mush cost me about $3 because I already had the applesauce and sweet potatoes. Ella Ann loves the fruit already in it and sweet potatoes so I will just give her the leftovers.

Bowl of mush....

my fozen mush.....

mush in mouth (he grabs the spoon out of my hand, always, and tries to shove it in his mouth)....

post mush!

Summerfest

This weekend was Summerfest in the Virginia-Highlands. They close down Virginia Avenue and it is filled to the brim with various artists, sculptors, tons of food, bands, wine tasting, children's crafts and, of course, alcohol! This time it was SO fun because all we did was walk out our front door and walla! We were at Summerfest! Spencer had to work Saturday morning so I put Rane in the sling and Ella Ann and I took off. We hit up a few artist tents and then headed to the crafts. She made all kinds of things (junk), played in the sand and painted. Spencer was home by the time Ella Ann and Rane were up from their naps so we went again. This time it was SO packed. Wall-to-wall people, hot sun and a stroller were not a good combination so we stayed a bit and let Ella Ann play on the playground with all the kids and then we set up shop on our front porch so we could watch the world go by. That was actually the most fun! Once the kids went down for bed I walked back up to the food area and got Spencer and I some dinner. I think we will will hit up Summerfest one more time this afternoon. We have to take advantage of it while we are here! The one downside of being so close to the fun was that the "fun" lasted for us well into the night. The bands ended around 11 p.m. and that was fine because Spencer and I stayed up to watch a movie. The people walking by were pretty loud after all the cocktails they had most likely consumed and some oh-so lovely people decided it would be a good idea to knock on our door at 10:30 p.m. and inquire about the house. Such nerve!

In other Jensen happenings, Spencer had skin cancer removed from his face on Thursday. He was off work on Friday which was good because he really needed the time to recuperate. He is doing fine now but has a big black eye and has to wear a bandage. As soon as he got home from the surgery Ella Ann grabbed her doctor's kit and asked to "doctor" him! I think she doctored him a good 5 times! Ella Ann is now over 3 1/2 which means she has hit the age group for being afraid of her room, being by herself and the dark. Soooooo, you can imagine what an absolute pleasure bedtime has been this week. Sighhh.

Rane is doing fantastic though! He adores Ella Ann and immediately gets excited when he sees her, i.e., huge smile, arms flailing and legs kicking like crazy! Ella Ann hugs and kisses on him so much I have to stay on her not to squeeze him too hard! He laughs all the time now, rolls all over the place, eats his bottles very well, sleeps great at night and has 3 solid naps. What a good little baby he is! :)

In the morning we scored some free orange dreamsicle ice cream. Ella Ann wasn't a fan.....I ate it.

Just one of the food pit stops! YUM!

This was just the morning crowd! Look ALL the way down the street!

Getting ready to paint....of course with pink paint!

Finding a spot among the big kids was tough!

Making her pink crown.

Yeah, can you tell I liked the food stations the most? :)

She loved these prints, as did I!

Checking out some goods with Daddy.

We bought Ella Ann the biggest chocolate ice cream bar in history! The sprinkles were her fav! Note to self, though, never ever give your 3-year-old chocolate ice cream in the blazing sun with no handy wipes or any cleaning supplies for that matter. We went home shortly after this!

She ate the entire thing!!!!

The aftermath!

Can't forget little Rane!

Playing on the front porch.

Spencer's new look these days. :(

Randomness

This is going to be a hodge podge post, as are most of my entries anyway! After a few minutes of browsing through a bunch of our pictures I finally found the pictures of Ella Ann in the pajamas that are similar to Rane's. Below is our sweet baby girl in them......

She was 9 months old.

And here's Rane again at nearly 5 months. Think they look alike? Nope!

I was so surprised to receive a package in the mail earlier this week from a dear friend's mother. One of my best friends from college, Emily, has a very sweet mother, Diane, that sent Ella Ann and Rane gifts. Diane keeps up with our family via the blog so this post is for her! Thank you so much, Diane, for the monogrammed purse for Ella Ann and monogrammed bib for Rane! They are just too cute and Ella Ann loves her purse! As soon as she opened it she ran to her room to get all of her brushes, "makeup", keys, "credit cards", etc. to put in it so she could take it with her to run errands!

Posing with her purse before we left the house.

Rane getting ready to down some sweet potatoes in his new bib!

Thank you again, Diane!!!!!

So I have found a new "toy" to play with that was somewhat free. I started saving Ella Ann's Dora yogurt cups as well as mine over the last few weeks and since I eat two yogurts a day most days we have quite a growing collection! We build pyramids with them, city buildings, towers, walls, etc. and it is fun to take her cars and ram them into our towers and knock them all down. Honestly it has provided a ton of entertainment for her (we play with them multiple times a day), are easily stored and didn't cost me anything extra. I think we will be collecting them for a very long time and I'll post again of even bigger pyramid!

Ella Ann took this last picture so I wanted to post it because she did a good job....plus Rane looks pretty cute as well! He's in the sling and we were headed out for a walk to a shop down the street.

Yes his toes are in his face but I promise he's comfy! :)