Blog apology part 221

I feel like most of the time with this blog I'm apologizing for not using it.  The whole debacle with my laptop caused lots of problems, but we got it replaced this weekend, so I'm able to easily type again. Unfortunately I have had a record low in picture taking this year.  2012 was the first year I didn't need to make more than 1 CD of all my pictures for the year.  How sad is that!  Poor C.  His scrapbook for age 4 will be pitifully small. 

I did take some pictures of my Valentine's Décor.  I'm good at taking these photos b/c I do it for my own sanity, so I will remember what to do the next year. 

As far as C goes...not so good.  He has been getting so good at riding his bike, but he needs some help with the huge hills in our neighborhood, so I don't feel like I can fiddle with a camera while he is on it.  We haven't done much exciting since Key West, and I only used my phone for photos.  I will try to pull some though. 

I have only allowed like 3 photos taken of me my entire pregnancy b/c I look like the Goodyear Blimp version of myself.  It is not cute. I know that is very vain, but there it is.

 

This garland needs some more work (extra red ribbons b/w the cards), but it's a start.  Thanks Pinterest.  All cards in the suit of Hearts

 

a mixed paper banner I made

a jar of feathers--the doily wrapped jar is an idea adapted from Pinterest as well

 

a garland for my stairs from fabric scraps

 

the stuffed hearts and runner I made 3 years ago

 

the total display on my entry table 

 

another jar inspired by pinterest and just swapping the aqua candles from my winter display for pink ones

another scrappy pennant banner

 

jar of hearts on DR table

 

mantle with another mixed paper garland and various jars filled with conversation hearts, valentine's juju candy, and feather-tipped arrows I made w/hearts in the jar as well.

 

a tiny scrappy banner for my DR

Painting is finished!

We've finally got all the painting in the downstairs completed...well, not us, but the painter.  I think he did a great job.  We love the colors, and it just makes it seem more like home.  I need to take some pics to post.  We need to find new glass doors for our fireplace as the others had pretty bad smoke damage.  I want ones that can be closed with the fire burning, which seems to be hard to find.  Once we have those, we just need a coffee table and a backsplash (probably on hold until next year).  Our painter is going to paint our bedroom and C's bedroom in the fall probably--after we decide what we want up there.  Things are really coming together. 

C and I have had a pretty uneventful week as we had no plans.  We've been so busy with school and errands until this point that we hadn't really had to fill our days.  Today is the first day where we literally have NOTHING. It's 9 am, and I'm already bored.  I'm kind of at a loss of what to do.  Library, CEC (it's a bit cool today and wet), the indoor playcenter.  This is the first time it feels really obvious we don't really know anyone other than family.  I have something most weeks of the summer, but a few gaps, and I don't do well sitting around.  I'm also not great at spur of the moment planning.  C just wants to do the slip-n-slide, but it's been way too cold the last few days. 

Mother's Day Bridal Luncheon

I had the pleasure of attending a tea/bridal show at my mother-in-law's church with my MIL and SIL, Sarah.  We had a great time.  It was fun to see all the old dresses modeled and old photos.  They had dresses from the 20s through 2011.  It was fun to see the progression. 

They had a really cute display of photos/albums and a few dresses that were in too delicate of shape to be modeled.

They had baskets for silent auctions.  All the proceeds of the ticket sales and baskets went to a local Women's shelter.

They even had a wedding cake that one of the women had made.  It was delish.



It was so special.  They had nice table settings, name cards, table numbers, and menus out.  The men of the church helped prepare and serve the food.  It was a great Mother's Day outing

Sarah, Brenda, and me. 

This is a 9 year old they found to model Brenda's dress.  She was a tiny bride. 

Pictures to come

I promise I will spend some time updating my blog soon.  It probably won't be for another week b/c things will finally slow down then.  It takes so much time to load pictures, and I'm just so out of practice I need to get myself geared up.  We are almost completely settled.  We have a few things to hang on the wall and I need to shuffle some things from the basement to upstairs, so I can actually use my craft stuff, but otherwise we are pretty much in.

I spent yesterday cleaning the house and man does a larger house take forever to clean. I kind of wish I had carpet after all that hard surface cleaning, but I know it's actually easier this way. 

