This was SO yesterday....and I'm Well Aware!

This is Olivia's first day of school at Old Cutler Presbyterian! I forgot to turn the camera the other way and you can't correct once loaded, so my apologies.

Leaving the condo. Very happy girl with her new Tinkerbell backpack as big as her and her Disney princess lunchbox. Big marketing ploy that tricks us every time!! (The funny part....Kyle got suckered into it this time!)

Outside her classroom....

Inside her classroom....

Going for Ice Cream at Swenson's after school to celebrate! The kid picked the biggest sundae on the menu. Couldn't believe they had a Swenson's here. Loved it as a kid and went all the time in Az. Unfortunately, I don't think the one here has been updated since 1982.....first....and last....time for us. Fun, regardless.

Digging Out....

You know you're moving when...

your cute, precious, almost-4yr-old daughter asks after school..'mom, do you think you could not wear your hat (Longhorn baseball cap, that is) tonight?'. yes, 5 days straight of jogging clothes, hat on, no make-up, moving, unpacking and an extremely aching back that is in dire need of a good massage. Make that, great massage! And, we aren't even done yet.

Turns out we had 30,000 LBS of 'stuff' moved all the way from TX. I bet 15,000lbs of it needs to be thrown away. We had two garage sales in the 6 months prior to moving, in addition to really cleaning out a lot of stuff prior to the movers coming in. I did not want to unpack a box of stuff and say to myself 'Why in the world did this get packed?'. But, guess what I've said about a hundred times since Thursday?? It's my first move outside of the one to Dallas with Frito-Lay right after graduation. I think everything would've fit in a U-Haul back then. I guess you don't really know how to move until you become an expert at it. At least that's what I'm telling myself to feel better about it. We also lost 1k sq feet of living space, a lot of built-ins and we've lived for the past two months with very little. Puts it in perspective. You really don't need much when it's all said and done. My other revelation...don't spend a lot of money on built-ins. Surprise - you can't take them with you when you move! I've lost a lot of storage space, space to display pictures, decorative things and am stuck with what to do.

But, the good news. I love the house. The color on the walls made a big difference. It feels a bit more like home. We've eaten outside on the patio every night. No bugs. The screen is genius! I have my kitchen back. Feels great! We've had a lot of neighbors come by and introduce themselves. Two bottles of champagne to drink - one from our loan officer (?) and one from the very kind people we bought the house from. They left a bottle in the fridge. Isn't that extremely sweet?! (I never even thought of that with the people that bought our house). They were very good to us. And, if you remember my story about the nice girl with the young daughter Olivia played with on a house hunting trip a few months ago?....We've seen her a few times between school and a birthday party for a kid in O's school. She's very nice, her husband is a big golfer and Olivia and her daughter, Ann Marie get along GREAT. She brought a bottle of wine over, along with a LONG list of extremely valuable things.....phone numbers - i.e. dentist, pediatrician, pediatric dentist, eye Dr, gymnastics, ballet, dermatologist!! It's obvious she just relocated too!

I still need to post pictures of our wonderful visit from Kenneth and Lili! So behind. Kyle's mom is here now for 10 days and Olivia is in heaven with 'Gogi' around!! After that....a surprise for Olivia. 'Baba' (a.k.a. Sara) is coming!! We're trying to keep it a surprise for her, but it's killing me not to tell her! I know she will be beside herself.

A Place to Call Home......

I think I'm perpetually at least a week behind on blogging. I can't seem to get away from it. Or, rather, ahead of it. I just found my missing USB cord. So, my pictures from Lili and Kenneth's visit are just getting uploaded. I definitely need to get those up before Thursday....because the moving truck is pulling up and FINALLY returning our things.


Whew. We don't even remember what we have anymore, it's been so long. Kyle and I were trying to 'place' things in our mind this weekend as we were walking around the empty house and we kept remembering things. It's weird to think you haven't seen your belongings in over TWO months. I thought at the beginning that I'd set aside a ridiculously large amount of clothes and shoes. However, after 2 1/2 months.....I hope to never see these outfits again!! But, yes....it's also taught us that you really can get by on very little. And, it's probably a pretty good idea to do so.


Enough of that....on to the fun stuff!!! Our house!! The more time I spend in it, the more I really love it. The 'Florida style' definitely took some getting used to. After 6 months of house hunting though, it began to grow on us. And now, the idea of eating on your patio for 9 months out of the year, seems kind of cool. The painters are there now painting every room in the house. I took some pics this weekend and will post those soon. (Translate - at least a week!) Tjhe house looks even better with some color on the walls!!


