Many Hats Mommy
Thanks Jenny for giving me a chance to share <3
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Well I'm here, might as well talk lol
Wanted to take a second to update really quick...I was over here posting the link to the super hero cape giveaway below and figured eh, what the heck lol.
I'm BETTER....not to be confused with good, perfect, but maybe the same as OK. That shut down nearly was the death of me. That was rough. I've already decided for the 2012 that I'm going to join forces with my other mommy friend who has lots of little kids and we are going to rent a 4 BR beahc shack somewhere sunny and i'm moving there to live on the beach and sips cold drinks in the sun everyday during the next one (which is already scheduled to be twice as long.....................................................................................................................................see my point? good, now lets continue).
I'm dead serious when I say this.
I don't think i've ever been that stressed out in my entire life, even with the birth of all my kids. So with that said I'll say that things are getting back to normal at least. Dean was off for 6 days, it was amazing to have him here, and he is back to reg hours again as of today and so far so good.
In other news we are gearing up for a big Advocare event Dec. 10th, email me for details! We are giving away a FREE 24 day challenge...thats over $200 worth of product for FREE, plus other gift baskets etc. Don't miss out, this commpany and its products are lifechanging. Dean and I are on track to be making $10K a month next year at this time (Dec). AND.....I'll be a size 6 to boot. I'm inching closer to the 8's!!! I can fit in them but they aren't comfy yet, but give it a few weeks ;)
Also in the works is Christmas and house stuff...we got quite a few things done when Dean was off but not a ton as we just relaxed, it was nice. But I got this fabulous new Mirror for a local guy who metal works out of his house. It fits perfect on my DR wall, can't wait to share pics of it soon on the FB.
For Christmas we are hading back to Hocking hills, we are all super excited. I've been telling everyone how tragic it is that we have to go away on vacation to get the 5 BR 3 BA house we need LOL, so crazy!!
Thats all for now, my workout adrenaline has finally worn off so off to bed I go now. HAPPY DECEMBER....Keep Christ in CHRISTMAS :)
I'm BETTER....not to be confused with good, perfect, but maybe the same as OK. That shut down nearly was the death of me. That was rough. I've already decided for the 2012 that I'm going to join forces with my other mommy friend who has lots of little kids and we are going to rent a 4 BR beahc shack somewhere sunny and i'm moving there to live on the beach and sips cold drinks in the sun everyday during the next one (which is already scheduled to be twice as long.....................................................................................................................................see my point? good, now lets continue).
I'm dead serious when I say this.
I don't think i've ever been that stressed out in my entire life, even with the birth of all my kids. So with that said I'll say that things are getting back to normal at least. Dean was off for 6 days, it was amazing to have him here, and he is back to reg hours again as of today and so far so good.
In other news we are gearing up for a big Advocare event Dec. 10th, email me for details! We are giving away a FREE 24 day challenge...thats over $200 worth of product for FREE, plus other gift baskets etc. Don't miss out, this commpany and its products are lifechanging. Dean and I are on track to be making $10K a month next year at this time (Dec). AND.....I'll be a size 6 to boot. I'm inching closer to the 8's!!! I can fit in them but they aren't comfy yet, but give it a few weeks ;)
Also in the works is Christmas and house stuff...we got quite a few things done when Dean was off but not a ton as we just relaxed, it was nice. But I got this fabulous new Mirror for a local guy who metal works out of his house. It fits perfect on my DR wall, can't wait to share pics of it soon on the FB.
For Christmas we are hading back to Hocking hills, we are all super excited. I've been telling everyone how tragic it is that we have to go away on vacation to get the 5 BR 3 BA house we need LOL, so crazy!!
Thats all for now, my workout adrenaline has finally worn off so off to bed I go now. HAPPY DECEMBER....Keep Christ in CHRISTMAS :)
superhero cape giveaway
Monday, November 15, 2010
My Hummus recipe
I have enough people that ask me for this on a regular basis that I figured it was worth posting here in order to save myself some time.
