New post on A NEW COMPUTER!

Yes, that's right. We have transferred (mostly) everything over from the iMac to a brand new HP desktop, which I am presently typing away on in our (in the process of being re-designed) third bedroom. (More on that later) The new computer is nice, but has taken a little bit of getting used to; no matter how much the iMac aggravated me, there are a few "short-cuts" I had grown used to. However, I am much happier already with a PC instead of the iMac (sorry tech-y friends).

J and I, after much thought on our current living situation, the housing market, our "other house" (the condo), our life plan, etc. have recently decided on trying really hard to maximize the space we have in The Little House, since we are now (firmly) planning to stay in it until God and the Navy move us elsewhere. J just remarked the other day how this is the first time, in the year and a half that we've lived here, that he really feels like we are "moving in." Strange, but when you think about it, we moved in here much like we moved into the condo: we needed a place now + it was available = welcome! So, my apologies to The Little House for not appreciating you in the beginning and please prepare yourself to be modified and maximized.
Another good side effect of all this power purging and space repurposing is that it is going to force proud Me to post some pictures of Little House (finally) so you can all pat me on the back about my awesome decorating skills.
We are still working into a steady weekly routine here. I had hoped by now to have the printer set up so I could start making my workbooks for Squeak but it hasn't happened yet. We do have a few weekly outings I hope to make habits: the Virginia Aquarium has a great Toddler Trek program on Thursday, that gets the kids outside and learning about animals, and with our membership, it's free! Wednesday nights at church, they offer a "Family Night" which includes a home cooked dinner and kids activities, plus a bible study for adults. It's also the night when they have Adult Choir practice - I'm planning to be a part of that (pray for some courage! It's been a long time since I've sung in public for performance purposes!).
Tonight is Halloween and I am excited for both of the kids to have an active role in Trick Or Treating tonite! We will be staying home to hand our candy at first, as J has to fly tonite until 6:30 or 7pm. I am hoping he gets done a little early and can head home so we can get out to get some candy ourselves. Last year, Big was so little he just stayed in J's arms and it was Squeak who got all the candy. We made it down and around our little Court and that was it, so we will see how we do this time. I'll post pictures later this week of them in their costumes!
On the cooking front, I modified my mom's Monkey Bread recipe to make individual jumbo "muffins" instead of the usually bundt loaf. The original ingredients made 10 muffins and by the next day I only had 2 left! That stuff is so good. I am also making a Loaded Baked Potato Soup in the slow cooker for tonite (from Crock Pot Girls). I'm hoping to make peanut butter cookies with M&M's in them this week with Squeak.
That's all for today! Have a great week!

