Daredevil

Much of Olivia and Logan's first year has been the same.  Based on my experience as a teacher, I always expected them to be completely different.  I was amazed that Logan came out as basically an identical baby to his sister.  Same sleep habits, same eating habits, exact same schedule, same food issues....  But the tables are starting to turn.

Logan is definitely a climber.  I still wouldn't consider Olivia a climber.  She certainly never did it as a wee one.

And he has absolutely no fear

He will climb up anything he can, and his favorite thing to do is try to head dive off of the side of a chair.  It will be a miracle if I keep him from breaking his neck!

He climbed over the arms of the chairs to move from one chair to the other.

Trying to head dive over the back of the chair.  He thinks he's funny too.

I won't be surprised if he is climbing out of his crib before his second birthday.  I guess it's time to get ready for having a growing boy!

Getting Out

As of right now, we are only getting out the house to drop off and pick up from preschool twice a week.  One, because it's freaking cold out!  Two, because taking two out by myself is just a lot of work. And three, because we are trying to save money for the move.

But on Monday I decided we just needed out.  I've mentioned before that I don't really get "cabin fever", but I just needed something to break up our day.  Doing the same thing day in/day out 24/7 was wearing on me.  We needed just a few little things, so we headed to Target after nap.

Olivia is always up for a trip to Target.  The dollar spot is her favorite.  She picked out a few treasures (that we did not get--we do NOT need any more junk to pack!).  She carried them all around the store.  Which was actually helpful in not having her try to throw random stuff in the cart. :)

Logan is always pretty easy going.   He just hangs out in the cart and takes everything in.

We were half way through the list (and all the way on the other side of the store) when Olivia decided she needed a bathroom break.  We stopped and had dinner after that.

Olivia and I were suppose to split a pizza, but she was being picky about cheese and was more interested in Logan's pouch.  (Of course, she wants nothing to do with the protein filled pouches I bought for her.)

We finished up our shopping and got home just in time for bed.  It's going to be a long two months!

Photo Dump Friday

Figuring out these beads

Girlfriend had jelly everywhere--even up her nose.  Mostly because she chooses to be picky about her food and eats the messiest way possible.  I swear she is probably the only three and a half year old still wearing a bib, but I don't even care.

My water baby!  He LOVES the water.  Loves, loves, loves!

Since our house is a split level, there is a set of stairs going up and going down from our main level.  We can't really put gates up without drilling into the banister and even then I don't think it would work.  So we have our little cage thing around them.  Well, guess who figured out how to move it?!  Then he goes straight for the stairs.

We are working on that sippy cup!  He can drink out of them just fine.  He just hasn't fully got down that he needs to tip it.  He doesn't tip his bottle either.  He has to be laying down to drink it.  So we are working on the tip.  I refuse to pack the bottles or anything bottle related, so they will be gone before our move!

Olivia is currently obsessed with having "picnics".  She will set up little picnics all over the house with her play food and then begs you to have a picnic with her.

He wanted to be part of our picnic too!

Playing

We are trying to teach Logan to be "gentle".  I clearly remember being told as a child to watch out because one day my brother was going to be bigger than me and then he would be picking on me.  Well, my brother is a foot taller than me and much, much bigger than me and this truth came to pass.  We keep telling Olivia the same thing, but she might not have to wait until he is 10.  He's giving her a run for her money now!  Pulling her hair is his favorite! :)

Blueberries, bananas, green beans... Mmmm!

It was pajama day at preschool for the letter P!  We stepped up our P game and even work pink pigtails and purple shoes!  They got to bring a stuffed animal with them, and after centers they got popcorn, pretzels, and watched Peter Pan.

Love my boy!

Random Ramblings...

I've been asked to blog more.  I've also had people checking up on me since the big news.  So I thought I'd just throw together a little post in bullet form.

**I cried like a baby when Michael left.  Olivia isn't use to seeing me crying.  Sweet girl was a little distraught.  She kept saying things like, "Here.  These tissues will help." and "I'm here for you!" and "Oh, come on, we'll have lots of fun together."  Along with "It will be ok.  He will be back."  Mixed in with a lot of pitiful "ooh" and "aww" sounds.