I admit that I pride myself a little bit on this recipe, only because I've perfected it, however 1 aspect of it I have not and I was told recently by a very close chef friend that its because I don't have a super highpowered food processor. I have a decent one that I paid about $60 for at a kitchen supply place a few years ago, and it does an ok job, but really to get the super creamy texture you find in restaurants and in prepacking in stores you need one of those better restaurant grade ones. Never the less you can still get a decent texture with this recipe, its just going to take a little longer.
With that said enjoy my 4 step process Hummus recipe below. I make it at least once a week (more if time allows, my hubby is addicted to it).
Hummus
_________
(this recipe uses 3 cans of chick peas so it is a larger batch, see storage/refridgeration info below)
This is a 4 step process. You must follow this process to get the desired outcome, otherwise your hummus will be chunky thick and hard to swallow.
step 1. THE STARTER
in a decent food processor cream together 1/2 C of Tahini and 3/4 C of lemon juice (you can use bottled or fresh, I prefer bottled for taste and simplicity)
whip until frothy (at least 1 minute, will become a liquidy substance and will lighten in color)
Step 2. THE TASTE
add in fresh garlic cloves. If you want a mild garlic flavor add in 2 large cloves. If you want a decent but not overpowering garlic flavor add in 3-4 large cloves. If you really like garlic, add in 5 large cloves. (you can chop a little first to help the processor out)
mix in processor well (30-60 seconds)
Add in 3 cans of drained chickpeas (garbanzo). I prefer the organic canned but even the cheapie off brands work just fine.
blend for 3 seconds. At this point it will be very chunky still but taste it anyway, ignore the texture, what you want is taste...is there enough garlic and lemon for your taste? For me I usually add in about another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of lemon juice because I prefer mine tangy, ...its all a matter of preference. If you decide you want more add in a little bit, process, TASTE. If it needs more, REPEAT, if your flavor is exactly what you want go onto next step.
Step 3. TEXTURE
once you have your flavors the way you want, its time to process the heck out of your mixture. Get the food processor started on low/medium...add in a few tablespoons of water at a time until it starts to break up and thin out some (don't add too much as you will be adding in olive oil at the end and you don't want it runny...) BEAT THE HECK OUT OF IT LOL! I usually stand there for a good 5-7 minutes and once I get it think out almost enough (remember not all the way) I turn it up as high as my processor will go and let it whip, and whip and whip. You can stop it, stir/scrap sides and continue too to make sure its all incorperated, but you get the idea.
Once you've reached the texture you want (remember that it will still be a bit chunky unless you have a rockstar high end processor)...move onto step 4.
Step 4 THE FINISH
at the end for about 20-30 seconds tops you can stream in olive oil on low. I do about 1/4 Cup or a little more for a recipe of this size. You don't want to whip the olive oil as it can turn bitter tasting if you do. This will also thin the mixture out a little bit more and it will make it slightly creamier as well.
Thats it...ALL DONE!! :)
Storage: eat within 3-5 days in refridgerator or i've been told you can freeze this up to a month, however I've never tried it only because I have 10 people I feed and they eat this up in about 2 days max (or less).
I serve with Lemon pepper pan chicken and sauteed pine nuts...YUM!
gluten free, low fat, HEALTHY and delicious, my kids LOVE it and my husband horrdes it :)
Good luck and if you have any questions or run into problems with anything above feel free to send me a message ;)
.*~ ENJOY ~*.
I admit that I pride myself a little bit on this recipe, only because I've perfected it, however 1 aspect of it I have not and I was told recently by a very close chef friend that its because I don't have a super highpowered food processor. I have a decent one that I paid about $60 for at a kitchen supply place a few years ago, and it does an ok job, but really to get the super creamy texture you find in restaurants and in prepacking in stores you need one of those better restaurant grade ones. Never the less you can still get a decent texture with this recipe, its just going to take a little longer.
With that said enjoy my 4 step process Hummus recipe below. I make it at least once a week (more if time allows, my hubby is addicted to it).
