8/31/13

"Ok I have a good idea, I'll turn around and show you my bottom and you say, 'Hey don't ever show me your bottom again' and then I'll show you my  bottom again. Okay?"

 - Van, explaining to me his idea of a fun game

***

"Awwwwwww, so cute!"

 - Van at Cristina's baby shower, as he helped her open every present

***

Grandma: (to grandpa who has Van on his lap) "You should run over and get Van's P R E S E N T"
Grandpa: "His what?"
Van: "My present"

Apparently Van has learned spelling.

***

But sometimes he's his own worst enemy.

Me: "Van! how was your day"
Van: "Well I'm really sad, my airplane broke"
(It had no wings)
Me: "Oh no!"
Van: "but look it still flies!" pulls his hand back to launch it
Me: "Wait! don't throw it!" it's not meant to fly, he just means it can still be thrown. and now it looks like a missile.
"So what happened, did the wings break off when you threw it earlier today?"
Van: "No, I just thought it might be fun without the wings on it, so I pulled them off."
Me: "well you can't be too sad about it breaking then…"

8/26/13

Two milestones I forgot to mention yesterday.

Esther rolled over for the first time. Hooray! she's definitely been strong enough for a while, but never had the motivation. She was not born with ants in her pants like another child I know.

And Van, when trying to convince me he should stay with grandma while I went to the store, even though grandma was very busy suggested, "I could just watch myself"
I had been waiting for that one.
Get ready world, Van is feeling self sufficient.

Cousin love

smooch sandwich!

Don't worry Esther, there will be no shortage of affection for you.

First dentist visit

Van went to see the dentist for the first time this week.
He did great, the hygienist said he let her do more work than most 3 year olds.

Ready to start

Ruth showing him her tools

Testing out the water sprayer

and the suction thing

getting the work done. 

Sweet little man, he was so good, but you can tell he was a little nervous because of his fist in the air but he was open to trying anything. He told her all about the incident with the bear spray, he likes to keep people he meets informed of that.  

ISFP

If you like Myers-Briggs (and I do) you can use it to determine someone's personality type, which is helpful for all kinds of things, like clear communication and conflict resolution (or prevention).

Here are links the 16 different types followed by an example of someone I know.
Click on the letters to read more about any type.

ISTJ  The Duty Fulfillers - people from work, my friend Chris

ESTJ   The Guardians - my boss

ISFJ   The Nurturers - mom

ESFJ   The Caregivers - Andy's mom, my friend Laura

ISTP   The Mechanics - dad

ESTP   The Doers - Lindsey's husband Aaron

ESFP   The Performers - Natalie the athlete

ISFP   The Artists - Andy

ENTJ   The Executives - my friend Lindsey

INTJ   The Scientists - my old boss

ENTP   The Visionaries - maybe Van

INTP   The Thinkers - people from work

ENFJ   The Givers - Karen the nurse

INFJ   The Protectors - Svea

ENFP   The Inspirers - me, maybe Van

INFP   The Idealists

Andy and I were both lucky, growing up with a 'nurturer' and a 'caregiver' for a mom. Everyone should have moms like that.

Andy is an ISFP.

I found another great description of Andy's type online.

http://thephilosophicalboy.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/a-more-honest-look-into-mbti-descriptions-the-isfp/

Here's some excerpts from the link:
the 'Pros' list of an ISFP

"Pros:

- Make great lyricists

- Make for lovely furniture for any social gathering

- Make great friends

- The most easygoing type there is

- Artistic without being annoying

- Are not assholes

- The most idealistic Sensor

- Versatile hobbyists"

We thought that was funny.
And from the description

"Reasoning: ISFP’s are pretty awesome, let me just say that off the bat. They tend to be nice, friendly (esp. in comparison to most Introverts), creative, and have a quirky sense of humor. Although they aren’t the type to come off as idealistic, they appreciate and even admire the abstract, and enjoy literary comparisons and metaphors, much like their iNtuitive counterparts. More than any other type, ISFP’s are relaxed, calm, and non-aggressive. ISFP’s prefer to live in a “live and let live” environment. Unlike most Sensors, they tend to enjoy the obscure and counterculture, and often develop very fine and particular tastes in art, whether it be film, literature, or the visual and performing arts. Although naturally hands-on learners, well-developed ISFP’s tend to process their gained knowledge into bigger picture ideas. ISFP’s are dominantly Introverted Feelers, and have a special rose-tinted lens through which they view everything. Despite being conversationalists, ISFP’s can be very difficult to get to know well, and are often very secretive or timid about sharing the deeper side of themselves with others."

I should add they make great husbands!

New house pictures!

Ok so to preface, we bought this house before it went on the market. So they never got it 'show ready', so you'll notice some things, but just look at the potential!

 

Front of the house

 

Front of the house and front yard

 

 Side of front yard

 

Handsome man in the front door

 

Front entryway from the inside. Love that circle window.

    

 View from top of stairs

 

 View of three bedrooms in a row, from the doorway of the master bedroom (the previous owner had 3 daughters)

 

 Formal living room

  

Master bedroom

  

Master bath. Strikes me as very 90s. Appropriate as the house was built in 1991.

 

  

Window seat

 

View from the window seat

 

  

 Living room

 

Kitchen dining room

 

Back of the house

 

Back porch

 

An area fenced in for Mo man

 

A vintage swing set for Van in the back yard

Oomiak Circle house pictures

The link on the previous post will only be good as long as the listing is active and it sounds like that won't be very long. We've had 4 showings today, 1 offer, 1 promise of an offer (but they later changed their mind), and one more person is looking at it right now to maybe put in a competing offer. Not bad for 10 hours on the market.

It's been an exciting day and I'm so proud of all of Andy's hard work which makes our beautiful house so sell-able.

So anyway, I'm posting the pictures here so we will always have them. And I'll post pictures of the new house as soon as I can.