We even swam in the pool this weekend and brought Sam over to run around in the backyard for a bit. And, our backyard neighbors greeted themselves through the hedges today. They live in the oldest house in the neighboryhood....built in 1921. It's amazing. And big. And, they have three kids, including a 5yr old girl!! yipee!

(I uploaded these backwards and it takes awhile to move them around on my home computer without a mouse, so bare with the weird order).

Had to post this one....Olivia took it. Random group of people, me, Allison, our realtor, their realtor, some random friend of theirs...it was really funny to see the things Olivia thought were 'picture worthy'.

The left side of the yard. It goes pretty deep.

Living/dining room.

The coolest climbing tree ever!! Can't wait for the cousins (Kaitlyn & Josh) to come down and see how far they can climb!

Olivia checking out the patio. The window there is a 'pass thru' window to the kitchen.

Cabana bath/Guest bath/Olivia's bathroom....all in one!! :) I promise if you come to visit, it won't be pink!

The family room with french doors to the pool or 'lanai' as they say here. It's beautiful when the doors are open.

My kitchen!!! And, thankfully, a ton of storage space for my billion entertaining dishes! Just need to find people I can entertain!

Self-explanatory!

It was a 3-car garage and the previous owners converted one bay into an extra room. We're going to make it a playroom/office.

The living/dining again. The converted room is off the dining room. It sounds weird, but it actually works. There are french doors too, so it can be closed off. This will be where the slumber party happens when kids come to visit!

I'm just posting this one in memory of Allison's visit. She was annoyed with me by this point
for taking so many pictures!! We're paiting the shutters....not a fan of the current color.

The Lana Casa! Come visit.

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Olivia update

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We met the infamous 'Keiffer' this weekend. It was a pretty funny site!! I had NO idea that a 3yr old could get all giddy and coy. Olivia made faces that I thought were years away from coming out. It was plain scary, cute and really funny all at the same time. Apparently all the girls are in love with Keiffer. He's 4. And, Kyle introduced himself just in case he needed to have a talk with him later. That alone was a funny site to witness. I wish I could'be had it on video. Kyle actually said 'I've heard a lot of good things about you!' Conversations had from a 40 yr old to a 4 yr old. Crazy, I tell you.

This Can't Be Happening....

So, we close on the house today. Hopefully. We are in hell right now and I don't want to think about what we're trying to deal with. I'm praying this is a funny story we can laugh about later with a cold beer in hand.

But, for now, I have to blog about something WAY more important.....my precious little 3 YR OLD's first.Crush!! Yep, you read that right. I'm not talking about a cute little innocent matter. It is actually innocent. Completely. right? She's 3. Yes, almost 4 and she's a rather mature 3 yr old, but still.

You see. Olivia started school last week. Preschool. All has gone well until yesterday. Prior to yesterday, she talked about all the fun kids in her class, recess, chapel, lunch time. Now. It's ALL about Keiffer. Keiffer, Keiffer, Keiffer.

In one day, it all turned around. She wants Keiffer over for a playdate, Keiffer needs to come see our new house, is Keiffer coming to the birthday party she's attending Sat?, Keiffer likes turkey sandwiches for lunch, Keiffer is her new imaginary playmate, Keiffer is the only one she wants to invite to her birthday party and now it's supposed to be a 'Spiderman' theme, not the original 'Ariel' theme she wanted. We drove from the new hosue back to the condo last night and, no exaggeration, I heard his name 100 times!

....and best of all....'I'm going to wear this tomorrow and look pretty for Keiffer' was the last thing out her mouth last night as we were picking out her school clothes for the next day! WHAT?? really? She's learned that. How? I don't walk around the house saying 'boy, I hope Daddy thinks I look pretty in this'....where did she learn this? Is it taught on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that she watches on Sat mornings? Dora doesn't ask Boots if she looks pretty, does she?

Isn't this supposed to come MUCH later in my child's life?? I am so not ready for this yet. Can you tell?

Kyle's all ready to scope this kid out at the birthday party tomorrow and have his first 'talk' as a father. That thought just makes me laugh. Can you imagine Kyle talking to a 4yr old about leaving his daughter alone. (After all, we've already been told a thousand times that 'Keiffer is older'). Pretty funny stuff. I'm thinking I should go on my own with Olivia, as to avoid a scene.

The best part. Mr. Keiffer is the son of the teacher's aide in her class.

Please tell me this is a phase.....

Searching all Skyper's.....

We have learned that 'Skyping' is a fabulous way to keep in touch with all of our loved ones far away....

But. We need names and/or addresses. I've tried searching in the database for quite a few people and have found that it's harder than it looks. So, if you're interested, please send me your 'skype' id or email address to find you. I have two I use. My work one (Klane329, Miami) and our home one (klane239, Arlington). I think those are the Skype id's.