We don't quite have enough furniture to fill up the house.  We have a need for some tables in our living room and a small end table in our family room.  We bought a sofa and 2 chairs for the l.r., but the tables just have to wait.  Our bedroom is so big (unecessarily so--wish some of that space was in my bathroom) that we have a whole empty corner, but again it just has to wait. 

We are having the first floor painted in week or so.  We are having light greyish-brown color in the living room, stairwell and hallway, a two tone (using that same color from the l.r. on top and a darker one in the same family under the chair rail, the darker color below the chair rail in the kitchen w/the cream color that's already there on top, and finally we are having the family room painted a blue-green gray on 3 walls of the family room, leaving the wall with the fireplace white and having the fireplace white-washed.  I think it will be pretty.  Two-toned w/the chair rail is out of my comfort zone, but I'm trying to step out. 

I went to a mom's night out event last week that was pretty good.  It's so hard putting yourself out there to get to know other people.  We're going to try a new church tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

A litte update

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post.  Things are a bit crazy here with the hurry up and wait and then rush some more we've been experiencing. 

Since I broke my camera I've not taken any photos--obviously.  Here's a little written update on what you've missed.

--we lost the first house we had under contract due to foreclosure
--we went to Jamaica--an amazing vacation.  So sad we didn't have a camera
--we found another house after a 16 house in 1 day house search marathon--sooooo stressful
--we have an accepted contract but couldn't get a move-in day we wanted, so there will be about 16 days of limbo where we have no home.
--i am struggling to find C a new preschool. It is way more stressful than it should be
--we have started packing/prepping for packing in earnest, taking down stuff off the walls, switching out fridges, and moving personal stuff we don't want stored on a truck for 2.5 weeks.

We are ready for this phase to be over.  We still haven't heard if our inspection requests will be fixed, so we're still in the waiting phase.

Move update

We heard back from the bank Friday.  They've presented us with a counter-offer.  It's not what we hoped for, but we don't really have any other options.  We still like it better than anything else available in our price range, so we are going to try to make it work.  We counter-offered with an offer that still nets the bank what they want, but changes closing cost dollars, so hopefully we will hear they accepted it quickly.  I think if everything goes through, and we are happy with inspections, it will be ours by mid-March.  I know Scott, C, and I are already tired of the separation. I am also apprehensive about actually moving.  I can't say I'm super thrilled about the move.  I have such good friends here, I'm not in a hurry to move.  We are going to really miss our friends.  The majority of our close friends in St. Louis have moved away, so it's going to be a lot like moving to a new place.  Here is just so comfortable.  We know what we like to do as a family here.  We didn't have kids when we were in St. Louis. I feel like I have to learn it all over again.  I have to find C a preschool again. If you remember that was an agonizing process last year, and I don't really want to do it again.  I don't know anything about pre-schools there, and I don't have a mom's group to turn to for advice about that area.  There are moms groups there, but there are almost too many to choose from.  I am feeling overwhelmed.  I am sad that C is not going to finish the school year.  He loves his teachers and he loves his friends.  I know we will find another school, and we will make new friends, but here is what's currently comfortable.  I'm going to have to find a new gym, but there don't seem to be any close other than one really pricey one.  When the time comes, I'll do what I have to, and I'll put on a happy face and make it work, but it doesn't make it easy. 

Now we will have to try and make this place a home.

And just so you know, it's a lot more yellow (almost neon) than this appears, and it needs tons of work inside.

Dry spell update

I feel like January has been a blah months...but aren't all January's?  We had some fun New Year's Eve (though that's technically December), but since then things have been low key.  We are still looking for a house to move into in St. Louis as Scott starts his job there next week.  C and I will stay here (since we have our rental house until April), so he can go to preschool, and I can keep doing normal things.  We have a contract on a house, but it's a short sale.  We aren't 100% sure it will go through, but we have a close date of March 12 if all goes well.

In other exciting news, Sarah, Scott's sister had a precious baby girl last weekend.  We happened to be in town looking at houses.  She was 2 weeks early!!  I guess she wanted to make sure she saw her cousin immediately. Grace Elizabeth Godsey was born late Friday night.  She is a cutie!  Colin thought she was pretty cool except when she cried.  He said it made him nervous.  Hah!  I guess he's not around many babies.   

