A Little Blog Spring Cleaning...

Wow, life has been crazy around these parts and it would be sooo easy to forget about my little blog for a few months, but what's the fun in that? Besides, if I don't keep up with this thing, I won't get my reward at the end of the year - an actual up-to-date family journal/scrapbook! After downloading our recent photos, here is a look at our family's adventures for the first part of spring...


First of all, my ghosts of packing past have come back to haunt me. I have this problem when moving time comes around - I get so excited and focused to clean up and haul things away that we live out of cardboard boxes for weeks! I'm determined not to do it again this time I tell you! We are lucky enough to have a moving company move us, but we decided to pack all of our non-breakables to save some moolah. I can't believe how much it costs to move across the country! We have sold our piano and washer and dryer recently and now it's my job to find other gems to get rid of - thank goodness for craigslist! To emphasize how crazy my life has been lately, let me share my morning yesterday with you...

To start the day off, JD and Christian woke Mom up way too early - I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep that night! Spencer is a good sleeper, I just couldn't sleep for some reason - argh! So on top of the normal rushed mornings around these parts, I had to hurry and get us all out the door to make it to Camryn's gymnastics class on time. So Spence is screaming while I'm trying to go to the bathroom and Camryn and Christian are running wild around the neighborhood and of course it's right at this point that the U of M maintenance crew knocks on my door (to install a new washer and dryer). They knock once and if you don't answer in like 10 seconds, they let themselves in - which they did - while I was on the toilet trying to calm my screaming baby. Nice. I finally got downstairs only to have them tell me I had to move a bunch of furniture around in the basement so they could put the washer and dryer in a different spot - argh again. By then we were late, but hey at least I got to just sit for a few minutes on the drive to gymnastics. I love being busy, but can't a girl use the latrine in peace?

So on with the photo spring cleaning. First, JD participated in Detroit's Martian Marathon this year. He diligently kept track of his miles for about a month and then was able to run the last 1.2 of 26 miles at the big race. Wanna know the best part? Joel took the kids (Spence not included) and let me have the morning to myself - oh, and all that exercise stuff too. He was cute about the whole thing. Towards race day, he needed some mileage, so he and his buddies would run around and around our circular road. I hope to run my next 5k with my little runner. Actually, he'll totally leave me in the dust!


Next random picture: Joel had to take a picture of this ticket. If you follow college basketball, you'll understand why. The NCAA college men's championship game was held in Detroit this year and last minute tickets were several hundred dollars. A resident friend of his didn't want to go so Joel snatched them up for face value. He and Ryan had a great time enjoying the fruits of someone else's labor!


Next random picture: I had a fun little one day reunion with our good friends we made in Erie, PA. We met up in Toledo and spent the day enjoying good conversation and chasing around 12 kids! Man I miss these guys! The friends we have made through medical school and residency have made this long road worth it!

Moi, Tera and Carolyn

These 3 were a mere 5 years old back in the Erie days.
They're so big at 8!

These 3 chikka's were just toddlers back in the day.
Such pretty princesses now!

The end of the day came too quickly! I'm going
to hold you guys to the whole "let's go on a cruise"
someday idea - seriously fun!

Next random picture: Christian is a big boy now! He loved his first experience at the dentist's office. It really wasn't that bad for Mom either: Camryn and Christian were wandering around the office while they worked on my and JD's teeth. Baby Spence was fast asleep (thank goodness) under the receptionist's desk! They were nice enough to suggest 2 appointments for the next Gardner family cleaning. I can take a hint! We are in Ann Arbor after all - 4 kids is crazy!


OK, I've saved the best for last - my 34th birthday! Am I really that old?? I love it! My birthday just happened to coincide with Joel's conference in Chicago. The result? Free hotel, free gas, generous food stipend for Joel, way too much fun at the American Girl Doll store and great food with good friends at the famous Gino's on the East side. What a fabulous birthday!

My kids loved Gino's because it was covered in
graffiti. They loved drawing all over the chairs
and walls. The deep dish was amazing!

Oh my holiness! I've turned into an American Girl
Doll freak. Joel and I took each of the kids on
a date in Chicago. I took Camryn to the American Girl
Doll Store. It's hilarious when you walk down the
Magnificent Mile because if there is a young girl
to be found, she undoubtedly has an American Girl
doll with her. It's like a freak'n status symbol.
Camryn was definitely strut'n her stuff walking
back to the hotel with Kit in her new carry bag - hilarious.

OK, I have more spring photo cleaning to do, but this entry took me all day to do and baby Spence is ready for Mom to pay more attention to him. I'll finish another day.