**Speaking of Olivia, she is doing well.  She was confused at first.  She kept saying he will be back at dark.  I kept trying to explain that no, he will not be back for a looong time.  I think as the days have gone on she has understood it more.  She asks to talk to him.  We called him a few times on his two day drive.  She's Skyped with him twice now.  Last night she asked him if he found the perfect house for us yet. :)  She knows we are moving to Texas, although I don't think she fully understands what that means.

**Michael arrived safely in Texas.  He stopped in to see people at his old company.  This week he is staying with my 31 director.  They just built a very nice new home, so he is living in the lap of luxury. ;)

**The kids and I are doing alright.  My house looks like a bomb went off, but other than that we are surviving.  We had to go grocery shopping earlier in the week.  That was a nightmare!  We are trying to eat all the food we already have in the house, but I needed things like formula, bananas, bread...  Luckily it was one of my shorter trips, but it was still not a ton of fun.  I'm blessed to be able to go without kids usually.

**Michael had his first day on Tuesday.  He knew traffic was going to be bad, so he left super early (like 2 hours!  If you know my Marine husband, then this will not surprise you).  It took him 50 minutes. Ugh!  But he found out that he can work flex time. He can go in whenever he wants and leave whenever he wants as long as he works an 8 hour day (lunch not included).  He went in at 7 the second day and it cut his drive time in half!

**His direct contact and partner worker is Matt.  I guess after just spending half the day with Michael, Matt went to the VP and congratulated him and told him he made a good hire and it was a great decision on his part.  Apparently they usually hire or promote from within when they can and there were a few other people that really wanted Michael's position.  So Michael is "lucky" to have even been considered.

**Michael really likes the job so far.  He likes Matt, he is doing work that he knows and is comfortable with, and feels 100% confident that this was the right decision for us.

**We found out that in order to break our lease we were going to forfeit our deposit AND have to keep paying rent until they find someone else to occupy the place.  On top of giving them a 60 day notice.  So that was a big hit.  But then in a random twist of events it turns out that we didn't officially resign the lease in January (even though we think we did and have a screen shot of what we thought was an official signing).  The owners of the house were on the fence about selling, so the property management held back an important piece of the puzzle.  Long story short, all we have to do is give 60 days, pay month to month for two months, and we will get our deposit back and not be responsible for any further rent. This is a HUGE answer to prayer for us.  I'm calling it miracle number 1 (because I know there are more to come!).  It's also confirmation that we are doing what we are suppose to be doing.  We needed this mountain moved, and it was.

**On Michael's second day of work, Matt was in a meeting with the VP and the VP mentioned something about getting Michael some training.  Matt said, "Oh, he's already doing x, y, and z (data talk for those of us less knowledgeable).  I think he is just fine."  This job is a step up from what he was doing, or maybe just on a bigger scale, so he was a little concerned there would be things he didn't know.  This was a nice boost of confidence for him.

**We are still working on the housing situation.  We are most likely going to rent, which means coming up with a deposit and rent (which is significantly higher than we pay here) AND moving costs.  We have until March 31st to move out of our current house, so it looks like we may be moving sometime around there.

**I have been packing every day during Logan's afternoon nap.  I have started with our basement.  Ugh.  We have so. much. stuff.  I've already got a pile to donate, a pile to hopefully sell, and multiple boxes packed.  It's times like these that I wish we were minimalists. :)

**We found out that Michael's company just shuts down every year from around December 22nd to January 2nd.  This is awesome news!  He won't have to take vacation time just to celebrate Christmas, and it will help us tremendously if we are traveling for the holidays!

Well... that's it for now.  Logan just fell asleep, Olivia is at preschool, and I just finished my cup of coffee.  It's time for me to start frantically cleaning my house!  Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the kids up tomorrow.

Here we go again!

Fasten your seat belts!  The Sellers are about to take you on another whirlwind adventure!

The short version:  We are moving to Texas.  Again.

