Christmas Cheer

I have been busy updating our Fossil Ridge Farm blog that I continue to neglect this very important part of me and our family. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with everyone here celebrating our last Thanksgiving in our house on Bluestem. It was sort of nostalgic, but that was certainly overshadowed by the excitment of family and the impending holidays.

After seeing Santa at the mall on Sunday, the kids decided to re-create Santa's sleigh out of our living room chair. The chair is positioned in a corner, so they piled every single toy in the house behind the chair. They piled up and pored over the edge. They informed me that this was Santa's sleigh.

Summertime, Summertime, Summertime!

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already August 10. Where has the time gone? Where have I been? My new job has kept me so busy that I don't have any time for any of my blogging anymore. I'm bummed because as I go through my days and when I go to bed at night, I think, I have to capture this, I have to remember it!! And then it doesn't get done and then it's a week later and I can't remember anything!


So far we've had a wonderful summer. Since I got back from my trip, we've been having a wonderful time.

• We had our first camping trip with all three kids.
• Amber is growing like a weed and now attending the same daycare as the boys.
• We are slowing moving forward with our new house plans.
• We have been attending birthday parties.
• Boys are growing up and becoming quite the little polite helpers.
• My new job is keeping me busy and I'm enjoying it.
• Dad had his younger brother out and we had a mini 'family-reunion'.
• I'm going to start blogging again more frequently! (I promise, I'll try)

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow we get to go home. Of course, it's still 3AM in the morning at home, but it's 5:10 Tuesday evening here and when I wake up in the AM, I'll be on a plane home.

I leave Singapore at 8:20AM (which is 6:20PM Tuesday evening at home) and arrive at the shuttle pick up in Fort Collins near our home at 6:45PM Wednesday evening. It is so surreal that I will leave Wednesday morning, travel for 24 hours and arrive Wednesday evening.

It feels like I've been gone forever. I miss the kids and my husband so much it is unbearable. I'm sort of feeling numb at the moment, but know that at least my journey is ending and I don't have to fret about it anymore.

The trip has been ok. The jet lag in India was not good, but I've felt pretty good my entire stay here in Singapore. It is beautiful here. Hot and humid and lush and green. We got a chance to hike through the Botanic Gardens and they are beautiful. Not as many flowers (we didn't pay to go in the Orchid Garden), but just very lush trees and landscaping.

I wish I could have enjoyed these exotic locations a little more, but I've experienced enough to know that I don't want to go back to India (this was my second trip) and that if I could take my family or if the kids were older, I would come back to Singapore.

Logging off for now, will try to post when I get back, but then we're heading to North Dakota to celebrate the 4th of July with Miles' family.

Happy travels and some pictures to leave you with...

Busy Much?

Every night I go to bed saying to myself, I really should carve out 20-30 minutes to update my blogs. That's not a lot of time, right? But, alas, I fall asleep and don't get to it. Here's a few things that are going on right now, so posting will be sparse until probably mid-July...

• Preparing for a business trip to India/Singapore June 15 - 25 (ugh, I really don't want to go. I've tried many tactics, including getting a new job, to try to get out of it, but no dice. I'm going.)
• Preparing for vacation and a driving trip to ND to see Miles family June 27 - July 3 (This will be fun. I enjoy going there and other than the long trip in the car for the kids, it's really nice for them to see Miles' family)
• Managing 2 jobs at work since I got a new job and my old job won't let me go until a week after I return from vacation - long transition time.
• Dealing with the city and trying to get our submittal complete so we can schedule a hearing - see my other blog for details if you are at all interested - I'm going to try to update that today as well
• Trying to get ahold of the water association (our ditch water for the farm) president to find out if he'll sign our drawing (see above)
• Working with our builder to determine exact location of the new house and if we will be able to have a basement after all since now that the ditch water is running, we've got standing water and ground water appears to be less than a foot
• Working with the kitchen designer to come up with a better design for our kitchen
• Working with the house designer to make sure the layout is how we want it so he can start on structural stuff
• Dealing with family issues and stress in grandparents regarding their relationship and their babysitting duties
• Trying to get the house ready to put on the market
• Cleaning out and selling or donating unused items
• Putting ads on Craig's list for stuff not sold at the garage sale (should have posted about that on Saturday - maybe I still will)
• Trying out a new babysitter this weekend so Miles and I can go to the Parade of Homes and go out to dinner (first time since???)
• Helping my parents out with their babysitter
• Farm chores like spraying weeds and getting ditch water to pasture
• Organizing pictures and Creative Memories stuff so that we can stage the study
• Making sure kids get fed, bathed and to bed on time on a daily basis
• Cooking extra meals and freezing them so Miles can feed kids while I'm gone
• Buying gifts for friends that just had babies
• Getting some sleep so that I can function every day