Hi

Just wanted to do a boring little post to let everyone know that we have arrived safely in Iowa. Everything went well with the move. Thankfully, we had the help of Sheila to keep Elijah occupied, and Charlie to help Adam with all the heavy stuff. Elijah seems to be having an easier time today...and the cats have already adjusted completely (they sleep all day!).

I'm in the midst of unpacking a plethora of boxes...it seems endless. I will post again someday when I'm not overwhelmed with cardboard!

Happy Birthday to Adam!

I was totally going to type something super sappy to try to embarrass you but I decided against it for several reasons:

• you don't embarrass easily
• I would probably be the one to get embarrassed
• you would call and tell me I'm a nerd
• I wouldn't have been able to do a bullet post
• my blog is public and I wouldn't want it to end up on the front page of Xanga
• "sappy" really just isn't my thing
• "sappy" really just isn't YOUR thing
  
• sap is strictly for maple syrup

So hopefully you aren't disappointed! Enjoy Texas..and eat some good, authentic Mexican food for your birthday ole!

PS: You already know that the monkey and I have a surprise for you when you get home but Eli insisted on giving you a happy birthday message now:

Happy Birthday to my sister!

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS A MI HERMANA,

NICOLE!

Estas son las mañanitas, que cantaba el Rey David.

Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti.

Despierta mi bien despiertam mira que ya amaneció.

Ya los pajaritos cantan. La luna ya se metió

Que linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte.

Venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte.

Ya viene amaneciendo. Ya la luz del día nos dio.

Levántate de mañana. Mira que ya amaneció.


Tienes una buena dia, chica!
Tu eres muy loco!
Y tu eres muy bonita!

A-E-I-O-U
El burro sabe mas que tu!

Que te pasa, calabasa?
Nada, nada, limonada!

Tu estas en amorado con Senor Shumway!

Le crocodile a mangé le bébé!

Adios!

Should you have ANY problems translating, please feel free to contact
me for clarification! Everything above is in jest, or at least FUN!

July 4th

So I found out at 9:30am yesterday that Bay View has a parade on the 4th...and it goes right through the intersection three houses away from us! We could watch it from our front step...pretty cool. The Brewers Racing Sausages were in it, but I didn't have the camera on me until they were racing down the street...




That picture is especially for you, Dad!


My Aunt Ellen...


my cousin Jim...



Street sweeper...end of parade!
There were WAY more pictures but only some of them uploaded correctly.
On the way home, the monkey was very tired...the parade was 2 hours long, after all!

He fell asleep holding a stick he found at the parade!

After all that, we decided to grill out:

and Eli and Daddy read books:



Adam decided to "help" me change Elijah's poopy diaper...he gave him the pants sag:



After dinner, Elijah needed a bath to get the ketchup, BBQ sauce and other food out of his hair:

Then we decided to just hang out outside with the monkey until he had to go to bed:


I wonder what they were looking at?



Adam offering me some bug spray!

I LOVE that picture!



Then the neighbor girl brought out sidewalk chalk:

and even I got in on THAT fun!




I've got MAD art skills, hey? (That is a joke!)
Elijah really ended up with more chalk on himself than anything:


So anyway, Elijah ended up falling asleep pretty early so we knew we'd have to stay around the house to watch the fireworks...ended up that we had the best seat in the house!

Neighbors American flag...(duh)

Adam in the dark!


Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

I'll post some here and there are more in my photos section...


The monkey...mad because he doesn't want his diaper changed!


This one is so cute to me...he figured out that he can roll his cars back and forth on the window!


Watching for Daddy...


If only he would have let me have that stinkin' paci before I took this picture!


Same sentiment here...hey, anyone else notice how blonde his hair is getting?



Eli found a comfy place to read!


Haha! That's the laundry hamper in our room...he got in it okay but couldn't figure out how to get back out!

OK, there are still some videos coming but it took me SO LONG to upload these pictures that I need to go and do something else for awhile...oh yeah, and I have premium again (thanks to taking some stupid surveys!) so I'll be able to put more pictures up now.

Later.

Today has been a rough start to our day here in the Clark house. I woke up way too early, for one. That did mean I got to exercise before Elijah woke up...but then I felt really sick...and threw up. Yuck. I'm okay now...just a little headache and a stiff neck but I think the neck thing is because I threw up. Yuck. Anyway, Elijah woke up in one of his moods, kicked his bowl of oatmeal out of my hands and threw a tantrum within the first half hour he was awake. On top of that, he had a doctor appointment today and his brilliant momma made his appointment for 1pm, which meant he wouldn't get a nap until afterwards. This would have been okay except his appointment took over an hour! He started freaking out at soon as the exam room door closed. He just didn't want to be there. The doctor couldn't get see in his ears due to the excessive wax build-up and he had to get his ears flushed. OH MY WORD. He was not a happy boy. I had to practically lay on top of him to keep him still, one nurse had to hold his head and the other nurse had to do the flushing...which took forever...and the first few attempts mainly got me wet! He screamed the whole time. It was just awful. On top of that, he got his finger poked for the lead test and two shots...the poor, poor monkey! He was so tired after his appointment he couldn't even walk...well, he tried but he walked into the door frame. He pretty much passed out as I was bringing him in the house and he is sleeping now. Yeah...and we have a thunderstorm and tornado warning right now because of a really bad storm coming our way with 80 mph winds. I may have to get him up to go in the basement if it gets too bad! He is going to be an absolute train wreck by later today. I feel so bad for him.

It's one of those days...tough day to be the monkey (and the monkey momma, too!)

OK...sorry this took a while (Mom and Nic) but I was trying to enjoy my time and was forgetting to take pictures I will try to be more expeditious with this task in the future.

Enjoy:

Elijah wanted to share his juice with Sadie, I'm guessing...


And Elijah showing me his "big teeth"...


And Elijah just being Elijah...


These first few Dad took of Elijah and me by the jungle gym...they're from kind of far away but I think you'll see Elijah and I'm in the background...



And these are the pictures I could get of Dad and Eli...Eli kept running away when I'd try to get him to stand by Dad for a picture!



But then we managed ONE together picture...


These are from tonight while Elijah was reading before bed...


And last, but definitely NOT least....................

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Check out those legs! Elijah wearing his "hot pants" pajamas!