Holy Crap, it's October.... the END of October

Hello blogging world.
I need to get back into the swing of this damn thing. Pardon my french.
We have had a happy holiday season, a great 1st birthday for Bug, a busy (and sometimes, very trying) summer, and, with Fall, a lot of changes in our household.
I left my position at the Spa, although I loved my co-workers and loyal clients, just a few weeks ago, to be a full time stay at home mom to Bug and Squeak. It has been excited and interesting, sometimes exhausting, so far, and it's only been a week! I am loving all the time with my babies, though, and I think it is going to work out swimmingly. We attending our first MOPS meeting this past Monday and it was amazing. I already know I am going to love my two Mondays a month with this amazing group of Moms. If any of you have not tried a MOPS group, I can really encourage you to find one! They are faith based, uplifting and inspiring, and totally dedicated to the most important job we as moms have - being a happy, healthy, and successful CEO of our families!  It really was a great morning; I can home with a little girl who knew "This Little Light of Mine" and an apple crisp all ready for the oven or to be frozen to use later, plus lots and lots of reinforcement that Moms are Important! I froze my apple crisp- we already had blueberry muffins and Biscuit & Cherry Mini Pies made for this week!- but look for the recipe at the end of this post.
I am disappointed that we missed the registration for story and rhyme time at our local library; we will have to wait until January to register again! Geez. Who knew it could fill up so fast! It goes for 8 weeks after the holidays when it starts up again, so that will be a great addition to our Tues/Thurs schedule.
Right now, as far as the "school" section of our days, I am still researching and formatting what I want to accomplish and how structured I want it to be. I am strongly leaning towards the ABC curriculum I found at Totally Tots with the intention to move Squeak into her Rock Stars curriculum over the summer or when we run out of letters :) . (Those of you that are familiar with our kids and the daycare we were going to before, she had moved into the preschool classroom in June, ahead of schedule, but when the kids returned from the Michigan trip in August, she was put back into the 2s room and regressed terribly. She started having bathroom accidents again, an awful rude attitude, and has lost a lot of her letter and number recognition skills. So depressing. I think if I had pulled them at the end of the summer, pre-trip, we wouldn't be doing as much of the Totally Tots curriculum as I plan too. Oh well! It's good stuff anyways!)
The kids are blossoming everyday and have developed so much of their own personalities. Squeak has always been very strong-willed and a "force of nature" (I think she gets it from her Grandma Bobbie and Grandma Jeanne. It's definitely an Ostrander trait!) and progresses much in that direction still now. She is very bossy when she wants to do something or have something, and I think that (altho somewhat frustrating now) will make her a strong leader as she gets older. She can explain herself quite well and is very articulate for her age. She also needs focus or can get into trouble.... hence the need for some sort of a daily/weekly schedule and some sort of activity! :) She is tall for her age and strong, the pediatrician said according to the growth chart, she's as big as a 5 year old! Can both be good and bad.... sometimes, just by glancing at her, some people forget she is young and expect too much. She's only (almost) three!
Bug has just started to come into his personality. He is still quiet for the most part and very very snuggly and sweet. He is also very sneaky and mischevious. Here come the "boy" traits! :) It has made being home extra fun, as the two of them are so very attached to eachother. Squeak is very attentive to Bug and Bug follows her and mimics her to no end (both good and bad things!). He has finally started throwing little "fits" when he doesn't get something he wants and he lets you know (loudly) when he's hungry! He loves milk and will eat until you take the food away. I think he is making up for being so petite in the early days. He has gotten taller too and is finally in clothing close to his actually age (18mo shirts and 12mo pants!). He loves the dogs especially and BOOKS. Good Lord, doe the boy love his books! He can sit for a half hour and just look thru book after book. Hopefully this is an early indicator of a lifetime love of reading! I am so blessed to have both of my kids like books!
I think this will be the end of my update for today. Thank you for staying up to date with us.
Blessings on your Fall season from here in Virginia!


Make-Ahead Apple Crisp

Items Needed:
Cutting board
Knives
Apple Peeler (if desired)
Apple Corer (if desired)
Measuring Cups
Measuring Spoons
Two large Ziploc Bags

Ingredients:
4-5 Good sized baking apples (I like Granny Smith, but I like tart!), cored & sliced (peeled if desired)
1 Tbsp Orange Juice
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 Stick of butter
1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Quick Oats
1/2 tsp Nutmeg

In one Ziploc bag, combine sliced apples, orange juice, sugar and cinnamon. Shake well to coat all apples.
In the other ziploc bag, squish butter, packed brown sugar, flour, quick oats, and nutmeg together until well blended.
**You can now freeze the two bags for future use or bake right away!
When you are ready to bake it, pour apple mixture into a greased baking pan and srinkle on the topping from the other bag (you do not need to thaw them!). Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees, slightly longer if frozen.
Enjoy!

