Signing Off...for now...

To all our family & friends...

We have moved out of our rental house as of tomorrow noon & are currently putting the finishing touches on our new house. The HVAC (heat & air) is now installed & working properly...we installed the following items in the last 24 hrs.: Culligan Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water system, toilet paper holders, shower curtain rods, master bathroom vanity cabinet, solid aluminum tubing for our dryer vent, (our builder ran aluminum foil flex hose for 25 ft!!! FIRE HAZARD!) We rec'd 9 out of the 14 storage boxes today...stuffed full of our stuff. (I can see a SUPER HUGE garage sale in our very near future...or a huge bon fire!) Tomorrow we will receive the remaining 4...and our appliances...china cabinet, tractors, heavy equipment, etc. It will be fun!!! But where do we put it all?

Remember the post where our patio door leaked water under the sill & into our basement...conveniently ruining our hardwood floor??? Well, the flooring guy from Carpetland came out today to "fix" the ruined wood. Much to our surprise, there was black mold growing underneath the 3/4" hardwood floor boards!!! Yeah, carpet guy loved that. He was already honked off when he saw that our builder ruined his hard work by rolling our new fridge right over the hardwood floor with no protection...dented the grains in the wood...forever ruined...what an eye-sore...and we haven't even moved completely in yet!!! We just got a letter today from the zoning comittee...they were wondering when we were going to stake out our property so we could start building!!! Our contractor hasn't even been filing with them...so what did my $500 for permits go to??? Hmmm... ANYWAY, I have to ask him to fill out the proper forms for the zoning comittee...and then they're going to make sure that we are "building" within our boundaries. If we didn't then I guess we'll have to move the road!!! What a joke...when is this ever going to end??? Ya gotta babysit the guy to ensure stuff gets done right...(or just done in general)...but then gets ticked off when you try to help...

SO, ANYWAY, here it is...11 p.m. and Liza & the girlz are out at the new house...and I am here cleaning all night long. The "technology" items are last...computers, DVD players, VCRs, etc. etc. etc. I'll be dismantling stuff all night long...and then cleaning. I can hardly wait to start...oh wait, that's why I am on here. Just wanted to let one and all know that we may not be on for a while. We don't have internet out at our new place...so the posts from now on may be few & far between. Liza said it is a good excuse to load up the laptop & go to the coffee shop. I told her to just drive around DBQ, find a unsecure connection...& just park!!! HA!!! Save some money that way. We'll see.

We love you one & all & apologize that we won't be here much in the near future...but we'll see where we are in a month or two...hopefully we can scrounge up a way to get connected once again. Until then, this is the Tuckers...signing off. Good day...

From One Extreme to the Other

Little Miss I Don't Wear Anything But Undies decided the other day that she was cold and needed to put some more clothes on. (Mind you, it's 85 degrees out.) So, she takes her shorts off and puts her pants on and then puts her "kitty cat" vest AND her jacket on. Then? Refuses to take them off. I just had to post this for Grandma Tucker. :)

Figures

At Grace's six month appointment, on Monday, one of the questions they asked was whether she would sit up momentarily by herself. I told them not long enough that I would be willing to give a solid yes. Guess what she started doing YESTERDAY! Yeah, the day AFTER the darn appointment. Booger.

In other Grace news, she really, really REALLY loves her sister. Libby has been doing so well with all of this moving stuff. She has spent 15 minutes at a time two or three times with Grace just to keep her calm. The little girl is three years old and has such a big heart that she is willing to play with Grace just to keep her happy. Once all of the craziness is over we are going to take Libby to Chuck E. Cheese...or at least the McDonald's Play Place. I am SO glad that Grace likes her sister. :)

YIPPEE!

I've been wanting to post this ALL WEEKEND, but thought that I should probably wait for her to announce her own exciting news first. My friend, Jenny, is FINALLY pregnant! Yea! She's been waiting for this for too long and I'm glad that she has finally been blessed with this gift. Now, as all of you other mom's know, this is definitely the first stop on the journey, NOT the end goal. :) Congrats and good luck with the real job of parenting.