Nope.  I'm not kidding. :)

The long version: Michael had been working for the same Texas company when we moved back here.  We will call that company B.  B let him go in April, but it wasn't because of anything he did/didn't do.  They were simply going in a different direction (and have since gone from 60 employees down to 5!).  When Michael started with them, it was after being off of work for 10 months, so he took whatever came along.  It was pretty much an entry level position making $10/hr.  He was the 13th employee, so the CEO and COO (and everyone else, really) got to know him, know his work ethic, know his character, and saw him do great things.  He worked his way up through raise after raise and was making a very good salary when they let him go.  Because they believed in him (and felt bad for having to terminate him), they went to bat for him.  All the big wigs reached out to like minded companies and contacts they had and talked Michael up.  Multiple companies contacted him, but we weren't interested in moving to Boston or Chicago.  Actually, we weren't sure we were interested in moving at all.  Company V contacted him and they briefly talked, but he had just taken a position with Verizon so that was pretty much the end of that.

Fast forward a few months and things were getting tight. Verizon was a temp job.  We needed benefits, we needed to not miss out on money every time a holiday rolled around and he didn't work, and quite frankly we needed more money.  Both Michael and I started looking for work.  And for answers to how we could make things work for our family.

In October, completely out of the blue, company V sent an email.  They said they knew he had a job, but was he happy.  They were going to be looking for a new data guy soon and had heard so many great things about him that they wanted to check and see if he was interested.  We pretty much talked the topic to death and decided that if the number was right we would go.  Well, they never really got back with him.  He contacted them a few times, he was suppose to get a call from the president, but never did.  We figured this was maybe a closed door.

In the past few weeks Michael started aggressively applying for new jobs.  Not only did we need more money, but we needed benefits.  (Thank you Obama, for increasing my self pay health insurance 4 TIMES the amount I was paying.  I see how this is "affordable". Or not.)  It is just frustrating to apply and apply and hope that the right one comes along.

Then Thursday night as I was getting ready to leave for MOPS, Michael gets a phone call.  It is company V.  They have landed multiple big time, long term contracts and need more data guys NOW.  They were about to put an add out, but wanted to reach out to Michael first.  They set up a phone interview of sorts for Friday.  Really, it was just to talk about pay, benefits, etc.  And to have Michael talk to the current data guy that he would be working with.  Since we had already hashed everything out in October, our answer was still the same.  If they come back with the right number then we will go.

Well, they came back with the right number.  Plus, a sizable yearly bonus (likely to be distributed monthly, but they are still working out those details).  Also, a life insurance policy, 9 holidays, and paid time off.  They pay 50% of our health/vision/dental.  And the average yearly raise for the company is 5%.

So we said yes.  It is just too good of an opportunity for us to pass up.  Michael would never be able to make that kind of money here without a degree.  This is a situation where it is who you know, and we have to be thankful for that $10/hr start that led to big things for us. God knew.

To say it has been a whirlwind of a weekend is putting it mildly.  They wanted him to start immediately.  They were obviously willing to give him a week or so to get down there, but made it clear that the sooner the better.  Michael figured that the sooner he got there the sooner he would start making more and his 90 days until benefits would begin.  So he is literally driving there as we speak.  He left yesterday, drove a good portion of it, and then is driving the rest today.  He will be moving around here and there staying with different friends for the next few weeks and then will be staying with my old bosses for a while.

We need to get out of our lease.  Michael touched base briefly on Friday, but they are out of the office for weekends.  It appears we may need to give a 60 day notice.  Michael is on a hunt to find us a place to live.  As soon as all of those details are in place we will have more answers.  All I know is that I have a lot of packing to do. Again.

There are still some unanswered questions about the move itself, and a lot of work ahead.  Also, the tough spot of having daddy in one state and the family in another.  So we have a few hurdles to jump in the next few months, but overall we are really excited.  I will be honest and say that we have both questioned if our move back to Ohio was the right decision.  I'm sure there was a purpose and a plan, but we are ready to be back living in sunny Texas.

(NOTE: We tried to personally tell as many people as we could, but it all happened so fast.  He will be in Texas today, so I figured this is another way to get the word out.  Sorry if you feel you should have gotten a call.  I sort of have my hands full at the moment.)