Hummus
_________
(this recipe uses 3 cans of chick peas so it is a larger batch, see storage/refridgeration info below)
This is a 4 step process. You must follow this process to get the desired outcome, otherwise your hummus will be chunky thick and hard to swallow.
step 1. THE STARTER
in a decent food processor cream together 1/2 C of Tahini and 3/4 C of lemon juice (you can use bottled or fresh, I prefer bottled for taste and simplicity)
whip until frothy (at least 1 minute, will become a liquidy substance and will lighten in color)
Step 2. THE TASTE
add in fresh garlic cloves. If you want a mild garlic flavor add in 2 large cloves. If you want a decent but not overpowering garlic flavor add in 3-4 large cloves. If you really like garlic, add in 5 large cloves. (you can chop a little first to help the processor out)
mix in processor well (30-60 seconds)
Add in 3 cans of drained chickpeas (garbanzo). I prefer the organic canned but even the cheapie off brands work just fine.
blend for 3 seconds. At this point it will be very chunky still but taste it anyway, ignore the texture, what you want is taste...is there enough garlic and lemon for your taste? For me I usually add in about another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of lemon juice because I prefer mine tangy, ...its all a matter of preference. If you decide you want more add in a little bit, process, TASTE. If it needs more, REPEAT, if your flavor is exactly what you want go onto next step.
Step 3. TEXTURE
once you have your flavors the way you want, its time to process the heck out of your mixture. Get the food processor started on low/medium...add in a few tablespoons of water at a time until it starts to break up and thin out some (don't add too much as you will be adding in olive oil at the end and you don't want it runny...) BEAT THE HECK OUT OF IT LOL! I usually stand there for a good 5-7 minutes and once I get it think out almost enough (remember not all the way) I turn it up as high as my processor will go and let it whip, and whip and whip. You can stop it, stir/scrap sides and continue too to make sure its all incorperated, but you get the idea.
Once you've reached the texture you want (remember that it will still be a bit chunky unless you have a rockstar high end processor)...move onto step 4.
Step 4 THE FINISH
at the end for about 20-30 seconds tops you can stream in olive oil on low. I do about 1/4 Cup or a little more for a recipe of this size. You don't want to whip the olive oil as it can turn bitter tasting if you do. This will also thin the mixture out a little bit more and it will make it slightly creamier as well.
Thats it...ALL DONE!! :)
Storage: eat within 3-5 days in refridgerator or i've been told you can freeze this up to a month, however I've never tried it only because I have 10 people I feed and they eat this up in about 2 days max (or less).
I serve with Lemon pepper pan chicken and sauteed pine nuts...YUM!
gluten free, low fat, HEALTHY and delicious, my kids LOVE it and my husband horrdes it :)
Good luck and if you have any questions or run into problems with anything above feel free to send me a message ;)
.*~ ENJOY ~*.
School in my future?
Someone informed me this weekend that I actually CAN get my $ from the Army for college. I've been told this before, so I'm a bit leary, but this person had a few places for me to try that I've never tried before.
Technically I have over $30K coming to me,...I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've kicked myself for not staying in another 6 months to get that money (I wanted to be at home with my daughter, we were in Germany, childcare was scare and not reliable). I don't totally regret the decision I made to come home when I did, but I do wish I had thought it through a little more and maybe postponed it those extra few months. $1200.00 of that money was money *I* put into my college fund and was told I can never get that back.
Anyway, IF the above is true, I am really leaning towards becoming a nutritionist. I thought about personal training, but (no offense lol) i'm not sure I like the person idea of that. I know one PT who is female and she is awesome, but the few guys I know that are are not the kind of person I want to be thought of as. I don't know a lot of them,...I don't know, maybe my perception is off?? Either way I'd like to be able to have a part time position somewhere once the kids are all in school in another year and a half (WOW thats close!!).
Technically I have over $30K coming to me,...I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've kicked myself for not staying in another 6 months to get that money (I wanted to be at home with my daughter, we were in Germany, childcare was scare and not reliable). I don't totally regret the decision I made to come home when I did, but I do wish I had thought it through a little more and maybe postponed it those extra few months. $1200.00 of that money was money *I* put into my college fund and was told I can never get that back.
Anyway, IF the above is true, I am really leaning towards becoming a nutritionist. I thought about personal training, but (no offense lol) i'm not sure I like the person idea of that. I know one PT who is female and she is awesome, but the few guys I know that are are not the kind of person I want to be thought of as. I don't know a lot of them,...I don't know, maybe my perception is off?? Either way I'd like to be able to have a part time position somewhere once the kids are all in school in another year and a half (WOW thats close!!).
