It Has Come to THIS.

Ok you guys.

It is officially June 29th and I still have not stopped using Google Reader to manage and read my blog subscriptions. Every time I open it, it says "This is a reminder that this service will no longer be available as of July 1, 2013" (in two days) and I hit the OK button like I am a lady of leisure with all the time in the world.

I tried Bloglovin and Feedly and the new Digg Reader and some other random RSS services. I hate them all. I had everything organized the way I liked it in Google Reader and it just feels, uhm, different with the other services. Sometimes me and change don't get along! DAMN THE MAN!

ANYWAY, I don't know if you all have switched (I am open to recommendations or tips and tricks) to a different reader but the whole fiasco has prompted me to add a subscription service here on the ole blog.  Since I am only posting 5 or 6 times a month, I thought you all might like it delivered to your inbox when it goes up?

Here's how:

Enter your email here (this form is also on my blog sidebar):

Get Team Hills delivered to your Inbox

Once you hit subscribe, it will take you to a lovely page that says this:

Then, you go check your email and hit YES...

And then I think it sends you a Thank You! email for subscribing list.

And BAM.

You're done.

I promise never to spam you (no giving away millions from foreign princes - sorry) or give away your email address.

And, also, I promise to provide you with HIGHLY entertaining items like this:

I also am finishing up a stellar post about Nate's birthday and an OH YEA WE SOLD OUR HOUSE IN ONE DAY post. So, you might want to get in on that action. Just sayin'. 

We're going to try this out.  Hope you all want to come along! 

(Oh and if this is all too complicated - just leave me a comment, an email, a text... whatever and I will add you to the list.) 

Life Lately :: Summer Edition

I find myself always a little, um, stretched this time of year. Summertime (since having kids and not working full time) is this weird paradox of fast forward and slow motion.

The Fast Forward: Nate and Nora's school has a summer program - but it comes with shorter hours and it's a shorter session (Read: Summer school opens at 9, I have to be at work at 9.  Read also: Summer school goes through mid-July, leaving me adrift for a month to find fill in sitters and/or beg help from friends and family.) My boss has always been super flexible with my schedule and hours, but these days it seems like perhaps too much work is coming home with me?  Or perhaps more accurate is my inability to actually get any work done at home when both the kids are home (particularly if I don't want my house to constantly look like a war zone). 

The Slow Motion: My days with just me and the kids (phone and laptop locked away!!) feel long and slow. Sometimes Nora and I can spend an entire hour laying on the floor building block towers. There's probably ENTIRELY too much tv watching and not enough outdoor activities but sometimes that's just fine by me. We've been to the pool and to the splash park and Nate had his first outdoor concert experience.  They've also consumed more pop ice than I care to think about.

Here's the down and dirty, honest, real-life skinny on our recent days starting from the smallest to the biggest:



Nora:

She's just so Nora. She's changed so much in the last two months that I feel like you all don't even know her. You can definitely tell she is rapidly approaching turning two (I KNOW!) as she has her diva moments (she is VERY interested in selecting her own clothing and the whole mini-bow thing is a day-by-day experiment), but, for the most part, she is the happiest little thing. I'm really glad we didn't have her first because I would have been seriously deluded on this whole parenting gig.

She walks through the halls of school dragging her blankie and 'pack pack' behind and yelling "Natey? Where's Natey!?" until we get to his classroom. It's pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

I keep this list of things I want to blog about in a notebook and there is an entire page dedicated to "A Post About Nora" (it has scribbles like 'All White Diet!' and "17 months - pointed out and said snowman in a book - how does she know what a snowman is?!'  and "Weird Belly Button Thing" and "Have crayons? Will color LONG TIME.) but she changes so much by the time I sit down to write, it's hard to know where to start.



She is just happy sitting and playing with toys or several pots and pans or piles of dirt and rocks (Yes.). Maybe I have forgotten some Nateisms of his 20 month stage or maybe we're just WAY more relaxed as parents but I am pretty sure she is, honestly, just more laid back. She lets random little girls drag her around the playground and doesn't mind too much if Nate (who so, so often does) snags her toys.

We constantly say "Is Nora a big girl?" to which she delightedly and emphatically responds 'BABY!' every. single. time. It's awesome. I swear she is truly turning me into the sappiest of saps.  (Do you get sappier with each child? I feel like if I have one more I might become a weeping, must-capture-this-moment-photo-addicted HOT MESS.)

Nate:

Our (ahem) more challenging first born has been, as always, more challenging (but equally loved, clearly). He's an extrovert through and through so, even on the days I want to stay at home all day long, he wants to go BE WITH HIS PEOPLE.  And if his people aren't around, MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY will do.

 Contrary to this photo, he is still not a huge fan of the water and refuses swim lessons and putting his whole head and/or face beneath the water. However, he does request at trip to the pool everyday (Maybe it's the 25 cent pop ice?). He also is super cautious and wears like 400 flotation devices. I'm trying not to rush it, but water makes me nervous so COME ON SWIM LESSONS!



He's officially enrolled in kindergarten and we seriously can't wait for him to start. There is a "Camp Kindergarten" at his school in July where he will get to meet his teachers and spend some time getting familiar with his school and the kindergarten classrooms. A bunch of his soccer buddies will be in school with him this fall so I'm not terribly concerned about the transition. Also, I am nerdily excited about HOMEWORK! (A statement I am sure to regret at some point in his educational career.)

We took him to his first concert (outdoor, Florida Georgia Line) and he wasn't as thrilled as expected (seriously, he begs to listen to FGL every time we get in the car... his current favorite song is one called 'Party People' and it's totally inappropriate for a four year old). I think the concert was louder and longer than he thought. In his defense, we walked like half a mile, it was semi-raining and it was waaaay past his bedtime.
 
Kat:

One day, I had to dress up for work to take a photo holding this lovely silver plate. HA! HA! Yep, this is me.  Dressed up! In jeans and a Target cardigan.

Karl: 

You know, just working on his golf game, WEARING SUNGLASSES WHEN IT'S NOT SUNNY IN MY PICTURES, and being generally awesome. 

There's much more to tell, but it is late and you are bored, so I bid you GOODNIGHT.


Here's one more hilarious photo for you. 

Have a great week!

A Serious Commitment

A few weeks ago, I overheard a mom at the park tell her daughter not to play with the rocks (pea gravel) because they were 'filthy.' She followed it with (sternly), "When we are at the playground we play on the EQUIPMENT!"  To be honest, I tried a little not to laugh. I tried REALLY hard to give her some slack (maybe she had to go somewhere straight from the playground?) but, really? Don't play in the rocks? For sure they aren't exactly a clean option but, it's not like the kids were in their Easter best (and her daughter was well past the age of worrying about eating the rocks) and, in my world, if my kids are happily exploring, well, then, what's a little dirt? Clothes and skin can be washed, right? If your child actually wants to try it out, we should let them, yes?  No? I know a lot of people have higher standards of child cleanliness than me. 

I thought of that mom yesterday (with a little smile; she would have freaked out I think!) when Natey and his friend made a serious commitment to getting dirty in the park. He full on just sat down in the mud and started playing. I tagged it as a #boymom moment, but I sure do hope my little girl might want to try this - or something like this - someday. (Yesterday she just looked at him like 'really?' and continued playing with some Ninja Turtle figures in the grass.)

He spent nearly an hour getting dirty and then I made him strip down to his undies for the ride home. He had a blast in all that mud. It was one of those parenting moments where (for me, for him, because he was so happy) I felt happy and like I wasn't doing it ALL WRONG.