Photo Dump Friday

I've mentioned before that Logan loves to crawl through things.  He put his head down and just scooted his way right under his walker.  He went all the way through it!

Sometimes you just have to get fancy.

and then something like this happens. ;)

Go Bucks!

I guess the top of the couch is more comfortable.

Because of Christmas break and then snow days, Olivia was off of school for three weeks!  One of our "don't lose your mind during this awful three year old phase" goals is to spend more one on one time with Olivia and to also engage her more.  So we've been pulling out a different educational toy out of our supply closet each day and working on something "new".  This toy is a current favorite.

Someone has a birthday coming up!  Can you guess our theme?

God Bless the Target dollar spot!

Right after we got the snow, we had below zero temps.  I think one of the days school was canceled the temps were something like -3 with a windchill of -18.  Yeah.  We didn't leave the house for over a week!  So we headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch last Saturday.  Just to get out of the house.

It was Logan's first time playing there.

Doing his chores ;)

"Look at us, mommy!  Aren't we so cute?  Take our picture."  and then "I thought you were going to send it to Boppa!"

Not too long after that, this happened.  This NEVER happens.  Sweet girl.

Football Fun

We aren't really fanatical about our football, but we do have teams that we root for.  When Michael and I got together, I didn't really care all that much about college football and he didn't really care all that much about NFL football.  He is a born and raised Columbus boy, whose father and uncles use to usher for OSU games, so he is definitely an Ohio State fan.  I grew up in Wisconsin and love me some Green Bay Packers.  So from the beginning we have said we are a Packers/Ohio State home.

We honestly don't watch all that much football anymore.  We got out of the habit when we were in Texas with no TV access.  And even after we bought an antennae (for the Super Bowl), we couldn't get most of the games in that we wanted to watch.  But I turned the Packers game on Sunday.  Of course I was cheering and yelling.  Michael said, "You are scaring the children".  Only a little joking. :)  We were losing and then we got a touchdown and I was screaming.  Olivia asked what was happening and Michael told her I was having a stroke.  Ha ha! Then I made a noise at one of the plays and Olivia asked me if I was choking!  In the end we ended up winning and are moving on one step closer to the Super Bowl. (Although, I do realize our next game might not go as well.)

Then the Buckeyes played in the National Championship game on Monday night.

AND WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This more accurately sums up our photo shoot.  Logan is trying to crawl off the bench and Olivia is yelling "Ohio State!".  I tried explaining that I didn't really need her to yell that because her mouth was open in all the pictures.  But you know... three year old.

Or Logan would look cute and Olivia wouldn't be cooperating.

Either way they are the cutest little Buckeyes I know.  Go Bucks!

Girl's Date!

Last weekend Olivia and I went on a little girl's date.

It started out with a trip to the library.  It is so much easier to pick out books without a little brother around.  Those are all of the books she found that she wanted to check out--princesses, fairies, doc, and even a Daniel Tiger.

She wanted to read some of the books right then and there.  As she flipped through them she kept saying, "Wow!  This is so much fun!"

Then it was time to play!  She's offering me some bread.  Mmmm! :)

"Look!  A "v" like in my name!"  She's so cute.

After the library we headed to Dunkin Donuts.  Ever since her birthday she has been talking about wanting "purple donuts, and pink donuts, and green donuts".  I don't know where she got this idea, but I figured DD was the best option for this.

showing her dirty hands

They only had pink to choose from out of her color requests, but she was pleased. Strawberry frosting and sprinkles are right up her alley.

She pretty much only ate the topping off of it.  Just like she eats her cupcakes--frosting only.  Silly girl.  She had a good time though.

Girlfriend is in some kind of three year old funk that is trying our patience and any parenting skills we thought we might have had.  So we are working every angle we can think of and praying that this is just a "phase".  Because Lord help us all if it's not. :)

This last weekend she begged to go to the grocery store with me.  Then called it a "girl's date" the whole time.  If that's what makes her feel special, then she can tag along.  Parenting is hard. But I love my girl!