Monday, November 8, 2010
The final count down.
Its been a long time since I posted, and it looks like the last few things I did post ab out were either fluff (songs) or a bit of whining about my housing sitch lol.
Never the less here I am, i figured this was easier than some stupid snippet I might put on facebook, and honestly I have a few minutes while kids are having snacks and babies are still napping.
In order to get this out of the way, the update on the housing situation is this, and purely this...unless one of the following happens: economy rebounds, we win the lottery, we get some huge unexpected windfall, it looks as though we are being forced to take drastic measures with our housing situation. I'm not exactly going to spell out on here what that means, but if you can't figure it out think worst case scenario. What it has boiled down too is...we need a bigger house, more importantly we need 5 BR's and a minimum of 2 bathrooms (2.5 plus being ideal). No matter what we do we can't have that in this house. We have tried everything outside of 2 options that are left, one of them is rent out this house while we rent another house, yeah...no thanks. While I'd love to live in a dream world where that might actually work time wise (which is the case, i'd never have time to maintain a rental, i barely have time to maintain the current house i own), I don't know how smart it is to risk renting out an already insideout investment. The long story short is, we stay here and live with it for 2 years then move on, or, we do it sooner than that. The long story short, it SUCKS. I am praying for a smooth transition, as it won't be easy to find a place to fit a family this size but I'm hopeful, more hopeful than the prospect of staying here.
In other news (now that that is out of the way lol), we have 10 days left until the shut down is over. I cannot tell you how happy i am that we have TEN DAYS left lol (projected end anyways lol). It has been a very long month living without Dean but we are looking forward to it being over.
We have lots to look forward too in the next few months. For starters things are really taking off for our Advocare business. Have I mentioned this yet? A few months back Dean came to me with this company he thought sounded cool, and I pretty much chalked it up to hype and something i would never pursue because direct sales isn't really all that much fun (and I know because i've BTDT a lot, too many times to count.) Well, one energy drink later, I was hooked!!
Advocare is a nutritional company that has been around for over 17 yrs now, based out of Dallas TX. Their line of energy drinks is only the tip of the ice berg in terms of product. Their focus is weightloss, muscle building, sports nutrition and overall being healthy. They operate under a panel of 8 doctors and have a reputation as a winning company. They teach a debt buster system, give incentives and more. Anyways...our journey began back in August and in that short amount of time we have not only lost inches off our bodies, but we are also bringing in income to boot. The crazy part is, I hardly feel like I've done anything other than share how this stuff has (is!) changing our life.
We started with the 24 day challenge,...I lost over 7 inches during that time, and since then have lost approx. another 6 for a grand total of 13 inches. This equates to 2.5 pants sizes. When we started I was a size 12/14 depending on the brand, and as of today I am currently a size 8/10 and well on my way to being a full blown size 8. My friends call me the incredible shrinking woman lol, its that dramatic. It does require that you eat a good diet, however you get to EAT versus dieting where you starve yourself into failure. It's amazing stuff!! So if you hear me talking about it, thats why. I never thought I'd be this small, ever...and I'm not quite to my goal yet (size 6!). I'll be there hopefully by Feb when we go to Success school in TX. It's CRAZY ...I can't believe my job is to lose body fat and get paid for it?!!! I'm in heaven <3
This of course has changed a lot in terms of life in our home as well, it is an addition of something else on our plate, but its an investment in time that will pay for itself. I'll try and post some pics soon of the changes we have both been through, Dean has lost tons of body fat as well (and we never really thought he had a whole lot, well I can tell you he did have some as its now GONE lol and the muscles are getting bigger :) )
The kids are doing good, looking forward to fall/winter activities. We are headed back to Hocking Hills for Christmas. We decided since there is no room in this house to put anything new, we might as well go make a memory for Christmas versus buy more *stuff*. We have a cabin rented for 2 whole days on xmas eve and day, can't wait...hope it SNOWS!! :D
I'm going to try and post more often, life has been far too hectic lately between Dean being gone, the renovations that we were doing, plus trying to live normal life. I really want to start beinbg able to post pictures on a regular basis,...I'd love to be able too my time schedule is just ridiculous. I'm lucky to get 10 minutes a day to myself and thats not a joke. my workouts/runs are usually done at 5am or 9pm, not exactly good times to have energy for me. It's been a very rough last 6-8 weeks but I'm thankful we are on the brink of being finished, as I know Dino is. All this and we have the 2012 to still look forward too LOL.
