Hooo-Hooo

Last year my mom made a super cute costume for Katelyn.  We turned Katelyn into a Tootsie Roll! She made it really fast too!  I think it only took a couple of hours and it was finished.   

So, for this year's costume I decided I wanted to make one...I thought that if my mom could put something that cute together in a couple of hours, I could do something in a day at least.  I have seen ideas floating around but nothing seemed right for Katelyn until I saw this one.  I loved it instantly and I started thinking up what it would take to make it.  I got to work cutting out the feathers and the headband pieces along our drive as we moved.  Then once we moved everything in I pulled out my sewing machine and went to town during nap time! I sewed all the feathers on a plain white onesie of hers and pieced the headband together.  I love it and that is the cutest owl I have ever seen :)

Here's the front...in action...

The back...

This costume goes where she goes!

Poor girl...being an owl is hard!

I love this little costume on her...but for some reason I can't convince David that I should make mom and dad owl costumes for us to wear :)  We could be an owl family! ...maybe next year :)

A Break from Moving

All this moving stuff wears us all out sometimes.  I mentioned earlier how good of a helper Katelyn has been...maybe that has something to do with it.  David is done working now and so we can tag team on actual packing and entertaining Katelyn.  

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to...besides packing.

Katelyn was helping me clean out the dishwasher and as the story goes, "the dish ran away with the spoon."  They didn't get far but who knew they had some help :)

Coaching has been entertaining.  It has been a nice break for all of us to get out and have some fun.

 Sometimes I wonder what skills we should work on in practice.  Between the boy sprawled out on the ground, to the one boy pulling the other's hat over his eyes I no longer have to wonder if they learned anything about spreading out.  I think they are on the same team...hello defense?  We'll work on that.

 Sometimes there is an odd number, so I have to even the teams out.  Whenever I go after them when they have the ball they turn into a giggling mess.  They love it when I play and they try to fight over which team I join by getting rid of their own teammates.

 GO FIRE NINJAS!!  Some of them still wish that we were the Killer Kitties and refuse to be a fire ninja :)

 We had a really good rain storm.  We usually sleep with our window open and I loved waking up to the sound of the rain downpour.  Katelyn and I had some fun in the parking lot pond.

 She learned how to stomp.  It is now her newest dance move and she tried it out in the puddle making her own ripple circles.  The water was cold and there was no sun to warm us up so we only played for a bit before she started shivering and we headed inside for a warm bath and hung out in warm footie pajamas the rest of the day.

 This morning she was determined to help out and got her own breakfast ready :)  This reminds me that she is getting taller and can reach things up on the table pretty easily!  Where'd my little itty bitty baby go?

 "No big deal, Mom.  I got breakfast all by my self!"

 Here's a mouthful of cheesy cuteness and she knows it!

 Gotta love this silly girl :)

David kind of likes her too!  With him being home now he's loving the extra time with his little girl.  She loves it too and I think these two are going to have a tough time when David starts his new job and is away all day again.

We've Been Busy

Ever since we got the new job news we have going and going. Our minds can't help but bounce around from all the things that go into relocating. We are in the thick of it all and so me writing a blog means that I am tired of it all and want to sit in the middle of our packing mess and not even worry about it for a bit and it is very nice! With us driving across the country in a couple weeks, we are trying to figure out what to take, what to dump, what to sell, what to pack that we won't need along the drive, what we need to keep out until the last second before we leave, and all that fun stuff. We have turned into carnivores! In the last two months there have been really good deals and sales on meat so I stocked up and nearly filled the freezer. Now that we are about to drive for a week, we don't want to have to worry if the meat is still cold enough in a cooler, and we don't want to throw it out, so we decided we have to eat it. We have never had so much chicken, pork, beef, and elk in our lives. Is this how people turn vegetarian? Anybody want some meat? Katelyn got sick right after our trip to Washington and that wasn't fun. She went from a runny nose, to a nasty cough, to an out of breath wheezing little girl and it scared us when it got to the out of breath/wheezing so we took a trip to the doctor. They checked for pneumonia, RSV, and the flu, and she was clear for all of those. They sent us off with some antibiotics to help fight off the virus she did have and we were good. She is doing great now, but it made for a long week and a lot racing to wipe her nose before she wanted to...yuck! She is back to her happy goofy self running around and "helping" us pack by unpacking and rearranging how she thinks it needs to be :) The boxes are fun, but they don't listen when she tries to boss them around which makes her very frustrated. I think moving is just as stressful for her as it is for us!

He's Home, And He Talks Funny Too

Just after David got the news of his fancy new job, we headed home for a visit.  In the back of my mind the whole stay was how far away we are going, and that I wouldn't be coming "home" to hang out with Mom and Dad nearly as often as it won't be as easy.  But, that didn't stop us from having a wonderful weekend!

My handsome little brother was flying home and he just finished serving a mission for our church in Brazil.  We drove late in the night to sneak in just in time for his flight arriving.  It was so fun to see him and to have him home!

