Spring Cleaning and day at home

Ok, so for most of you it's a strange concept to think of "Spring Cleaning" at this time of year. It is for me too. I am still getting used to the whole change of season thing down here in Australia. I have to correct myself sometimes when I refer to "last winter" or "this summer". I often say, "our winter" when I mean American winter in November-December. We are now in spring here. The weather is sunny and about 73 degrees, beautiful.

I didn't have anywhere I had to be today, it was great. I woke up early and went to the gym. I had a great workout on the weight machines. I have created a new routine and I am hoping that I will start to see some better results. I think my old workout was too easy. I have increased the weights (very confusing when it's all in kg's!) and changed the exercises I am doing for certain muscle groups. We'll have to wait and see. Since I haven't mentioned my running goal you probably realized that I didn't do the run this month. With Jared being gone all the time the past two months the training didn't go according to plan. Oh well. Still working on it.

When I got home from the gym, Jared left for a run and I got the kids breakfast, etc. Jared took Austin to school so I didn't even have to rush to get ready and out the door by 8:15 am. Great! About 8:20 I thought of inviting our little friend, Taylor, over to play with Olivia. They are two peas in a pod (which might scare you if you know Olivia). The funny thing is, they play great when together. Despite their crazy personalities, it's like some wonderful level of perfect symbiosis is achieved when the two are combined. I called Taylor's mom, who happened to have a RS meeting this morning for church, and she was ecstatic that she wouldn't have to take Taylor with her. WIN-WIN. The two of them did so well together and Ashley had a 2 1/2 hour power nap. Unprecedented.



Meanwhile, I was doing my spring cleaning. I love to clean- some of my friends and family would even say I am "OCD". I just really enjoy a clean house, but I don't think I am psycho about it. I have learned to deal with mess after having three kids (and a husband). The thing is, I hate THIS type of cleaning. Deep cleaning. I pulled the kids' furniture from the walls and scrubbed the fingerprints, random splashes of red liquid (what is that?!), pencil, etc. I rearranged the kids' room and it's a much better configuration. I just have to put in my plug for the Magic Eraser b/c I don't know what I would do without that thing. I wish they had a Jumbo size, so I could clean the entire wall with less work by my arm. Have you ever noticed how dirty the house is once you get down on your kids' level? Oh my gosh. I couldn't believe how filthy it was! I just don't look down there very often. The walls from the floor and three feet up were pretty bad. We've only been here 8 months. I ended up doing their room, bathrooms, out into the living room, on and on. Once you get going you can't stop! I had to leave it there otherwise I would have been going all day.



So I was able to get a lot done while the girls were playing. Ashley woke up and seemed to immediately be screaming bloody murder. I was on the phone with Jared so I tried to finish the conversation but ended up going in to get her b/c of the way she was crying. When I walked in I found Ashley hanging over the side of the crib- about to plunge head first to the floor. She was literally balancing on the side of the crib, on her stomach. I couldn't believe it. She has just started kneeling near the side and holding on the top, but apparently she stood up and jumped or something. Needless to say I about had a heart attack and said a quick prayer that I had caught her before something horrible had happened. We will definitely be lowering the mattress this evening when Jared gets home. I had to put her down for another nap later and I checked on her every 15 minutes, afraid that she'd wake up and do it again. By the way, this photo was taken just yesterday b/c she had JUST started hanging on the side like this. Little did I know she was going to progress so quickly!

We've just decided to move. We will be moving about 4 houses up the street into a place that Jared's uncle Dave recently finished. The reason we went ahead with it is b/c our landlord here is pretty unpredictable. We don't have a lease with her so she could raise rent anytime, sell the place anytime, or whatever she wants. The place up the street is a little bit bigger, better yard fenced in, nice covered patio, larger kitchen, etc. I think it will be nice. It's a jump in rent for us (ouch) but we're kind of getting a deal right now so it's going to happen at some point. I think it will happen in about a month b/c the landlord just left for Shanghai to stay with her daughter who is on tour with The Lion King. That probably wouldn't be nice for us to move out while she's gone. Hopefully Dave will let us move some stuff up between now and then so the process isn't too painful.



In other news I am starting to plan a Halloween party for the kids since they can't do anything at school here. If any of you have great ideas or know websites with good recipes or fun crafts, please let me know. I will be checking Martha Stewart and Family Fun, but if you know more please share. I love Halloween! Olivia wants to be Snow White and Austin currently wants to be an Egyptian pharaoh but you never know how long that will last! What can I do for Ashley in warm weather? Once again, a strange concept to get used to.