Negligence Has Nothing to do with Negligees

I have been greatly neglecting my blog lately. We've been busy having fun, sometimes I've been busy being miserable, but mostly we've just been busy. The horribly funny thing about this all is that now that I have a few minutes to type a post, I have absolutely nothing to say. I suppose I'll give an update.

We've decided to go to Tacoma, Washington and Oregon City, Oregon with Brian for his rotations. The original plan had the kids and I moving back to the Tri-Cities in August so Alyssa wouldn't have to change schools three times. But we started to rethink that, and with gas prices so incredibly high we decided that it would be way too expensive for Brian to come visit us on the weekends. If we were going to be able to see him, we'd have to go with him. So we'll be heading to Tacoma in August, Oregon City in November, and then the kids and I will move to the Tri-Cities during Christmas break. Brian's last rotation is in Walla Walla, Washington (a city so nice, they named it twice) and he will have free housing there, so we won't be going with him. Plus, he'll only be about an hour away at that point.

Ethan is busy potty training. Brian and I figured out that with both of the boys in diapers (and wearing Pampers) we were spending over $800 each year, not including wipes. I had considered cloth diapers in the past, but never seriously, but once I heard that diaper bill, I started looking into it wholeheartedly. We spent a couple weeks trying out different brands and types of diapers, and for about 200 bucks Marcus is set for the rest of his diapering life. I know, you have to factor in the money to run your washer and dryer, but even then the price difference is amazing. But even more amazing is the fact that I am loving cloth diapering. It's not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I've started to do all my real laundry on Saturday mornings, which leaves everything else free for diapers during the week. I only have to wash a load of diapers every other day - it's really not hard at all. Plus it really is a good feeling to know that my boys are in cloth. It just feels good. My favorite are the all-in-one Bumgenius diapers (2.0 version). Brian got quite a kick out of the brand names: Bungenius, Happy Heiny, etc. Anyway, the Bumgenius diapers are fabulous and very cute.

Oh, and the potty training. Since we've put Ethan in cloth, he's been so much more aware of when he's going, so he started heading to the toilet when he needed to. It's very cool.

Alyssa...well, if it wasn't irreligious I would say that Alyssa thinks that she's God. She is so in charge, and sometimes it drives me crazy. On the plus side, she's found a fascination with cleaning. She loves to steal wipes to clean the walls, and the table, and the counters, and the couch.... On the down side, she's talking back like nobody's business. This morning I was upstairs rocking Marcus to sleep, and I heard Ethan screaming because Alyssa was dousing him with water from the hose. I went to the window and told Alyssa to turn off the water. She didn't, so I told her again. Still nothing. "Alyssa, will you please turn off the water?" I asked in desperation.

"That's what I was waiting for," she said. "You needed to ask me politely." Holy cow. There's been quite a bit of that going around lately.

Brian's doing great. He's not seeing as many patients as he'd like to be, but he's having a good time. Last week I went in and had him check my eyes. It was the first time that he's done it "officially" on me, instead of practicing. Then the next day we picked him up at the Portland clinic and he helped me pick out some snazzy new glasses and prescription sunglasses. One of the things I enjoyed about that is that he started helping some guy who was in there asking everyone if the glasses he was picking were "chick magnets" or not, and the opticians were very impressed with his knowledge of lens types and frame materials. She said that most of the doctors she had worked for didn't bother to stay on top of things like that. It was cool.

We went home for the Fourth of July, and we had a fabulous time. We moved Callie the Cat from Melinda's house (thanks Melinda!) to my parents house (thanks Mom and Dad!) where she'll stay until we move back in December. We had a barbecue at Christina's house where we ate very yummy hamburgers and probably the best pasta salad I've ever had, took the test that you have to pass to become a U.S. citizen, and watched the fireworks from the grass by the stadium. We visited Brian's grandma, who had just had a knee replacement and was recovering at her house.

So yeah, we're having good times. I'll try to be better at posting. I miss this blogging journal of mine.