the ZAC's

yesterday was the gerwig family monthly meal, this time at my brother's house. we were surprised with a new couch & a new flat screen tv; lucky them! (but they work hard & deserve it, for sure). as for the title of this post, for those who don't know, the ZAC's are zoe, adeline, & chloe (my brother & his wife have the twin girls). we are trying to come up with a name to include amelia: zaac's? azac? zaca? hhmm.
anyway, chloe & zoe are twins & are 21 months old, adeline is just 8 months older, then amelia is 15 months younger than the twins. i wasn't sure when the time would come that they would be in the same age range for playing...but this month was it. they all were excited to see each other (i'm not including amelia here, but zoe & chloe were very excited to have millie around) & immediately started playing with each other. they actually got along really well. we have speculated that chloe & adeline may team up on zoe, the more quiet & reserved one of the 3...that sort of happened a few times, but zoe seems to be able to handle her own (us shy girls learn how to combat those 'other' girls at an early age, go zoe!). i have a feeling that in a few years, zoe & amelia may learn to team up on adeline & chloe...let the girl wars begin! anyway, i am really happy that they get along so well & have each other to hang out with & play with for the rest of their days.

we are sort of planning a first over-nighter with the three girls maybe this summer. my parents don't know this yet, but i think i have chosen their house to start the cousin overnight parties. i think that night i will be sleeping in my own bed ;o) i guess now the cats out of the bag. i think by that time, hopefully adeline will have some more words in her vocabulary & i'm guessing chloe & zoe will be zippy runners as well (right now adeline has the dexterity & speed, while chloe & zoe have the vocabulary...they all seem to have the devious toddler minds, though). i just smiled most of the drive home thinking about how much fun they will have together over the next decade...

some pictures from yesterday: gram mum & pop-pop getting their exercise sitting down with the girls.

& this is our pizza that was very yummy on friday night (we have home made pizza every friday...wes loves it. i am more into our cinnamon rolls on saturday morning!). it is caramelized onion & pear, home made alfredo sauce, with goat, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, & asiago cheese. i TOLD you i have an affair with cheese. during the pinnacle of our income days (read: no kids, double income), we always had about 14 different cheeses in our fridge. oh the glory of it all. adeline usually loves this pizza,but for some reason she refused to eat it on friday. durn child.

this was adeline being sad that this was the pizza of choice.

now i'm going to totally change the subject.

so with wes' office moving to delaware, which is about a 30-35 minute drive (with traffic congestion, ya know), we have thrown around the idea of moving our family to delaware. not now, but in a year or so, once we know this office change is permanent. (lol, it would just be our luck to move & then have the office move BACK to columbus!). when we were moving back to the columbus area from boise, idaho we thought about moving to delaware. i was more for it than wes at the time. but we chose westerville b/c it was so close to wes' office. hardy har har. oh, the irony.

i am sad & a bit happy about this possibility, conflicted. wes & i have often talked about how odd it is that we live so close to this huge shopping mecca: the polaris mall, all the shops & stores & lanes of traffic. we find it incredibly frustrating around the holidays to live & work here; it is impossible to go anywhere on polaris & don't even think about trying to go out to eat...every restaurant is packed & the mall playground has standing room only for the parents. living near this shopping mecca just doesn't fit with us. we don't like to shop, shop, shop & we are more into thrift stores & garage sales than pottery barn kids. we are constantly commenting about how annoying it is...but at the same time, the mall playground in my lifesaver with these little ladies. having 3 starbucks nearby to boost my energy level is also a great perk! we really love to walk to uptown westerville & have at least 4 parks within walking distance. amazing! & we have even come to like our formerly 'ugly' house a bit more...after all, we have put hours & hours of work into this place & have more hours left.

it would seem fitting that now that i'm finally getting around to painting our bedroom & when i have ordered asparagus roots to plant (it will take a year of trimming & waiting for the stalks to be edible)...we will move. this is the third time this will happen; we spend time & money on getting the veggie & flower & herb gardens just the way we want, you know, figure out the sun angles & what works best where & we will be coming upon the third season, when things really start to bloom...& we move. in clintonville, we left behind a stellar compost pile & a wonderful clematis. in boise, oh my, it's hard to remember the 14 rose bushes we dug up from my co-worker's yard & painstakingly replanted successfully in our yard & the stone edged herb garden (the stones i dug up from around the subdivision as houses were being built...i would wheel around our wheelbarrow & haul a hundred pounds of river rock around...i'm sure i looked very odd, but our stone edged gardens were beautiful, i have to say) & oh yes, the again stellar compost pile & dessert plants we learned how to grow after the first year & the finally blooming clematis...& & &...it hurts to remember all of those plants. & it hurts to remember all the hours of painting & decorating & planning. & now we may move again?!

i know a 30 minute commute may not sound very daunting to some...but to us it is. wes loves to come home during the afternoon to hang out with us for his lunch hour. that's just him...he's a very involved daddy & we love that about him. we also like the idea of living & working in the same community & once the bike path is finished, wes was going to start biking to work (i was not about to let him ride his bike on the roads near this shopping mecca...people don't care about bicyclists around here). it bites knowing that he will be using that much fuel & producing that much carbon, etc just to get to work.

but is it worth uprooting our family again? moving & paying moving & realtor costs & packing & explaining to adeline & millie why we are leaving another home & then repainting & replanting. & lets not forget wes' treasured hop hut! he has worked so hard on it & has somehow achieved the near impossible: growing over 9 feet of hops in the ohio climate. we would have so much to re-do. is it worth it? would we find a house with better soil for the veggies & flowers & hops? this would be the 3rd season for my new clematis...it may finally start to bloom. i just don't know if i can do it again, if i can move again. will we be lucky enough to get such wonderful neighbors for the 4th time? i don't know. we just don't know the answers yet.

we could find a new home that has more room for full sun flowers & veggies & maybe a house that fits our style a bit more (country-colonial is not us) or maybe a newer house or even an older one with more character. who knows what we would find. a bigger yard? a larger pantry? smaller rooms?

so this last part of the post was a bit jarbled & not very well organized...i think b/c we are still in the thinking process. only time will be our answer. how will wes do driving at least an hour a day, being away from us, not being able to make it to well baby appointments & seeing his girls only 2 hours a day before they head to bed for the night. that's just not us. damn this economy, ya know?!