Never the less here I am, i figured this was easier than some stupid snippet I might put on facebook, and honestly I have a few minutes while kids are having snacks and babies are still napping.
In order to get this out of the way, the update on the housing situation is this, and purely this...unless one of the following happens: economy rebounds, we win the lottery, we get some huge unexpected windfall, it looks as though we are being forced to take drastic measures with our housing situation. I'm not exactly going to spell out on here what that means, but if you can't figure it out think worst case scenario. What it has boiled down too is...we need a bigger house, more importantly we need 5 BR's and a minimum of 2 bathrooms (2.5 plus being ideal). No matter what we do we can't have that in this house. We have tried everything outside of 2 options that are left, one of them is rent out this house while we rent another house, yeah...no thanks. While I'd love to live in a dream world where that might actually work time wise (which is the case, i'd never have time to maintain a rental, i barely have time to maintain the current house i own), I don't know how smart it is to risk renting out an already insideout investment. The long story short is, we stay here and live with it for 2 years then move on, or, we do it sooner than that. The long story short, it SUCKS. I am praying for a smooth transition, as it won't be easy to find a place to fit a family this size but I'm hopeful, more hopeful than the prospect of staying here.
In other news (now that that is out of the way lol), we have 10 days left until the shut down is over. I cannot tell you how happy i am that we have TEN DAYS left lol (projected end anyways lol). It has been a very long month living without Dean but we are looking forward to it being over.
We have lots to look forward too in the next few months. For starters things are really taking off for our Advocare business. Have I mentioned this yet? A few months back Dean came to me with this company he thought sounded cool, and I pretty much chalked it up to hype and something i would never pursue because direct sales isn't really all that much fun (and I know because i've BTDT a lot, too many times to count.) Well, one energy drink later, I was hooked!!
Advocare is a nutritional company that has been around for over 17 yrs now, based out of Dallas TX. Their line of energy drinks is only the tip of the ice berg in terms of product. Their focus is weightloss, muscle building, sports nutrition and overall being healthy. They operate under a panel of 8 doctors and have a reputation as a winning company. They teach a debt buster system, give incentives and more. Anyways...our journey began back in August and in that short amount of time we have not only lost inches off our bodies, but we are also bringing in income to boot. The crazy part is, I hardly feel like I've done anything other than share how this stuff has (is!) changing our life.
We started with the 24 day challenge,...I lost over 7 inches during that time, and since then have lost approx. another 6 for a grand total of 13 inches. This equates to 2.5 pants sizes. When we started I was a size 12/14 depending on the brand, and as of today I am currently a size 8/10 and well on my way to being a full blown size 8. My friends call me the incredible shrinking woman lol, its that dramatic. It does require that you eat a good diet, however you get to EAT versus dieting where you starve yourself into failure. It's amazing stuff!! So if you hear me talking about it, thats why. I never thought I'd be this small, ever...and I'm not quite to my goal yet (size 6!). I'll be there hopefully by Feb when we go to Success school in TX. It's CRAZY ...I can't believe my job is to lose body fat and get paid for it?!!! I'm in heaven <3
This of course has changed a lot in terms of life in our home as well, it is an addition of something else on our plate, but its an investment in time that will pay for itself. I'll try and post some pics soon of the changes we have both been through, Dean has lost tons of body fat as well (and we never really thought he had a whole lot, well I can tell you he did have some as its now GONE lol and the muscles are getting bigger :) )
The kids are doing good, looking forward to fall/winter activities. We are headed back to Hocking Hills for Christmas. We decided since there is no room in this house to put anything new, we might as well go make a memory for Christmas versus buy more *stuff*. We have a cabin rented for 2 whole days on xmas eve and day, can't wait...hope it SNOWS!! :D
I'm going to try and post more often, life has been far too hectic lately between Dean being gone, the renovations that we were doing, plus trying to live normal life. I really want to start beinbg able to post pictures on a regular basis,...I'd love to be able too my time schedule is just ridiculous. I'm lucky to get 10 minutes a day to myself and thats not a joke. my workouts/runs are usually done at 5am or 9pm, not exactly good times to have energy for me. It's been a very rough last 6-8 weeks but I'm thankful we are on the brink of being finished, as I know Dino is. All this and we have the 2012 to still look forward too LOL.