Embarrassing

We were at the local Chinese joint the other night and an overweight guy came in to order some take out. As he was walking out the door I had one of those moments. You know, the kind where you just freeze up and can't do a darn thing? Like in a dream where you know you NEED to run, but you just can't? Yeah, the word HE'S came out of Libby's mouth. That's the point that I totally froze, knowing what was going to come next. I wanted to jump across the table and clamp my hand on her mouth or shout "Libby, NOOOOO!" Instead I just sat there, not able to move as the word BIG came out of her mouth. I know he heard it too. I guess I'm just glad that it was "He's big" and not "He's fat". Ai yai yai!

Sleepy Baby?

Grace was asleep in her car seat and she just looked so cute. So, I told Chris to grab the camera to grab a picture...this is what we got. What in the world? Did she hear the word "camera"?

Cupcake

Libby was trying Grace's hat on (and it fit because it's really for a two year old) and then she put it on Grace. The hat should look familiar to Brittney, eh? Anyway, I couldn't resist this post. She's just too darn cute!

Introducing...

I'm scared! We have a house! And...we're moving in this week. Along with Vacation Bible School where I'm a leader...and a few other things. Such excitement!

Here's the house in all of it's splendor.

This is the trayed ceiling in the master bedroom.

Here is a bathroom...minus the mirror. We are still looking for one big enough. We did decide to go with a large rectangle. I think there would just be too much wall showing if we went with the two ovals.

Last, but not least, our great room. I would show you a picture of the kitchen, but I think I'll wait until the microwave is hung.

Matthew 10:30

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30

This verse has always amazed me for the mere fact that we all have different numbers of hair on our head...and other parts of our bodies. :) It's hair for heaven's sake, why should God care about that? But He does. It says so right here in His word. It also says so in Luke 12:7. How awesome and loving is our God! This verse has really taken on a whole NEW meaning, though, since I have been losing my hair in handfuls as of late. Whenever I take a shower, I lose a wad in the shower, in my water comb and another wad that is just loose. It's just started since I stopped breast feeding and it hasn't affected my appearance so I'm not too worried about it. BUT...the awesome part, as I dwell on this verse, is that God STILL knows how many hairs are on my head. He doesn't do an annual count, not even a monthly count. He ALWAYS knows, every time I lose a hair, He knows. How cool is that?

Shadow Play

I was told that I was a dork for taking this picture, but who can resist? What fun!

Bath Time

This beautiful smile from the little girl who would scream her fool head off when she got a bath for the first four months of her life.

And after? Maybe it's the cold air that hit her.

Cuban Cigar?

Oh no! The moon!

On our way home from small groups tonight Libby commented, as we stopped at a stop light, "Mommy, the moon stopped moving." The light turned green and the next thing said, "Ok, now it's moving again." The logic of a three year old. :)

Liza, meet Liza

Last night the people that are going to move in to this house on the 1st of July stopped by so the girlfriend could see the house. Chris didn't get the chance to talk to the guy last time so we didn't even know his name. He introduced himself and then said, "and this is my girlfriend, Liza." Woah! So this house just can't get rid of the Liza's. I think this is the third Liza I've ever met and then there I know another Liza that pronounces it like Lisa. It was kind of fun.

Detour

With all of the flooding going on here in Iowa they have detoured I-80 up through Dubuque. It has made US 20 (one of our main drags) crazy busy! It took me 15 minutes to get across town today and it usually takes me five. But...it ended up being totally worth it. I noticed a Nascar Sprint Series semi driving through town, but didn't think much of it. Then, as I was just sitting at the red light at the crazy traffic corner (where the detour takes a left to hit the long straightaway) four or five semis were turning. I noticed Carl Edwards semi and missed the rest of them because at the end of the line was...RYAN NEWMAN's semi. I just wanted to stop the truck driver and ask if I could at least see the car, even if the engine was blown out of it. It was pretty cool! A little later I saw Kurt Busch's semi too. That was Libby's favorite because it had m&m's all over it. :)