He had a fun little accent and I enjoyed teasing him as he tried really hard to sound like an American again.  As he would talk, he would raise the tone of his voice (kind of like we do when we ask questions) and he would do it in the middle of his sentences even when he wasn't asking any questions.   He had some issues reading and talking when the word in Portuguese was spelled the same or pronounced very similar and he couldn't remember how the English was supposed to sound.  It was cute, and I was hoping he would sound different :)

It was a nice weekend with the majority of the ten of us kids home.  We ate, didn't get enough sleep, played games, and had plenty of fun.  We went out to Luke's football game and we were relieved that they pulled out the win in the end.  We had a loud and obnoxious cheering section and Luke knew it!  He would look up at us and then flex his huge biceps for a proud fist pump.  He could knock all of us over at once  and plow right through us easily if he wanted....Go Luke!  Go Braves!

The next night he got dressed up and smelling good for his Homecoming date.  He kind of likes this cute girl :)

Christine made us girls all be a little more girly and we all went out to get our nails done.  It is always fun to be pampered, except that Abby got a much better foot rub than I did so that wasn't fair :)  As we were picking out the color we wanted, Mom was cute and requested the boring colors....What Mom, you don't want neon green???

David was able to hide out to cram for his test and then run off to take it with his proctor before anyone noticed.  Then he joined us in the first ever official Bare Open.  This sounds much more revealing and rated R than it was.  John set up a wonderful tennis tournament and we even had to draw cards to determine our position on the single elimination bracket.  Everyone thought I was going to win it all, but somebody decided to invite a friend.  Chelsea is not a Bare at all, but she gave me a run for my money.  I played Dustin first and taught him how to play, and then Chelsea came in and made me work for it.  We were all tied up, but then the mental aspect of the game got to my head and I couldn't stop thinking about how I didn't want to lose, so much that I lost the last game really fast making me lose the match.  She said I wore her out though!  She was fun to play.

Dad ended up beating Chelsea and then playing Abby for the championship and was pretty proud that he won!  Way to go Papa Bare....60 years old and you can't be beat!

We had a family barbecue with the aunts and uncles and grandparents where Katelyn fell in love with watermelon...that's my girl!  There have been a few times this summer where I have eaten half a watermelon in one sitting, just like when I was little hanging out at Grandma Honey's with Abby and we each got half and went at it with a spoon.  We couldn't have been happier.

 I can't get enough of this little girly!

It was a nice weekend surrounded with family and exciting news all around.  Katelyn wasn't ready to go home yet and let us know most of the ride home.  I was pulling all the goofy faces and glove tricks I could think up, but I think she just needed some more time snuggled up with Grandma and Papa Bare.  Until Christmas!!

Good Morning Baltimore!

The last two weeks have been quite the adventure for us.  Just as we started feeling like we were getting into the groove of things here, we got some new exciting news....news that David has dreamed of since we have been dating.
David has been on the job hunt for the last year.  He had a job, but he didn't enjoy working with a cranky lady each day.  He had interviews here and there and we kept hoping he would be able to move on to a better job, but nothing worked out.
At the beginning of August David started interviewing for a job at one of the Big 4...there are four accounting firms that are the kings of the accounting world.  David had his first two interviews over the phone.  Then after a month of this, he finally heard that he was going to be flown out to Baltimore for an in-person interview.  He was just a tad bit excited.  While we were still aware that he didn't have the job yet, we couldn't help but think that as long as he didn't do anything socially wrong, he was hired.  They probably don't just fly anyone out for those interviews, but what if they did?
We went and got David a brand new suit and trimmed his hair and he gave me a preview of his interview attire to check for my approval and so he was looking so good!  He packed his bag, studied up on interviewing skills and was off to Baltimore.
He assumed he was going to be grilled and that this would be such a tough interview for such a big company and was very surprised...and relieved that it was casual Friday and his interview seemed to be just as casual.  He loved it!
He loved talking to people that he would be working with that were actually young and in the same stage of life as him.  People that had similar interests and that he could have an enjoyable conversation with.
But now the wait began.  We wondered how long it would take before he heard if he had the job or not.  He met up with my brother and went out to eat and they tracked down the Ravens NFL stadium...top priority I guess :)  Then he flew home and dreaded the thought of going back to his old job and possibly getting turned away from the new big and fancy one.
Monday came and we mentioned that it could be the day.  The first business day after the interviews that he could hear back about the job.  I was checking the phone and his email constantly for any news....and there was something.  They emailed him and wanted to chat with him about the interviews.  We only had one phone between us and I had it so I rushed on over and he gave them a call.
They had the best news he could have imagined...he got the job!  He got the new job with a huge pay raise, 10 times better benefits, and 1000 times better future job potential.
We are mostly excited to be heading out east.  We are on the hunt for a place to live...(too many places have bars on the windows...YIKES, no thank you!), trying to sell some stuff we don't want to haul across the country on our drive, and trying to figure out what we want to keep.  I will be leaving my soccer team, but they will only be without me for a couple weeks and my assistant coach is okay with finishing off the season for me.  I am sad to go, but it isn't worth it to stick around here to coach.  David also started up his window washing business a little over a month ago...he is sad to leave it since it has been doing really well and it picked up really fast, but we know there are bigger and better things in store for us in Baltimore.  This will be quite the adventure, but we are ready for some changes and for the big opportunities we can find out there.

