More fish? Maybe it is time to switch to wildlife...

Today I dropped off my evals so I can take the E5 test at 7:30 tomorrow!! WOOT! Excited and scared! The command seems very different...like people don't show up to work until 8:30 different...
Afterwords we decided to take Phoenix to the Children's Aquarium in Dallas. Unfortunately there was a huge school field trip there at the same time so she didn't have as much fun as she might have - screaming 8 year olds pushing her out of the way at the windows...

Note: Allen just gave Phoenix a sip of Monster energy drinks and she grinned and said "Oh yeeeaaahhh!"

But we got a few photos that didn't turn out great! :)

She did enjoy the shark tank.

Drink break!

Petting the crabs!

There was a cool structure over a swamp outside the aquarium that we clambered over.

Phoenix played woolly mammoth babies for a while.

When she figured out she was sitting in an elephant thing, she started trying to make elephant sounds. Mostly just ended up spitting.

PLANK OF THE DAY!!

Today we learned we have to have an FHA loan instead of VA due to complications beyond our control. So more days in the hooooootel.

*sob sob sob*

FISHY!! WHY ARE YOU SO FAT, FISHY?!

Yesterday we went to the Fort Worth Water Gardens which was actually pretty neat. Phoenix thought it was a little boring but she did a great job climbing stairs!

Pretty much we just made her stare at waterfalls for an hour...

Then Allen made me climb down into the living whirl pool. Which I did not enjoy...it was as a little freaky for me. Phoenix thought the water sounds were fun :)

And Allen climbed the mountaaaiiinn!!!!!!

This morning I had to go to a laundromat to wash the clothes. Obviously to wash the clothes. Not sure why else I would just go to one...

I got just a liiiiitle bored.....

Moooostache

There is a disturbing resemblance to my little brother here....

BACK OFF!

And my favorite...

TRUCKER HAT!!

This afternoon we went to see the bank about the loan. More shenanigans with the appraiser. Keep that situation in your prayers...

But when we were done we decided to go to the local botanical gardens.

There, we found giant koi fish.

Phoenix was a little nervous about the fish and gave her "all done" signal after a few minutes.

Aaaan to finish the day, Phoenix had her very first ice cream cone. At the best place in the world for ice cream. Braums.

LOVED IT!!!

Loved it so much she couldn't even stay awake for the 45 minute drive home!!

See you all tomorrow!! When I start work...*GULP*

May include picture of me lookin rad in my cami's.

The Week End Er Post (except its Monday)

So it was a pretty uneventful weekend. I suppose. In terms of fun.
Carol left us *sniff sob sob* but we got to see her parents on her way out so that was nice. I still need to put up a picture of P in the dress Carol got her...ALSO forgot to take photos of the pool run this morning in P's new frilly pink swim suit!! The swim didn't last long because said pool was NOT heated
>:(

What we DID do this weekend besides miss Carol's wit and baby charming skills was go to Olive Garden. Now. After you spend DAYS eating horrible food...make that a month of horrible food because we mostly ate romaine noodles every night while we were waiting to move...you should NOT go to Olive Garden and have break sticks, salad, fried lasagna (freakin deeelish) plus your order of pasta and sweet tea.
May I say when I drank the sweet tea I almost spit it back out because it tasted like unsweetened. I do miss southern sweet tea.
But both of us felt like we were going to die when we were done eating, thanks to our steady diet of junk food.

Phoenix ate this much of her special made ravioli...

Which equaled about nothing. Maybe 2 heads of broccoli. She was perfectly content to chew a coaster to bits (spitting out the chewed pieces and handing them to us very politely) and making herself have a mustache with the black straws they gave us.

Also occasionally leaning over to lick/BITE Allen's arm when she felt there wasn't enough attention focused on HER...

But she did eventually consent to drinking some milk. Note her reaching for the mustache straw to put back on her face as soon as the enforced drinking time was up.

Thank God, she finally did fall asleep.

The only other things of note this weekend were finding a restaurant called FasTaco. Made sure to NOT visit for any reason no matter how much we wanted tacos. Allen got to see his old friend Daniel who was touring with his orchestra and had a concert in town last night. And us finding out that the appraisal on our house was so low that the bank is fighting it and won't give us the money or close until the VA appraiser changes his mind and stops trying to value the house like it is a HUD home in the slums. Seriously if we bought it for what he said it was worth it would be a crime. We could turn around and sell it, making enough for a 15K down payment on a bigger home.
But now the bank has no idea when we can move in. Not seeming to care that every day we are in this hotel and renting this moving truck is costing us $150+. That adds up. Very. Quickly. Then they are going to run a last minute credit check before the closing and find maxed out credit cards because they should have done the appraisal weeks ago and no one with our income can afford to live in hotels. Not to mention a hotel on the nice end of town because we don't want our moving truck jacked.
GREAT WEEKEND.
Anyway.
This was the best pic of the weekend I think:

Day two of the Ft Worth partay

Today I woke up at 7:30 (after Phoenix slept through the entire night!) and went to get everyone breakfast...

I got lost. But only for a short time. And I came back with more food than you could believe. I stopped in at a small place called Paris Cafe. It was this cute old style diner that most people sit down in. I asked for a to-go order and get a little flustered when I started ordering and ended up with enough food for 6 adults. Hilarious.

Like a boss.

As thanks for getting them breakfast, Allen and Carol wrapped me up like a burrito, put the sleep number bed on the lowest setting possible and let me take a nap. Phoenix joined me.

We finally left to go have a party-rockin time in Ft Worth!

Then we found kid heaven...

The Mattel headquarters.

Phoenix played with these roaring dinos for a while until the motion sensor "Scaradactyle" jumped out at her and bit her hand. After that she was a little wary of said dinos.

In the end, there was only one thing she wanted...

And it was a hotwheels car.

Best part?

Car's name is "Ultra Rage"

The finale and the trip

We finished loading at around 6 last night and actually left town around 9:15.

These two guys think they did aaaallll the work.

 So far my favorite moment of the entire ordeal was realizing that we were letting Phoenix run wild like a trailer park baby.

So we put her in the clothes basket for safe keeping, hahaha!

At one point my ninja skills were required and I had to leave my furious packing in order to save the day!

When we at last had everything out and the place cleaned up, all we wanted to do was die, but we had to leave!!

I survived the drive until 3 and then Carol had to take over cause I was a swerving maniac. Phoenix pretty much would not sleep until 6 when I broke parenting rules and made a bed on my lap out of about 1,000 blankets and 50 pillows. She passed out and I sat there for 2 hours sweating to death, nodding off in a fever-like comma. At one point she had her head on my shoulder and one hand in my face and was like wrapped around her car seat like an octopus. 

We got to the hotel two hours before we could check in so we tried to entertain the baby by allowing her to play near construction sites and putting her up on high, slanted surfaces.

We checked in and found a california king in our room which hilariously fit all 4 of us to take a 3.5 hour nap on. Woke up, ate some pizza and we are going back to bed!! Note to self: Never make a move during the night again!!

Night ya'll!