Reflection on the Beach

This weekend was a gorgeous one, filled with a beautiful wedding down in Manteo NC (Rhi was a excellent flower girl, my husband a dashing groomsman), and much needed time at home after our first week back to work for this Mama and "school" (which is what we are calling daycare) for Rhi & Jamey.
However, it also got me to thinking about a few things.
Driving through the countryside of Great Bridge and Deep Creek Chesapeake and into NC before you hit the hustle of OBX made me feel so warm and fuzzy and homey...... all the things that I don't feel in VB, unless I am actually in my home.
I may have fought this realization for a long time, but it turns out this city girl really craves the easy, carefree feeling of country living. Here in VB, every moment is so rushed and packed to the brim with meeting this criteria or living up to so-and-so's standard of living, competing for every parking space and friend's time and best-behaved child..... it makes me sick just thinking about it. All things that, especially in the long run, don't matter one bit. The things that really matter: good solid friendships, stolen moments spent with your family doing simple things, meals cooked from scratch, a job done well and to last... are lost in the 8-lane roadways, double turn lanes and privacy fencing.
I started a job last week. Working almost 40 hours a week, Tuesday through Saturday, at a salon & spa down by the oceanfront. I put the kids in a daycare program. All decisions I made and I still take responsibility for. I think some important people in my life may disagree with those decisions, say I am wasting the most precious time in my children's lives on pursuing a selfish need to work this craft I am licensed for. And in some ways, those people may be right. I am a firm believer, though, that the kids will be happier in the long run because I was a happier person. Staying at home was making me feel stir-crazy and in turn, cranky and short-tempered. Just in one week, I have felt that start to lift and I know my time with my family has been better for it.
But driving down to this wedding this Saturday, passing by those small Mom-and-Pop stores and restaurants, seeing "big"  pieces of land, expanses of grass and trees, smelling a fire burning...... made me feel more fulfilled than any job probably ever could. So, I am stuck once again, faced with the thought that maybe what I needed wasn't to work this craft I am licensed for, but to work so that I can come home to an expanse of grass and trees, a porch, and no streetlights..... I feel like that is a sense of freedom that I am crying inside for my children, these two and those to come, to have every day.
So.... does that mean I need to work a job to stash some money away for that home in the country, so it's a little more within reach a little sooner? Is that my fulfillment, what I was craving that pushed me out of the house and my children into school? (However, let me note that daycare has been fantastic for Rhi and is providing her with an opportunity to expand her social skills and learn a lot. It's definitely been a great thing for her, despite whatever reason it started.)
This job terrifies me in a lot of ways. I am under an immense amount of pressure. But, I have the opportunity to do something I love, yes.

I am still struggling with what is more important, though: working as a hairstylist or working and coming home to that house in the trees, far away from the things I dislike so much about where we are, where the salon is, (things that, in my job, I help people to perpetuate?) right now.

August and some bugs

Hello all! Happy August Friday to you.
I'm doing a quick picture post, since I am way behind on those. Here goes:

Jamey-pants

Rhi & Mama's garden ladybugs out front at the Little House

Daddy & Rhi at the beach

Health Update

Hello everyone! 
We are doing wonderfully down here in VB. We have had my mom, the GG, here for a 
few days and have gotten even better settled in to our little house. We are all 
thankful she was able to come down and spend some time with us, and thankful, 
also, of the help that Grandma, Papa, Grandma Bobbie and Auntie Joy were able to 
provide us on the initial trip! There are only a few boxes left now. :)
As some of you know, Rhiannon has been having some gastro-intestinal issues 
since we began the packing/moving process, experiencing only loose 
stools/diarrhea. Unfortunately, it has yet to improve (going on three weeks now) 
and since we were unable to resolve it with some diet changes at home, we have 
made two trips to the pediatrician here to get an idea of what is going on. The 
pediatrician has decided to cut all milk from Rhi's diet (can have soy milk 
only), no fruit (only one banana per day has been cleared and a small amount of 
applesauce), no juice, no oily/greasy foods. She can have three meals, two 
snacks, per day and they should be as "dry" as possible (bread, crackers, dry 
cereal, noodles, etc.), and 8 ounces of Pedialyte every other day. We are to 
keep her well hydrated, 16oz of soy milk and water always available. Then, we 
are also to make an appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist at the 
hospital and see what they have to say.  It could be another month before we can 
be seen by that doctor, so we are to maintain as well as possible until then. We 
had a stool culture run on Saturday and it came back negative for everything, so 
infection has been ruled out. The ped. said today that this has been going on 
for such a long time now, that "just an upset tummy" or moving stress can be 
ruled out. Something in her gut is not happy, so these are the steps we have to 
take to find out what it is and how to fix it. She is also nursing a cough/runny 
nose right now, so our little girl is fairly unhappy most of the time. :( We are 
making do, though, and many trips to the beach, playing in the yard, and a heavy 
dose of Barney on the bad days has been making it okay. Please keep her in your 
prayers as we continue to work thru this!
On another note, Jamey is thriving. He is getting bigger everyday, more alert, 
and is an all around very happy and easy-going Little Dude. He smiles often, 
especially at his sister. 
Jeffery and I are well.