In other news, Libby is very excited that she can now climb in the McDonald's play land all by herself. She needs no help up those silly stair things anymore. Also, Grace is now saying "dadadadada". She says it when she's mad. I don't know if she's calling for him because she's mad at me or if she's blaming him for her situation. Ha! They are getting along a lot better than they did at first. She'll actually snuggle with him and fall asleep in his arms now. She also started to let him feed her, but only if she's either really hungry or in a really good mood. Last, but not least, I finally got my dress for Shawna's wedding. It fits a lot better than when I first tried it on, but I'm going to have to lose another 5 to 10 pounds for it to look right. Either that or wear control top panty hose. It's a good thing I've been hitting the exercise most mornings at 5:00 in the morning. I guess I'll just keep it up.

Last Week

Last week has two meanings (hopefully) today. Last week Libby did AWESOME at school. Every day she just ran right in to her classroom and was excited to be at school. On Friday they went to a local nature area and saw turtles and snakes and the like...at least that's what Libby said. :) BUT, that wasn't the high light for Libby. The trolley was already pulled up at the preschool when we got there. Libby was super excited as soon as she saw it. She started yipping like a puppy dog and kept singing "I so 'cited. I'm goin' on a train on a track!" When I went to pick her up she was still on the trip so I took her home straight off the trolley. I asked her if she had a good time on the train and she looked at me like I should know better and said, "It's not a train, mommy. It's a trully." Then last night she helped daddy when he caulked a well cover on outside of the rental. Chris had the caulk gun and Libby had a closed caulk bottle. She told daddy that she would get one side and very carefully ran the "caulk" down that side. She stood back to check on her work and looked close again. Here is what the conversation went like from there:

Libby: Daddy, it didn't work.
Daddy: Yes it did.
She looks again: No it didn't.
Daddy caulks it quickly: Yes it did, see?
She looks again: Oh, I did a good job daddy. See?
Daddy: You did do a good job.

Then she strutted around like a peacock because she was so proud of herself. That's the basics of it. I could be off on some of the wording because I wasn't out there at that time. I wish I had been though.

The other meaning of "last week" is that hopefully this will be our last week in this house. We should be taking our "final" walk through tomorrow. We already know that there will be things that we bring up that we want fixed because Chris has already asked him to fix them and he told us to get a life. So, we will re-ask and hope that he's in a better mood. Then he has some things that he needs to do on the outside. He said that should be finished by Wednesday and then he'll work (or so we hope) on the "fix it" list. Either way, hopefully this is it. We shall see!

Tagged

Alexis tagged me so now it is time to dish up the dirt...on myself. :)

Weird Facts About Myself The Rules:Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 6 people to be tagged, list their names & why you tagged them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re it!” & to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you, so since you’re not allowed to tag me back; let me know when you are done so I can go read YOUR weird/random/odd facts, habits and goals.

1. When I was in the 7th grade my friends and I nicknamed ourselves after the Beatles. I was John Lennon.
2. I always have to be moving. If I'm not moving my entire body then I'm either shaking my legs, flipping my foot, typing or something.
3. I still sleep with my bear and bear blanket. I use them as my pillow because most pillows don't prop my head up as high as I'd like.
4. I have a habit of making all kinds of productive plans and then...doing fun, non-productive stuff instead.
5. I want to become a better wife and mother because I don't measure up to my own standards.
6. When I was younger I would always rock back and forth, so much so that it annoyed people, especially when we were in the car and you could feel the whole car rock back and forth.
7. I still rock, only from side to side now and I don't think quite so annoyingly. :)
8. About the only time I listen to the radio is when I'm in the car.
9. I have a sweet tooth. I have to have something sweet every day. I try to limit it, but it is hard to do.
10. I plan on homeschooling my girls.

