Hotel life isn’t that bad actually. I get clean sheets and towels EVERY day I don’t have to do dishes, or take out the trash…we are swimming every day, and just from that practice, the girls are REALLY progressing in their swimming. Allison is doing fine with no floaty, treads water like a pro and is working on other strokes. Meredith is a FISH with her floaty on. She swims everywhere, usually underwater. She does fine without the floaty too, but since she is fearless and a fish, MOM feels safer if she keeps the floaty on. Allison is so cautious, I don’t worry about her. Now the pain in the neck in the pool is Lydia! That baby REFUSES a floaty, and really doesn’t like to be held either. She actually swims. She will swim under water and swim with her head above water too. She kicks and does her arms and everything. But can’t quite be trusted to do it on her own, so I spend the whole time in the pool with my hand under her tummy while she splashes the crap out of me. I found a facility that will do lessons at the age of two (not mommy and me, blow bubbles lessons, but real lessons), so perhaps I will put her in a session of that as soon as she turns two..which will be the start of swim season next summer….and next summer, hopefully I can reason with her to wear a floaty so we can all have fun in the pool! Once it cools off, I am going to put Allison and Meredith back in lessons as well, so they can be really proficient swimmers by next summer. Allison needs to work on her strokes..she looks a bit clumsy

We have done a few activities around town. I had hooked up with a homeschool group here before we got here, so I already had some potential friends lined up. We’ve met a few folks, and so far, they have been SO nice. The group here is truly secular, which is important to me. We went to the zoo with them on Tuesday, and had a lovely time. The zoo here is really nice, but they try to make it all natural- which is GREAT, but means that you have to walk a HUGE distance between the animals. It is a lovely walk and all that, but we spent nearly all day there, and really only saw about 5-8 animals! We did get to do some neat activities. Saw a cool sea lion show, a reptile show, where the kids got to touch snakes and lizards, etc., and they got to feed the lorikeets. Kinda like big parakeets.. they give the guests little cups of juice, and then you get to walk through the huge cage, and the birds land on you and drink your juice. The kids loved it, with the exception of the poop on Jess’s shoes and Allison’s camera bag. I will post pics soon. Overall it was a good day, but the kids were disappointed that they didn’t get to see more animals. We’ll go back - Daddy was bummed that he missed out, so we will have to take him one weekend. On Friday we also did an open gymnastics session at a local gymnastics school. It was great fun, the kids got to play on all the equipment, and Meredith made a new friend! As a family we have been exploring some as well…we went to a KC Royals baseball game last weekend, that was fun! And found a neat restaurant…apparently they have a location there in Boulder, so you should check it out. It was BD Mongolian Barbecue or something like that. It is an all you can eat, create your own stir-fry bar. It was cool. You put your own raw ingredients into a bowl, and then take it up to the grill area and watch them cook it in front of you.

Two weeks from yesterday we take possession of the new house. I am very excited. It isn’t as big as it looks in the pictures, but it is still very lovely. The backyard is better than how it looks in the pictures though. I’m afraid all of my junky furniture is going to look pretty weak and pathetic in that house though We’ll be like the Beverly hillbillies in a lovely house, in a nice neighborhood, with our broken down furniture tied to the back of our pick-up truck. I will have fun decorating it though…although since I refuse to use credit, it will be a LONG process, lol. I can’t wait until you all come to visit though.

So far, everything has been pretty smooth with the purchase. We’ve negotiated some with some repairs that came up in the inspection, and Eric already has a honey-do list of repairs that the sellers won’t be fixing. My feeling that something is going to go wrong is starting to subside some. For a bit I was fearing that the sellers were going to back down. They were really upset about leaving the playground (they could have said NO when we put that in our offer though!) and then they didn’t have a new house to move into! But they do now, and their motivation (according to our real estate agent) is back where it should be - and then I was worried about financing…the mortgage broker we are working with there in CO likes to be VERY honest about potential problems, and it was stressing me out, but as of right now, everything seems to be running very smoothly! I think that he is just waiting for the appraisal, and the financing will be done and ready to close and sign on the dotted line. I still have bouts of fear that something will go wrong, or that this isn’t the best move or something, but that is probably all pretty normal, huh? Now I am starting to feel more excited and planning what I am going to do with our stuff in the house. The princess room (that is pictured in that one picture) will be shared by Allison and Meredith - it has two closets, but it has something cooler. It has a secret room off to the side! Kind of an unfinished attic room. You can tell that before the little girl that lives there now, there was a teenage girl living there, because she had her friends graffiti the secret room, lol. I am going to look into completely finishing the cubby (it is unfinished, but usable right now), and the girls will have a hide-away spot, or a reading nook, or whatever they want it to be. It is SO cool! I always wanted a spot like that as a kid. But even if I don’t finish it, it can still be used…although I want to find a way to cover some of the graffetti..now that Allison is a reader, I don’t want her asking me what “Niggaz” means, lol. Speaking of nooks, there are two large storage rooms in the basement!

Jess is catching a bus back to CO today so she can “visit” her boyfriend for about two weeks. We’ll see if she comes back to KS or not, lol.

That’s basically it from the hotel! I will try to take some pics of our room, and maybe the pool and post them later this week.