We have a basement!

Here are a few more recent pictures of our house. These pictures were taken a week ago right before the tornadoes came to town AGAIN. Libby and Mike are standing where our basement sliding glass door will be. Not much as been done to the house since. Libby and I are leaving for Michigan on Friday for a little over a week. I hope some progress will be made by the time I get back.

We have been busy around here lately. Libby and I took a quick trip to Cherokee/Storm Lake/Sioux City last Tuesday. We got back just in time for it to storm again on Wednesday. We became storm chasers and eventually ended up at Aunt Joyce's since we still haven't found the storm shelter here. Over the weekend we went to Austin's baseball game and then had our first overnight guests. Jeni, BA and Sophie came to visit for Father's Day. We went shopping, out to eat and played Wii. Monday we went to the College World Series, which was a good time as always. Now I am busy doing laundry, packing and cleaning before we leave on Friday. Our air conditioner has been broken since Tuesday so I am trying to not do too much during the hot days. Maybe it will be fixed tomorrow.

Official Omaha Residents

Here are a few pictures of our new house. The two of the grass are obviously before anything was started. The other two are the basement area. The unexcavated part is the garage. Every night after we eat dinner the three of us go out to the lot to see what has been done that day. I will post more pictures after a few days of progress.

Libby and I have been living in Omaha for 7 days now. In the last 7 days there have been 3 nights with tornado warnings and the sirens have gone off twice. What kind of place are we living in?? I only remember hearing tornado sirens about 4 or 5 times the entire 15 years I lived in Sioux City. Last night Libby spent the night at Aunt Jacque's so Mike and I could go out and celebrate our 10 year anniversary (can you believe it has been 10 years??). The tornado sirens went off at around 2:30am. Jacque had to wake Libby up and take cover. The Millard area was hit pretty good. There are trees and fences down everywhere. A few houses are without roofs and siding today. We drove by our new house and everything is fine there. A couple of houses in the development right next to us didn't fare so well.

Wednesday night, Libby and I were home alone in our 2nd floor apartment when the sirens went off. The funnel clouds luckily died down right before they made it to where we live. The wind was really scary especially since we do not have a basement in our complex. I guess I should be reading up on what to do in case of the next tornado!

Memorial Day weekend

Again, I apologize for not posting for a while. I also am not posting any pictures this round because I haven't downloaded any recently. I promise I will get some recent ones uploaded on here when I have some free time. I should have some pictures of the progress on our house to show soon.

We didn't do much this year for Memorial Day weekend. We skipped our annual Yankton camping trip because all of our camping stuff is in storage and not very easy to drag out. Plus, the forecast called for rain and I didn't want to spend the weekend in a tent with a cranky little girl. So, Friday night when I got off work, Libby and I went to Omaha. Saturday, Libby and I hung around the apartment, did some laundry and napped while Mike was gone at a softball meeting. Saturday night we ate at Kona Grill, which was really good and Libby was pretty good considering we were there a long time and it was nearing her bedtime. Sunday, the three of us went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and bought a new refrigerator. It is pretty disappointing to once again spend a bunch of money and not be able to use it until our house is done. Sunday night, Jacque and Austin came over. We grilled steaks, watched the storm and played Wii. Monday, we went out for lunch with Scott, Rachel and Chloe. Monday night Libby and I had to come back to Sioux City to spend our last week.

Friday is my last day of work. I am pretty excited to get on with my summer. My calendar is pretty full until mid-July already. Libby and I are going to have fun and busy days ahead of us!

Happy Mothers Day!!

I apologize for not posting for such a long time. Things have been quite busy around here. We moved into our apartment on April 25th. The weekend was filled with unpacking and organizing. Things still aren't where we want them but we are getting there. Since we sold all of our furniture, we went shopping and bought a BIG comfy couch. It sure didn't look that big at Nebraska Furniture Mart but turned out to be GIGANTIC when we got it into our apartment. I sure hope it fits in our new family room. It is an awesome sectional and we have had several naps on it already-see pictures of Libby lounging. Our new apartment is wonderful! It is big and has plenty of closet and storage space. Libby has her own bathroom that is decorated in pink and orange polka dots. Our first night in the apartment was a little creepy. I kept hearing noises and thinking that someone was in Libby's room (it is on the other side of the apartment). I am getting used to it now and I can sleep a little better.

We closed on our new house on May 6th. It is so weird to be on the other side of the closing table and even weirder to give them all that money and not have a new house to move into! They are scheduled to dig the basement on May 23rd or so. It is going to be exciting to watch the progress this summer. I am planning on posting pictures once the construction begins. We are hoping our house will be done by the end of October so we don't have to pay rent for the entire month of November.

