"D--- Yankee Land"

Christmas in NJ and Central Park in New York City!

Life in the East. I know many of you are familiar with the East, but seeing as I feel it is a foreign land I've decided to start this blog up. If no one responds then so be it. One of my friends, you know who you are, put me up to it so I thought I'd give it a try. I've come to terms with living in New Jersey means you are sick all the time. Be it allergies or other illnesses because everyone lives close and no one cares not to share germs. I have a great excuse being pregnant, but what's that got to do with the hubby and kiddos sick all the time. Poor little B has been sick with something or other the most I think. This is all very odd to me because she was ultra-healthy in Utah. I have heard from many others that we are not an uncommon case. Why oh why do people live here forever??!! I for one can't wait to get out. That being said I do have a few good things to say about NJ. Ok, so nevermind. The only one I can think of is that the school system is good here. Sure there's great people here, but there are great people everywhere. I have to remind myself all the time that pretty much the one blarring reason we moved here rather than lovely, sunny CA is that we were told to. An answer from heart-felt prayer is nothing to argue against. Now that I am sounding very pessimistic, I will focus on family. They are my one saving grace. B is so cute and everyday asks me what we can clean during little J's nap. Her favorites to clean are the toilet (blah!), T.V. and sweeping and mopping the floor. I found her in the kitchen one day with the broom singing "Sweeping the floor is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do!" Amazing. And one day while I was finishing lunch I had her prepare the bathroom floors to be swept. She came telling me she was done and I went to find the bath mats, her stool and the trash can all quite neatly set outside the door stacked up. It was one of the most adorable things I had every seen. She is quite the helper. Speaking of adorable, little J had his shining moment the other day. We'd gone out for Applebee's for big J's bday and the kids each got a balloon, which they both played with exuberantly in the car on the way home. Well, within 5 mintues of walking in the door with them still excited about their new toys, B pops hers and begins to wail. Little J, seeing her predicament with her balloon popped, still hanging onto the string and crying walks over to her and hands her his balloon and doesn't think another thing about it. Amazing. He seems far beyond his age to me in his level of understanding and thoughtfulness. He's quite the crack-up too. I get such a kick out of that little kid! And big J, super busy as he his, still finds time to be a husband and Daddy. I never thought I'd be going through this school thing again for so long. It's definitely a different life. I see the light at the end of the tunnel though. Many gross monsters along the way, but we'll get there. We'll pop out in 5 years and hopefully see the sunshine of the West telling us to come back to a normal way of life with mountains and Macey's grocery store and butterscotch pudding--see I told you it was foreign out here--and B's favorite, Otter Pops!