Hope this finds you healthy & happy!

A much needed, much overdue UPDATE

So, welcome to mid-July! Bane of existence in VB, but here we are nonetheless.

And on that note, let it be known that the Jr. Roscoe family has been:
a) reunited
b) relocated

and

c) expanded. Hooray!

Jameson (or Jamey-pants, as we have been heard calling him) came into the world at 12:39am on Friday, May 14 2010. Mama was scheduled to be induced on that Monday and Daddy was to be present, but apparently Jamey had other plans. Aunt Joy was and excellent labor coach and post-birth, slept a very long time being emotional and physically exhausted from being so awesome. Daddy and Jamey met approximately 16 hours after he came into the world, and were very happy to do so. Since then, after another disappointing breastfeeding experience, some trouble finding the right formula, and a bit of a sodium/weight issue, the Little Dude is doing just fine. Rhiannon is an excellent big sister and helper, with only a few small 'bouts of jealousy for her Mama. Not too shabby.

Shortly thereafter, the Roscoe family was reunited and made the move back to Virginia Beach! The two-day, 16 hour trip was made July 5 & 6, and everyone (Rhi, Jamey, doggies, and extended family helpers) did great! (Although Rhi's first night sleeping in a hotel room was awful for Mama!) We are loving our new Little House and neighborhood, being close to the water and friends once again. I am happy to be back to cooking everynight and still, setting up house. The kids have their own rooms and we have a YARD! Dogs are happy. The Senior Roscoes, Joy and Grandma Bobbie spent a week here with us, moving in, and going to the beach. Good times were had by all, although the separation on Saturday night was bittersweet. We all know this move is necessary an for the best, but moving Rhi away from her Grandma, Papa, GG, Silly Grandpa, Auntie Joy & Uncle Dan will be the hardest part.

So far, things have been settling in here in VB fairly well. Just this week, I think we are experiencing our first moments of "where are the rest of my peeps?" from Rhi. She is trying to figure our how this new house is "home" when to her, "home" has been Grandma & Papa's house for as long as she could identify it. I remind myself often, that we must take one day at a time and that we will, most likely, have a few rough moments here and there, but they will pass and this family unit will become her "normal" soon enough. We were very blessed to do what we did in Michigan for the 16 months we were there, but it is time to come HOME and HOME we shall stay.

(On that note, in case any of our Michigan family is wondering, we are staying in VB for the holidays this year. Since Jeff & I have been married, we have never spent a Christmas here and after being away from each-other and VB for 16 months, we figured it was time to stay home and create some traditions of our own.)

Pictures to follow once I get the printer hooked up. :)

Happy Summer everyone!

Another successful week

Passed my exam and got my license! Yeah!
Jeff's one step closer to have his certifications completed. Yeah!
Rhi is rocking a seriously snot-filled cold! Yeah!.......... wait. No yeah for that.
The landscapers finally finished mulching around the senior Roscoes house. Yeah!
I am still housing this Roscoe baby. Yeah!
My lovely sister-in-law got engaged while she was in Colorado. Yeah!
Yep, that's about it.

Sunday is Mother's Day! Make sure you say "THANK YOU" to your actual moms and those that have been "like a mom" to you.  :)