Now I am tagging:

Nicole: She's a fellow Dubuquer. Plus she's just got the cutest kids.
Jen B: Just cuz I love her.
Nissa: I enjoy hearing about her Wii and other crazy things going on in her life. :)
Minga: Because I miss her. BTW, I'm coming home at the end of July if you want to see the girls.
Summer: I just enjoy getting to know you better and better.
Jamie: I absolutely adore her and I miss not getting to spend as much time with her now that MOPS is over.

There you go. Just a few of my dark little secrets. :)

Feeling Guilty

I am feeling really guilty about being so frustrated with the house situation now. I went to exercise this morning and our floor is so piddily and small in light of everything that is happening in Iowa (and really this entire part of the midwest). One of the girls that I exercise with has lost her camper (luckily it is only for recreational purposes). All of the rain just washed it away. She was told that because it was a "stationary" camper that was not her official residence she couldn't get insurance on it, therefore, it is just gone. End of story. This same lady has a father that lives where a little bit more flooding is going on and he has six inches of rain in his basement. He is taking comfort in the fact that the front yard is not holding water yet because that means his main floor is still safe. Another lady can't make the trip she had planned on making because so many of our major highways are closed due to flooding. They are evacuating entire cities. One of the cities that has had major flooding is one that Chris had interviewed at just the year before we accepted the Dubuque job. We had a tornado touch down last night (on the complete opposite end of the state, but none-the-less) that killed four boy scouts and sent 40 more to the hospital. All of this going on...and I'm worried about a wood floor. Dear Lord, please forgive me for being so narrow minded. I can not believe how easy it is to get yourself so involved in your own little life, your own little world and forget about everything going on around you. I still don't know what we are going to do (or should do) about the situation, but seriously. It's a wood floor. Our house isn't being washed away by the flood waters, we aren't even being evacuated, nobody's life is in danger. Please forgive me for being so selfish and self-centered. While your at it, lift a quick prayer up for Iowa.

Storm Damage

We haven't even moved in and we already are dealing with house issues. The big storm the other night leaked all over the house. We have other pictures of other areas that are wet, but I don't think they produced as much damage as the water that leaked in (we aren't sure how) and leaked under our brand new solid wood floors. When Chris asked what we could do about the bowing, our builder told us it was our problem because it wasn't his *@#! fault. It was our fault for leaving the door open during a storm. Huh? What? Chris was obviously out there for the storm...he took pictures. Why would he open the door and, what, enjoy the wind and the rain in his face? OK. So, anyway...I have NO CLUE what we are going to do now. I am just sick to my stomach. I just miss Carol. I will not ever take her for granted after this debacle.

A Long, Long Time Ago

Chris has this picture posted on his facebook page and a good friend commented on the picture. Something to the effect of not knowing I was a biker babe. Ha ha! Anyway, I thought it was kind of funny so I thought I would share the laugh. Chris did some practice senior pictures because we weren't sure, at the time, whether I was going to be able to actually have them done. It was kind of fun, but I'm glad that mom scrimped and saved and I did get "real" senior pictures. Anyway...enjoy!

More House Progress

Here are our refrigerator and stove. I'm not sure how they made them fit. They were a little big so I hope they didn't hurt anything when they put it in. :S I'm also hoping that they can push the refrigerator back a tad bit more.

Our banister. I like it. Now I don't have to worry about Libby (or me) forgetting about the gaping hole and falling downstairs.

Our bathroom. I'm not sure how to work the mirrors yet. Should I get two mirrors? If so, what shape? Or should I just go with one large rectangle mirror? I'm not 100% sure. Any ideas?

And last but not least...here is our entry floor. It doesn't look quite right now, but I think it will look better once there is carpet down too.

Our Tenants

The Girls

I didn't know what to write about, but I wanted to blog. Blogging is a way of relieving stress for me and I need that right now. Anyway, that's beside the point. Here are two (top) pictures of Libby when she was around 6 months and two (bottom) pictures of Grace within the past week. She'll be 6 months on the 20th. Too soon! So, now you can judge how much alike (or not) they look.