Fire Ninjas

I am quite the super hero!  A couple weeks ago I realized that it was almost soccer season and I thought it would be fun to coach a kids team.  So, I emailed around to the different soccer clubs around here to see if they were in need of any coaches.  Coaching is 100% volunteers and usually one of the parents of the kids on the team steps up to coach, so it wasn't very likely, but I thought I might as well ask.

Lucky for me, there was a team that was in desperate need of a coach.  Apparently the club had called through the roster of kids to beg the parents to coach.  The called a meeting hoping that they would have better luck convincing a parent to step up if they talked to them in person.  If no one would step up and be willing to coach that season, then the team would be dissolved and done with.

This is where I came in!  They had called the meeting and were sad that this team was about to be done, and then they got my email.  They were thrilled but wondering who I was and why in the world would I want to coach "just for fun".  We chatted a bit and they realized I wasn't crazy and that they had a willing volunteer!

At the meeting they introduced me to the parents and my new team.  They were all grateful that I wanted to help, but I was so glad that none of the parents wanted to do it :)  We all got what we wanted!!

We have had our first week of practice and it has been really fun.  They are all 8 and 9 years old so most of them have the basics down.  There are a couple of air heads, but what team doesn't have those :) At the end of the first day, one boy came up to me, gave me a hug and said, "I love to play soccer so much and I am so happy you will be my coach.  Thanks a lot."  He is the sweetest boy, but he is serious about soccer and he is a really good player.

We weren't assigned a team name and so I let the boys decide on what they wanted.  I kept pushing for the Fireballs since that was my team name when I was little.  They liked it since it wasn't girly.  The boys submitted their favorite team names and we voted.  I had them vote with their eyes closed...they still peeked.  Some of the boys had their hands over their eyes with their fingers cracked so they could see and every time I would say a team name the boys who liked that team name would raise their hands.  The ones that were peeking would swing their head around and see what people were voting for...really sneaky :)  I was a little tempted to sway the votes and say Fireballs won the vote, but it came in a close second.  The majority wanted to be the Fire Ninjas.  I was surprised to see that the Killer Kittens came in 3rd...goofy boys!  These boys crack me up and I have already been karate chopped by one boy when I asked for a high 5 :)  It will be a fun season!

Mud Run

Over the weekend we went up to Bogus Basin, but there was no snow. ..luckily!  We had a friend watch Katelyn so that David and I could run the Dirty Dash.  It was pretty fun!  

We were running through the mountains on the slopes and there were obstacles about every mile over the 6 mile course.  Some of the obstacles were muddy and others weren't.  The first one was some hay bales that we jumped over.  They were 5 foot tall bales on an uphill.  By the last one were were getting tired and didn't realize how scraped up our shins and knees were.

Then there were some balance beams along the way.  Then we came to the tires.  The tires were tricky for me because there was a girl in front of me and to the side of me that I was trying to steer clear of and not land in the same tires as them.  David took his time through the tires, just taking them one at a time :)  We were a little bummed with these "boring" obstacles, but we knew the good ones were coming!

 The first "good" obstacle was nice and muddy!  We climbed over a slippery/muddy hill which seemed impossible to stay on your feet and it dumped us into a shin high mud soup pit.  Then we climbed through the swampy mud through some tunnels.  Then there were poles that you could either climb over or duck under.  We went over which we thought would be easier but we just got a lot of mud between our legs every time we straddled the pole to get over which was NOT good for more running.  We were nervous about rubbing our thighs raw, but they were just fine :)  Our shoes and our shorts felt a lot heavier after that mud pit and our shorts had a hard time staying on!

The next obstacle was this wall.  There were a few of these and some were 4 feet tall and some 6 feet tall.  We definitely didn't train for these!  There was mud sloshing around at the base of them where we were trying to jump from to get up.  The walls were really slippery and muddy too and one time David went to jump off and his feet slipped out from under him and he rolled nicely into the mud pit on the other side.  He didn't get hurt and I got a good giggle out of it!

 At the top of the mountain there was a beer chug, or for us there was a root beer chug.  They had a couple water stations along the way and those were nice and refreshing.  But root beer is not the refreshing drink you want when you still have 2 miles to run!  I drank half of mine before I realized how bad of an idea that was.  The last 2 miles were all down hill and we were burping and pulling our shorts up and mud was flinging off our bodies as we probably sounded like a pair of laughing elephants trudging down the mountain.

As we came to the finish line there was this huge slide.  I loved it!

 David was in the next lane over sliding on down.

 After the huge slide, we were greeted into the huge swamp of mud with kids all around the outside chucking mud at the racers.  One of them nailed me on the side of the head and took off running but I got him back :)

 I had to make sure they could see my number!

We made it!  This was such a casual race as they weren't really recording times...thank goodness!  There were teams that would dress up in costumes and had fun with capes, armor, tutus and waldo outfits.  It was such a fun, non-competitive race and we cleaned up pretty well in the freezing community showers.  I donated my muddy shoes to a show company that was collecting them to clean up and give to those that need them.  Such a fun race but I can't wait to run a real race soon to see how my running has paid off.