The 'Home Alone' Obsession

Meet Kevin McAllister #1 - the mastermind.And don't forget about Kevin McAllister #2 - the implementer and goof.Any real Kevin would devise a battle plan. Ice and goo and nail on the steps, ornaments for the "wet bandits" to step on bare-footed, the light bulb connected to the hot iron, the scalding hot doorknob, the cars at the bottom of the stairs, the escape to the outdoor clubhouse, and the fan with feathers.Kevin #1 in action, using rope and trying to convince his mother to let him borrow the iron for a few minutes. It didn't work. While trying to figure out what to use for the tar and feathering, Kevin #2 intuitively thought of Elefun for the fan. And while Kevin #1 was drawing and cutting out feathers to put into the "fan", he gave up deciding that the butterflies would fly and stick better.

The cars at the bottom of the stairs.

Christmas tree ornaments under the window. The Kevins' tried to get mom to let them borrow hers, but that didn't work either.

Scalding hot metal thingy for robbers to burn their hands on.

Perhaps the funniest thing that happened was with Kevin #1. After an intense game of the Clone Wars light-saber game on the Wii, Kevin #1 informed me that he was hot and stinky and needed deodorant. He ran into my bathroom to get some (don't worry- this isn't a common thing). Upon seeing Daddy's shaving cream bottle sitting on the counter, Kevin #1 thought this looked just like the deodorant the real Kevin used in the movie! So he positioned it under his arm and sprayed away. Boy, did he get a shock! It wasn't quite what he expected, so he grabbed wads of kleenex and proceeded to clean off the shaving cream from under his arms and plopping the wads into the toilet.

Drum Roll Please...

Our final destination, after stints in Utah, Southern California, and Indiana is...

Redding, California! We'll be minutes from this:

an hour from this:

(Mt. Shasta Ski area - small but good for learning)

close to some of the most beautiful backpacking and hiking:

And our most favorite part about it... close to family! Two hours from my parents:

My grandparents:

And my brother and his family:

And hour and a half from Aaron's parents:

And his grandma:
And much closer to our best buds from Irvine who live in Oregon:

We're SOOOOO excited to be done with all the school, training and moving all around... and to start a retirement fund. That will be nice :) I'm especially excited to be moving close to family and not having to take a plane flight whenever we want to see them.

Aaron interviewed at 4 different jobs and was offered a spot at each one so this was NOT an easy decision to make. Each place seemed to offer something the others did not, and of course there were drawbacks to each place as well. As Grandpa Layer always says, "No place has it all!". And it's so true. We felt though, that in the end, Redding was the best option (the others were Sacramento, Roseburg, OR and Eugene, OR). Aaron and I have driven through Redding countless times in our lives but had never considered it as somewhere to live until the last couple of times we drove through it. Now that it's a reality we are super excited! It's in a beautiful valley (110,000 people) and surrounded by gorgeous areas, lakes and mountains and lots of family! Redding here we come!

today

6:50 - alarm goes off.

6:51 - awake Destroy who is sleeping in the chair in our room because of a bad dream. Dress him because he is too groggy to do it himself.

6:52 - hear baby Dodge waking up.

6:53 - check on Search in the guest room (where he is condemned if he wakes up too early) and check his movie on the portable DVD player to gauge what time he actually got up. Because I never know.

6:54 - Get Destroy his eggos, tell him for the 160th time that, no, he cannot take toys to school.

7:00 - Change baby diaper, nuzzle and love sweet baby.

7:25 - drive Destroy to the bus stop because it's too frigid to walk and wait.

7:35 - nurse hungry all-night sleeper baby and get Search his breakfast.

7:45 - facebook it and check email.

8:00 - whisper-yell at Search to stop throwing blocks at the running treadmill so that he won't wake Daddy up who worked late.

8:15 - Try to feed applesauce and cereal to teething baby. Unsuccessful.

8:30 - Practice sight words with Search.

9:00 - put baby down for nap #1.

9:30 - finish Baby Dodge's stocking. The poor child has to live with his mother's sense of humor.

10:00 - change poopy baby diaper #1.

10:15 - shower.

10:30 - watch Aaron workout outside on the rings and jump on the trampoline with Search.

11:00 - feed everyone lunch. Teething baby was hungry enough to eat. Make grilled-cheese chicken sandwiches and fruit salad for Aaron and I. Search eats a bagel and banana.

12:00-2:00 - Aaron chauffeurs me around town to do returns. Buy a cute stocking holder from Wal-mart.

2:15- nurse screaming, tired baby and put him down for nap #2.

2:30 - start making Christmas treat for friends. Eat a lot.

2:45 - make Search scrub green crayon off the tile floor that he had just drawn. Give Destroy a hug as he gets home from school and make him a snack.

3:00 - chat with Aaron about which job to take. Try to contain excitement to finally HAVE a job!

4:00 - watch Daddy wrestle with his boys on the trampoline.

4:15 - change poopy diaper #2, check out the sweet lego dinosaurs that Destroy made and is very proud of.

T-Rex

Pteranodon

Long-neck

Stegosaurus

The kind with the club on it's tail

Triceratops

4:30 - package up the Christmas goodies. Get a kiss as Aaron leaves for work.

5:00 - make PB&J sandwiches for the kids for dinner. Feed Dodge big bowl of sweet potatoes, applesauce, oatmeal and cereal. But not all together. But he wouldn't care if it was.

5:30 - Begin trek to deliver goodies, husbandless, and with a baby who does not care for the car.
7:00 - arrive back home, change baby poopy diaper #3 and put his jammies on, nurse him, whisper-yell at Search to put the Sharpie down and put Dodge to bed.
7:15 - start Home Alone with kids who laugh uncontrollably when the robbers hurt themselves repeatedly and who incessantly talk about what they would do and say to a scary heater thing in the basement
8:45 - put kids to bed
8:50 - discover what Search had actually been doing with the Sharpie
9:00 - look at the disaster that is a kitchen and the house resembling a tornado and give up.
10:00 - write blog instead. Goodnight.