Race Time

I haven't really talked about my race training on my blog--not sure why--but if you don't know, I've been training for a half marathon on Oct. 23.  The training has reached the point where it's HARD. Tomorow I have a 9 mile run, and it will continue to climb until the race.  I've never run beyond 9 miles, so next week begins new territory.  I'm so ready for it to be over!  The time commitment is a bit opressive, but I'll be glad to have accomplished it since I've been toying with the idea for nearly 8 years. We have had a shock of cold and gloomy weather here, which makes my desire to run nosedive.  I only have 5 weeks left, so hopefully it won't get to cold. 

Relaxing weekend

We've had fairly relaxing weekend.  Friday night Scott went out with a couple of guys to a beer festival in Bloomington.  While they were off having fun, the moms and kids came to our house so we could entertain our kids together.  It was a fun, easy, relaxing way to spend the evening.  I think all the kids were worn out by the end of the night. 

Yesterday we just chilled around the house mostly.  We went to check out the tent sale at a local bike/running store, and saw there was a festival going on in Uptown Normal--sweet corn and blues.  We also took my friend Bree with us so she could buy running shoes.  We headed back home, and thought we would go to the festival after C's nap only to discover it closed at 6--which would have been awkward with dinner.  So we grilled out, ate outstide, and then went up to the soccer field to play soccer as a family.  We came back and started watching Votron with C.  He's addicted.  I loved this show when I was litte, but now I think it's pretty awful.  He's enjoying it though.  All 5 of our family members have been assigned a lion by C.  I'm the green lion, Scott's the red lion, C's the blue lion, and the dogs are the black lion and the yellow lion.  Scott has done nothing but fallen asleep anytime he sits still yesterday and today.

After church this morning and lunch at home we headed to the festival.  Scott and I tried some a piece of sweet corn.  C was thrilled with the Marvel and DC comics figures outside the comics store.  We walked up and down the vendors (it wasn't great for a 3 yr old--his attention span wasn't really having it).  Then we went to Emack and Bolio's for ice cream.  After C's nap we're headed to our church's annual b-day party at a nearby park.  The weather has been so nice, we've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible. 

Space shoes

I got some new running shoes last night.  They are bright to say the least. 

C loves them.  He put them on and walked around in them at least 15 minutes.  Then he decided they were space shoes, so he wanted his Nikes, and Scott obviously needed his, and I had to wear my shoes, and we were off to space.  Oh the mind of a 3 year old. 

As soon as he woke up this morning he wanted his "space shoes." He was wearing them until time for swim lessons, and he didn't even want to take them off for that.

i was told to wear them again this morning.

i think this is a good look for him

this is where i'm being bossed into putting mine on--he actually went and got them out of my closet.

Attention span for blogging

I apologize friends and family.  My attention span for blogging is waning.  I have been so busy lately--taking time to put my thoughts down and edit photos has been a giant pain I haven't had time to do. I have taken on a lot of responsibility with my local MOPS group and some with my other moms group, and I am a bit overwhelmed to say the least.  I'm hoping some of it slows down, but I'm not sure.  C and I are very busy as well with swimming lessons 4 days a week for 4 weeks--read giant pain in the butt!  It is at a terrible time--10:10--right smack in the middle of everything else scheduled.  We are always racing to the showers, changing our clothes, and rushing somewhere else straight from lessons--and on Thursday added a trip to the gym before the lessons and then a park playdate afterwards and then Walmart. This is a recipe for a very cranky 3 year old--let me tell you. 

In other news, C is in a true big bed.  While I was gone for 4.5 hours yesterday for my MOPS meeting Scott converted C's toddler bed into a full size bed.  Huge mistake in the day b/c we had a sitter last night and C only got a 1 hour nap b/c he went to a party.  The new changes made it interesting for her.  We went to see HP7 part 2.  Awesome!  We also went to a nice restaurant in town (Statio 220) we hadn't been to before and tried their changing tasting menu.  Delicious.  It was a mini-5 course tasting menu.  So good.  The brownie at the end was to die for.  It made working out at 11 pm last night very hard.  I actually couldn't make it through the video (never felt like that before). 

I will try to make the effort to take more pics (I actually have some to upload and edit) and actually put them on here. 

Party Power

I promise lots of photos to come. The party was a huge success.  I hope everyone had fun.  I know I did.  It turned out exactly like I hoped.