I have been working short weeks since our sitter had her gallbladder out on May 5th. Last week I only worked Thursday and Friday, this week I work Thursday and Friday and half a day on Tuesday. On Wednesday I am going to hang out at my sister's house with Libby and Caleb. Then I have two full weeks (minus Memorial Day) left at work. I am semi-anxious to start my summer but I will miss my work too.

Libby started walking quite well right when we moved out of our house. With all the extra room I guess she felt comfortable enough to roam from room to room. She now has it mastered and walks all over the place. Libby has also gotten a few more teeth. She has 2 top molars way in the back and her 2 bottom teeth. The top two teeth are poking though. She looks funny with half of a top tooth! She might have more teeth in the back of her mouth but I am not brave enough to put my fingers in her mouth to find out. Libby has also starting speaking more understandably. My favorite is "I want that" when I am eating something she wants. She can say "Jacque" but looks at Austin when she says it. We are working on getting her to say "Austin". She is pretty good about repeating a few words too. Libby has also become quite the little mother. She walks around with her dolls, shares her pacifiers and her milk with her babies. Libby continues to be a wonderful girl and amazes us everyday.

it's almost time...

..for moving day!! For those of you that didn't already know. We sold our house. My cousin Mikey (he is 29 and I still call him Mikey) and his very nice girlfriend, Melissa, bought our house. It is a good house. We have lived here for just about 10 years and I am very sad to leave. I am glad we are selling it to someone we know so I can come visit. I am sure going to miss it here-well not everything. Like only having one bathroom-I am not going to miss that.

Mikey and Melissa are moving in on Friday. We have been slowly putting our stuff in storage (we have a lot of stuff!!). Now comes one big load with the bedroom furniture, clothes and lots of boxes. We sold most of our living room furniture and all of the appliances with the house so that makes it easier to move. I had to post a couple of cute pictures of Libby "helping" me pack. She likes to crawl into the cupboards now that they are mostly empty.

We are moving into an apartment until our NEW house is done in November. Another reason we sold most of our stuff-we don't have room for it right now. I am not "officially" moving to Omaha until May 31st. Libby and I will be staying at the other Marlow residence for a short time. The 30th is my last day at work and the day that "Sex and the City" the movie comes out so I will probably stay here to go see it with the girls. I am taking the rest of the summer off!! I am going to visit my dad, go to the College World Series, go to the cabins, go to Florida, take Libby swimming, watch Mike play softball, mostly do whatever I want and not worry about trying to do it all on the weekend.

Libby is 15 months old!

We had Libby's 15 month check up yesterday. She had the last of her shots until she starts kindergarten. She did VERY good. She didn't cry or fuss the whole appointment except when I held her arms down for the shot. Libby weighs 22 lbs. 13.5 oz and is 33 inches tall. She is the 50 percentile for weight and 60 for height. Maybe she will be taller than us! Libby still only has two teeth and is only walking about 4 or 5 steps at a time. She just thinks it is easier to crawl everywhere. Someday I know she is just going to take off!

Libby is quite talkative these days-mostly gibberish. I am starting to make out more words in her vocabulary. Whenever she sees a dog she still says "Dottey" or "dot dog" which is what we called Dottey. It makes me sad. She likes to repeat herself a lot. Sometimes it is "mom, mom, mom" or "thank you" the a few seconds later "thank you". Sometimes when she wants something it is "mimi, mimi, mimi" (which is what we call Mike's mom). Libby's favorite thing to do is point and say "whats that?"-most of the time I have no idea what she is talking about and she probably doesn't either, she just wants to talk. Libby is getting pretty good at playing patty cake. She can say "roll it" and do the motion and the throw her hands up in the air for "toss it way up high". When you ask Libby where her nose is, she puts her finger up her nose. She is so funny!!

Did the Easter Bunny come?

Here are a couple of cute pictures of Libby at Easter. She got two new books, some barrettes, some apple puffs and this really cute headband. Papa Ben and Grammy CeCe were here for Easter and bought Libby this cute purple dress and a new swimsuit. We tried to go swimming at the hotel but there were too many kids and Libby was too scared to get in the water. We all celebrated Easter at my house-probably my last holiday at this house-My Dad, Cande, My Aunt Rachael, Uncle Mike, my cousin Jaelyn, Kim, Matt, Taylor and Caleb and the Niemeier family influenza B were all here. My dad and Cande left Tuesday morning and took the influenza B with them. Hopefully there are no remnants left at the Marlow household. We feel pretty good....so far.