Monday, October 25, 2010
When day breaks.
First spark, a hint of change, of direction, something unexpected and strange.
It comes unaware, but welcomed among weightless souls that wait upon your wings.
You whisper.
Ears that long to hear what is to come take heed and usher in the small gift,...an invitation to join you as you work and where you lead.
Here i am, yours in life, in death, you hold every breath and i'd have it no other way.
Journey of a thousand steps, crocked ways, thorns begin and threaten to push where we do not know. Longing begins, that long aching horrible emptiness full of nothingness, doubt, fear, frustration and silence.
Was it real? Was the message really ever alive? In my minds eye, I see it, yet my faulty realm denies that which i've been reminded time and again. I fail. You become a restless memory, an ache for what used to be and what I thought should be. I'm lost. You hold the map to my heart as i wander, searching, hoping, doubting, thinking...praying, hanging on. Darkness becomes a friend to console and soothe my humaness and I let it in.
Then, quickly a rush of breath, you return and breathe life into that which I feared dead and gone forever. It grows quickly, a beat, love unshakable. Oh regret of folly, my Thomas moment now forever in your book. I fall, you forgive...day breaks and the dark veil is torn once again. My heart remembers and embraces this moment, this chance to once again feel you and the prescence of it all. I long to stay here. I bask in this light like a child in the sand, taking nothing for granted as this time around wisdom prevents me from doing so. I know these moments are rare, cherished, and so I do. My heart is filled with thanksgiving, abundance even despite the hardship that befalls this path. Let grace lead as those who beg it are shown the magnitude of your glory. My heart is in awe, forever in love with the one true love.
It comes unaware, but welcomed among weightless souls that wait upon your wings.
You whisper.
Ears that long to hear what is to come take heed and usher in the small gift,...an invitation to join you as you work and where you lead.
Here i am, yours in life, in death, you hold every breath and i'd have it no other way.
Journey of a thousand steps, crocked ways, thorns begin and threaten to push where we do not know. Longing begins, that long aching horrible emptiness full of nothingness, doubt, fear, frustration and silence.
Was it real? Was the message really ever alive? In my minds eye, I see it, yet my faulty realm denies that which i've been reminded time and again. I fail. You become a restless memory, an ache for what used to be and what I thought should be. I'm lost. You hold the map to my heart as i wander, searching, hoping, doubting, thinking...praying, hanging on. Darkness becomes a friend to console and soothe my humaness and I let it in.
Then, quickly a rush of breath, you return and breathe life into that which I feared dead and gone forever. It grows quickly, a beat, love unshakable. Oh regret of folly, my Thomas moment now forever in your book. I fall, you forgive...day breaks and the dark veil is torn once again. My heart remembers and embraces this moment, this chance to once again feel you and the prescence of it all. I long to stay here. I bask in this light like a child in the sand, taking nothing for granted as this time around wisdom prevents me from doing so. I know these moments are rare, cherished, and so I do. My heart is filled with thanksgiving, abundance even despite the hardship that befalls this path. Let grace lead as those who beg it are shown the magnitude of your glory. My heart is in awe, forever in love with the one true love.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Getting over it, sort of.
I'm doing better in terms of the house issue. I have had days where I seriously felt like I couldn't cope another second, and then other days where I work at trying to just get over it and make do here. It's been soooo hard to do that. One of my biggest mental issues with making due is that I feel like my efforts will be wasted, (as will any $ i spend) on this place if we end up choosing to move on in the near future. It's tough. We are trying really hard to take our financial responsibilities seriously, even more so than in the past, so by investing more $ into this place knowing I won't stay here forever, really doesn't feel great.