I am here

I promise to do better.  I have these lulls in my blogging every few months.  I just don't feel like I have much to say.  We have been either traveling or dealing with a sick little boy over the last month--at least that's how it feels.  We have also been doing the insanity program (workout dvds) that are intense, and take up a lot of time since we do them together at night.  I have also been busy planning all the stuff for C's upcoming bday (lots of pics eventually).

In the midst of this we celebrated Scott's father's day and bday.  C and I are going to try to make a cake today, but I'm not sure it's going to happen.  We didn't do anything special this weekend really, but have some friends coming over to celebrate this coming weekend.  We had a short visit from my parents, who brought my oldest nephew with them to see C.  C was so excited to see his cousin--he adores him.  They were so cute together.  My nephews are both so sweet to C--even when he isn't deserving...i.e. tackling or hitting them.  C has run 2 of the summer races.  Let's say he's not real thrilled by distance running.  He wants it to be over quick.  Perseverance is going to be something we need to work on/instill in him.  I haven't taken many pictures in the last month, but maybe I can dig some up.  We are headed to the park, so I will try to take some then. 

Tea party chaos

Turns out Scott leaving is working in my favor.  I stayed up until midnight (undistracted) working on tea party decorations--which wouldn't have happened if Scott would have been here.  Evidently I should have been doing this all week as I don't think I will ever get everything done.  My mind's eye will likely turn out to be greater than my capabilities allow.  I'm trying to turn my yard into a tea/garden party this Sunday.  And whoa to the Earth if it rains.  Thankfully everyone is helping with the food, so I'm just making a couple of things that can mostly be made in advance.  I also have a girlfriend coming over an hour early to help, but I'm starting to think I might be crazy (as usual when I plan a party).  A filter would be helpful.  If I could dig up my chain link fence for the weekend and borrow a picket one things would be so much prettier.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I had to check 4 different grocery stores before I found crumpets, pumpernickel bread, and mini-phyllo cups.  WTH.  This is a time when I say, what is wrong with this place.  I guess people just eat hot dogs and at chain restaurants here, so there is not much call for "fine" foods. Seriously, I'm not expecting them to carry jarred black truffles or caviar.  If I had vintage linens it would be better, but sadly I don't.  My mom has all the pretty stuff, but she lives too far away to borrow that kind of stuff in a pinch.  I've been struggling to pull together 16 non-matching tea cups (so everyone could keep track of their cup).  No luck.  I have 4, but then everyone else seems to have matching sets--but not enough people have sets (as in 12 other people).  I've gathered 8 so far, and I have 2 more coming for sure, but that leaves me 6 short (but we have plenty of cups if we repeat patterns).  I feel an ulcer coming on.  I can't believe I am consumed by such obsessive, crazy thoughts.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only person that cares about these details, but I literally obsess over them.  My back yard will either look gorgeous come Sunday, rained out, or like a 1920's washerwoman--hint of my decor).

A little whiny

C is feeling yucky today.  He's alternating between super sweet and cuddly and very grumpy. He kept ordering me to get out of the chair and to go to my room b/c I wouldn't vacate it for him even though I was the first one there.  Who is this mean little munchkin?  Then Scott calls me this morning to tell me there is a strong possibility he will be going to Chicago for the next couple of days.  He calls me back as I'm laying C down for a nap to confirm it.  Evidently this mission analysis meeting has been planned for a while, but no one told Scott.  He wouldn't have even known about it if he hadn't seen it on his boss's calendar today when they were sharing calendars (don't understand this technical online concept of viewing each other's calendars) to plan a meeting.  He saw this meeting and asked if he wasn't supposed to be there.  His boss said, um yeah?  Scott said, he had never been notified.  He double-checked.  Sure enough--no emails alerting him to the meeting.  His boss said, yeah your name was left off the list--thought that was weird.  What?!?  Seriously this company is ridonkulous.  Because Scott is in a different division in their only downstate market he constantly is inadvertantly left off of important training emails (this is at least the 3rd time this has happened only to find out he's supposed to be in Chicago in 48 hrs or less).  Whoever the person is in charge of this needs to get it together.  So, I had to cancel my plans tomorrow since I don't have anyone to watch C.  I already paid a babysitter to watch him 2 times in the last 5 days to watch him, so oh well I guess.  I know Scott is frustrated as well as he has to totally rearrange his schedule--and pack. 