So, if you're interested, please send me your name and I'll look you up. Or, send me a request and I'll add you to ours.

Also, some people have inquired about leaving comments on the blog. please do. I feel like I'm writing to myself and I'd much prefer to hear from you all than just myself!!! I'm kind of boring. Just click on the '0 comments' at the end of each blog and you can leave messages. Can't wait to read them!! Write away friends.

Happy Labor Day to everyone back home!!!

A little 'hello' from Olivia. (don't laugh at the crazy hair....for some reason, she was in the mood for 3 ponytails that day!)

I hope everyone has a great, safe, fun Labor Day weekend!!! We're off to many adventures as Kenenth and Lili are on a flight right now to Miami. yipee!! 4 whole days with them. Can't wait to see them! Lili is from Brazil, so she will feel like she's home here in Miami.

Happy Labor Day everyone!!

Kaplan Comes to Visit....yes, I'm a bit behind!

Let me start by saying that it was a great site to see a familiar face!! It was weird to be picking Allison up from the airport Thursday night. She even commented that it felt weird to think that I ‘live’ in Miami as she was getting off the plane. I felt like I was meeting her for a vacation in some exotic location. Nope, just Miami.

It has been Kyle, Olivia and me for a month now. Don’t get me wrong, we love each other. But, we’re used to having family and friends around us…. A lot! So, we needed someone else in the mix to spice it up. That became obvious when Kyle texted me at the airport saying we were not to come in when we got home. Olivia wanted us to knock so she could open the door and greet Allison. I think Olivia and Kyle almost tackled each other trying to get to Allison first!!! Needless to say, Allison should feel loved! We had new conversation!! We had a guest! Olivia had a friend! And, let me tell you….Olivia was Allison’s best friend all weekend long.

Thursday night we had some wine on the balcony and caught up. The three of us tried to creatively ‘ponder’ a name for Allison’s business-to-be. As I’ve mentioned before, she’s a WHIZ at organizing people’s life. We didn’t come away with anything concrete, but sure did have some good laughs in the process!! And, Friday, we got to live the good life. Allison’s best friend lives in Boca Raton, which is about an hour north of Miami. She invited us to meet up with her family at ‘the beach club’. Let me tell you….we were on vacation the second we stepped into this place. It’s literally a resort. Like you see in Mexico or anywhere on the beach. Beautiful. 3 pools, wait staff, cabana boys. And, the beach was amazing. We think, somehow, the beach knows how to follow the money north. The sand was white, the seashells were plentiful and pretty and there were big, amazing waves. Olivia had a blast playing in the ocean. As did we. As Kyle said, somehow, the sharks must know to avoid Boca. Right? We also went out to Uncle Julio’s for dinner with everyone following ‘the beach club’. Who knew there was good Mexican food in Miami? And, that it had to be transplanted from Texas? It was a great sight to see!

The 'beach club'. I forgot to bring my camera down to the actual beach, but it was beautiful.
The three amigos hanging in the kiddie pool.....

Allison, Jared and Olivia at Uncle Julio's. Yum.

….Sat can be wrapped up like this – we miraculously got Allison in to see the new house (remember, I said the current owners were nice?? Still hard to believe), stumbled across this great little ‘shack’ in Coconut Grove that really made us feel like we were in ‘Margaritaville’, to the pool for some swimming and then…..Allison and I got ready for our way down to South Beach. Here’s the thing about South Beach. It doesn’t even get started until AFTER 10pm. We’re usually making the final dog-walk around that time. But, Allison and I were ready for the challenge. After getting ready, we walked out to a surprise from Kyle….he’d made us a cheese plate and opened a bottle of wine. Funniest part was Olivia. She sat right down with the three of us and proceeded to join us for some Boursin, brie, peppered salami and crackers. Great kid. In her pj’s. As we were getting ready to go out.

Allison and Olivia at 'the shack'. i can't even remember the name. Shorty's or something like that. Very cool. Right on the water in the marina.

The night was a success. Allison and I made it to the brand new W hotel and The Delano. Our biggest observation as we were dressed in jeans and a top (me) and maxi dress (Allison), is that we do not own anything SHORT enough to go out in Miami. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. I think the people just wear their shirts out. Needless to say, we were the most conservative two in the crowd. But, we made it out until 1:30am. Not quite the 4am norm in Miami, but good enough for us.

Before 10pm on the balcony at the casa. Do we look awake?

Me and Allison at The W. Our first martini together in Miami!

Apparently THIS is why you need super-ridicuously-short clothes to go out in South Beach....little did we know that part of the bar/dance floor was actually in.the.pool. Crazy, I tell you.

We miss you Allison!! Come back and visit…..anytime!