Dear Blog, Please accept my apologies

I am so sorry Dear Blog, that I've kept you in the dark and feeling neglected. Hah, there are days I feel that way too!

It seems that after all the thought and deliberation and finally being able to tell people what was going on (I'm sure many of you can relate to the needed confidentiality of changing careers, etc...), life went into warp speed.  There was no slow build up.  There was a schedule to maintain, a final couple weeks for Bart, a 5 week period of him being home (ask me whether we're ready for him to retire yet!), the start of a new job and getting the house ready to put on the market.

So I thought I'd share a little of the fun and a little of the work.

First, I left off right before Spring Break.  We spent it in Hawaii so we could have some vacation time and some family time (with sis on Oahu).  Short story is that we spent 50% of our time on the Big Island (Hawaii) with either Bart or Rachel in the throes of food poisoning.  We did get to go on our snorkel trip (awesome!) and then spent a day at Hapuna State Beach boogie boarding.  Although Rachel only had energy to bounce up and down in waves as she was still in recovery.  As the wife and mother of sick individuals, I was as sleep deprived as they were - but with a great appetite!  It was great to finally go to the beach our last day.

See?  I'm smiling - I caught some really good 'waves.' 

 

Bart had to fly back to finish out his days at the Firm while the girls and I headed to my sister's on Oahu.  It was great to see Deb, Neti and the kids.  We took them to the beach, got to watch their baseball games and the 3 older ones in a Tahitian dance performance at the Shell Amphitheatre in Waikiki.

 

Here's a little on their dancing.  The boys (older 2) are training with fire now and treated us to a routine in the backyard - hose on hand for emergencies!  They are very proud of this and take it very seriously.  Here's JT - he's 9!

 

That night was also prep night for the following evenings dance performance.  Artificial flowers are not involved.  They all gather Ti leaves and flowers from nurseries and around the neighborhoods (watch out bougainvillea's!).  They strip and braid Ti leaves for the boys head and neck pieces and girls flowers are sewn on and weaved in and - it's a lot of work for a show!  I can strip and braid a ti leaf now......Deb is working on a braid:

Here is the gang.  It was great to spend some time with them and oh, the twins are getting so big.

 





We got back from HI and went straight into full rehearsal mode and performances for Kendra who did "Pirates of Penzance" with the local Children's theatre (Rachel had chorus concerts before Spring Break).  It's a great program and I'm glad she got the opportunity.  She has the blue sash in the middle:

 

In between performance weekends, Bart and I went house hunting in New York and New Jersey.  More on that later but we will probably, most likely, almost definitely be New Jersey residents.  There will be a limit on the number of 'New Jersey Housewife' jokes I will allow!

 

So while Bart had some time at home (he also took care of me for something and then went to spend time with his parents in Minnesota), we had to work on some areas of the house as we looked toward putting it on the market.  Our realtor (and friend) kindly suggested we pack up the books and move bookcases in the garage to "de-clutter" the house.  Let me just say that de-cluttering and keeping things de-cluttered is a full time job.  With time and a half.  Except no one is paying me for it.  Except it may sell the house so I guess I do get paid???

 

Anyway, we have this bookcase:

 

And this bookcase:

And contents from this bookcase:

In the garage.  Not to mention the other one from Kendra's room and the two that we donated to Goodwill and the 15 boxes of books that accompany them and probably have 5 more to fill.

And here are 4 of the 7 bags of books we gave away.  Plus 2 boxes I'm sending to my sister.  It would really be nice to have a library in the new house but I don't think it's in the cards.

Near the end of Bart's "un-employment" we took a little time to get out of the house and enjoy some spring weather.  This was taken on a hot! April day and we chose to go to Point Pinole (on the bay in Richmond) as it would be a little cooler.  Per a request, here are Eiger and I - you can see how big he is now.

He's a sweet boy.  He is currently at a kennel for some board and training while we are showing the house.  The trainer said it would be a good idea as he is a good dog but because of his markings he needs to be better than the next dog; "if your dog and a golden retriever get in a fight and the retriever started it - your dog will be seen as at fault because of his looks."  Doesn't matter that he's 3/4 lab, the markings subject him to doggy discrimination.  A shame as I think he's beautiful because of his markings!  Additionally, dogs tend to slobber and shed so him being gone right now really helps with keeping the house in the "near perfect" state required for selling a house.  But look at that face:

Lastly, these two:

These girls keep me busy.  Busier than I ever thought.   I love them and they are my joy.

That's a brief on what's been happening in the Olson world and while I know it's not much, it's all I have computer time for.  This has been the "least easy" of any of our moves for various reasons and thus many days seem like fire-fighting days.  I'm still learning the many lessons God has for me - I'm so thankful He's patient!!!