A list

I love lists ... I love to make out lists of things I need to do for the day. Things I need to get at the store, things I need to do to the house, things I need to get for the house, things I want to do with my life, things I want the kids to do, things I need Owen to do... the lists can go on forever. The problem is not one single list gets done. Yes I know I have a problem. I think it is just the idea of writing every thing down. If I didn't write it down I would think about what I need to do all day and night. You can find these list sitting in piles around the house or shoved in our junk drawers(notice I said "drawers" one is just not enough to hold our precious treasures) so occasionally I will run across an old list or goals and get a nice chuckle when I notice nothing has been changed or life has turned around so differently than when I had first wrote the list. Lately we have started to become pretty busy. Getting the kids involved in activities , school ect.... So today I thought I would make a list of what the Gaines family has been up to and post a few pictures from this past week.

1. Homeschooling Kaden
2. Preschool with Sage and Torin
3. Painting/wallpapering the Kitchen
4. Painting trim
5. Getting new flooring in three rooms
6. Owen getting his master's in Divinity
7. Owen learning Greek
8. Kaden playing indoor soccer
9. All three kids going to swim lessons
10. Owen working with a poker coach( discusses and talks about cards a few nights a wk)
11. Owen trying to put in 30 hours a week playing cards
12. Doing online tutorials about photoshop(a photography computer program)
13. Getting ready to put our house up for sale
14. Figuring out if we should move to a warmer city or stay in cold ohio with family.
15. Deciding when/if we are going to start a church.
16. Loving to workout on the new Wii Fit video game.
17. Playing Volleyball Mondays and wed.
18. Visiting some close friends in the hospital who were burned in a fire.(and will be there for the next 20 days)
19. Preparing my brain for the idea that on March 17 I will no longer be in my 20's!
20 Planing Kaden's 6th Birthday party.
21 Kaden getting ready to loose his first tooth.




Sage with her friend Abagail

Kaden's loose tooth. If you look closely you can see the tooth coming in behind the loose one.on the left side. We thought he would have lost it by now but it is hanging on till the last root..LOL

We're back....

2 weeks home and we are still trying to get warm. You don't really appreciate the beautiful sun and warm days until get back from a three month vacation in 70 degree weather and get thrown into 20 degrees of freezing cold! Not to worry though there should be a light at the end of this freezing tunnel soon .. we hope:) This past weekend Owen and I went to Cleveland for the weekend with no kids. It was for our 11 year anniversary. My parents decided to watch the kids... wait, actually they decided to watch ALL the kids.. all 8 of them! Yes, they had a "cousins night".. I tried to talk them out of it knowing that they had no idea what they just got themselves into... 8 kids under the age of 6 all staying the night at grandma and grandpa's house! But they insisted they knew what they were doing and could handle it.

The kids all had fun playing with dress up clothes and grandma's shoes.

The next day Owen and I picked the kids up and were very happy to see my parents were alive, a little worn out but well. Of course Sage was the child who would not go to sleep . In her defense ,she did get to spend the night with all her cousins, she got to spend the night at grandma's house, she got to have juice and goodies that mommy does not have in the house....I mean with all that excitement who would want to go to sleep. I think around midnight she came down to lay with dad on the couch (i think he thought she would fall asleep easier..hahah hahaha little did he know).When mom came to check on them dad was out snoring away and Sage's eyes were wide awake..Fooled him:) But besides a few little bumps all in all it went fine.
Owen and I had a great time out. Three months in a 500 square foot condo and a small mini van with three toddlers can be lot for anyone to handle. So it was a very relaxing and QUIET weekend away. Thanks mom and Dad for giving us a kid less night:)

Yesterday we went to visit the other cousins. The kids were so excited ! They love their cousins. Isaac had called Owen to come over to play him in chess. So we packed the kids up and headed over to visit Owen's sister and the family.

Jimmie and Kaden
Dreama
The future musician in the family
Isaac

Abby

signing off

We will not have interent service till Monday.. ahhh the joys of coming back home from a three month vacation..... so I may not be back on till then. Our next destination will be Warren OH....Arrival time is around 6:00pm on Friday night.....Back to REALITY:(