What else can I whine about? Oh yeah...the weather.  It sucks!!! Too cold.  I'm totally off my exercise rhythm and can't stop eating brownies. 


The end

Last week

We've had a lot of busy weeks it's seemed, and last week was no exception.

We ended our week spending a little time at Chuck E Cheese celebrating two cute little guys' birthdays from my mom's group.  C did pretty well there.  He burned through his $5 worth of tokens in about 30-40 minutes, but he was still pretty content to just play the games w/o really playing them.

  One of his favorites was this virtual ride (sometimes a roller coaster, sometimes a jet pack, and then a third option I can't remember).

I got to spend the whole day Saturday shopping with 5 other ladies at the outlets in Tuscola.  It was a lot of fun.  We laughed way more than was probably appropriate, ate way more than appropriate, and I won't even comment on the spending.  It was my first time ever doing a whole day shopping adventure like this, and I was exhausted by the time I got home at almost 9 pm that night (we'd left at 8:30 in the morning). 

the candy at Flesor's Candy Kitchen--yummy! 

Ready to indulge in their yummy food and phosphates (soda fountain drinks)



I had a cherry coke and a vanilla coke (I have only had 3-4 sodas in the last 3 months).  They tasted good.

On our way back home (first a stop for dinner though)

back in the cheap seats

Happy Valentine's Day (AKA: Love Day 14)

So finally we get to what I really love.

My little boy and my husband.  I'm not generally a gusher or overly sentimental about love and such, so this is kind of wierd to put out on blog world, but here it goes.

We can't claim love at first sight or anything miraculous like that.  Dating was messy (mostly due to my own fickleness), but thankfully I came to my senses before you lost all patience.  We've been together now for over 10 years.  Sometimes it seems longer than that, but sometimes less.  You have a crazy, sarcastic sense of humor, but you've grown up a lot in the last 18 months (which I'm not sure is always a good thing since it's all from stress).  I love to hear you laugh (which seems less often), and the ridiculous jokes you make.   Though I'm really glad the "latte" joke and "banana peel" incident seem to have run out of the cycle. Though I'm pretty sure your dad will start it up again as soon as he reads this.  I love that you love some of my favorite movies (mostly for my sake, but you're willing to love them): Pride and Prejudice, the Sound of Music (I think we're going to celebrate our 10th anniversary touring Austria hopefully),  and Bridget Jones' Diary.  Thanks for also thinking my wish lists are terrible, and you go outside the box to get me amazing gifts.  Finally, thanks for working hard so C and I get to spend our days together, and for going the distance to get us to Mexico a second year in a row---and Argentina this spring. 

Silliness at its best

because you never take a serious picture it seems.  this would have been a great picture of you and your brother had you not been stuffing your face with wedding cake (which I'm sure was on purpose based on your facial expression)

because I love this picture and you hate it

Love Day 13

Love the sunshine.  Seriously.  One of my greatest loves. It was so nice to see my old friend for a while yesterday, and today promises his return it seems.  Going to see a lot of him soon in Mexico. 

Love Day 12

Got to hear my little boy sing along with a song playing in the car today.  It wasn't one of my favorite songs, but it sure was cute.  He was singing I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas.  It was really cute. 

So the bad with the good: we've moved from just hitting to hair pulling.  Both Scott and I got our hair pulled today. This little boy is driving me crazy.  Major anger issues in this one.  I really have no idea how to deal with/correct these behaviors.  I feel like we are just struggling to find something that works.  He just loses control of his emotions so easily--even over the silliest things that seem like non-issues.

Love day 11

What I love today.  Friends that are keeping me accountable to the gym.  It helps to be able to meet different people there at different times throughout the week.  I've been averaging 3.5 times at the gym a week, and then working out at my home the other 2.5 days or so.  Scott and I usually workout together once, and I do the rest myself. 

So thanks to Joy, Bree, and Stephanie for getting me off my butt and to the gym to Zumba, Body Blast, Cardio Kick, and running on the dreaded treadmill.  I'm about to send off my paperwork for a St. Patty's Day 5 K and a 12 K (yikes!). 

Now for the little boy who likes to workout, too.

getting ready for the dead lift

so strong