I keep telling myself there is a reason I can't see right now and in the end I'll be thankful that it didn't work out *my* way. Thats always the way God seems to work it.
Anyway, for now I am spending a lot of time cleaning things out, and buying organizational items to help make the flow around here a little bit earlier. One thing I'm dreading though is Christmas around here. We do NOT have the room for any more toys. What little we do have really are a total nuisance and always in the way. So as not to dwell on how deeply this sucks, I'll suffice to say that the holidays for that reason alone will be a challenge. I've always been really good about purging before any major holiday, I'm not a clutter/junk person, but in this sitch, its getting ridiculously difficult to really keep it simple.
I wish there were easy answers here. And I wish we knew what direction to head in. For now, at least till spring...we stay. The only relief I have in that is I hate moving lol, so the bright side is I get to put that off for a little while at least.
I keep telling myself there is a reason I can't see right now and in the end I'll be thankful that it didn't work out *my* way. Thats always the way God seems to work it.
Anyway, for now I am spending a lot of time cleaning things out, and buying organizational items to help make the flow around here a little bit earlier. One thing I'm dreading though is Christmas around here. We do NOT have the room for any more toys. What little we do have really are a total nuisance and always in the way. So as not to dwell on how deeply this sucks, I'll suffice to say that the holidays for that reason alone will be a challenge. I've always been really good about purging before any major holiday, I'm not a clutter/junk person, but in this sitch, its getting ridiculously difficult to really keep it simple.
I wish there were easy answers here. And I wish we knew what direction to head in. For now, at least till spring...we stay. The only relief I have in that is I hate moving lol, so the bright side is I get to put that off for a little while at least.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
devestated is a current understatement.
I'll make this short and sweet, #1 because I don't want to dwell, and #2 because its super late and I have a run to get to early in the morning.
Today while house hunting for the umpteenth time, we ironically got a phone call from our finance guy. The news was not so good.
Apparently this bank (same bank that holds our current mortgage) that said they would finance us with our VA status, says now they still will *consider* it but they've changed the rules on us, so much so that it will be nearly impossible to meet the demands, especially right now.
I would go into details, but does it really matter? The point is, it's officially over. Well, I should say BUYING another house is over. (i'm still moving come hell or high water).
It's so hard for me to even blog about this because I seriously cannot do anything but sit here and think of people being thankful this is happening....
Please spare me the *praise the lord* lines, seriously....oh and the *maybe you are meant to stay where you are* BS as well. I don't f'ing think so, and if YOU lived here in this tiny freaking house, You'd get it. But you don't......so there it is. LUCKY YOU.
I'm super super angry, at the whole situation. Honestly I'm to the point where I no longer give a crap what happens either. We are currently weighing options, several of which involve possibly handing this house right back to the stupid bank,...the same one that just jacked us around, and the same one who was willing to loan us $200K for a new house, but not $70K for an addition to stay here, and add a freaking bathroom/bedroom onto this house.
There are no words left at this point.
Today while house hunting for the umpteenth time, we ironically got a phone call from our finance guy. The news was not so good.
Apparently this bank (same bank that holds our current mortgage) that said they would finance us with our VA status, says now they still will *consider* it but they've changed the rules on us, so much so that it will be nearly impossible to meet the demands, especially right now.
I would go into details, but does it really matter? The point is, it's officially over. Well, I should say BUYING another house is over. (i'm still moving come hell or high water).
It's so hard for me to even blog about this because I seriously cannot do anything but sit here and think of people being thankful this is happening....
Please spare me the *praise the lord* lines, seriously....oh and the *maybe you are meant to stay where you are* BS as well. I don't f'ing think so, and if YOU lived here in this tiny freaking house, You'd get it. But you don't......so there it is. LUCKY YOU.
I'm super super angry, at the whole situation. Honestly I'm to the point where I no longer give a crap what happens either. We are currently weighing options, several of which involve possibly handing this house right back to the stupid bank,...the same one that just jacked us around, and the same one who was willing to loan us $200K for a new house, but not $70K for an addition to stay here, and add a freaking bathroom/bedroom onto this house.
There are no words left at this point.
Our trip to Hocking Hills ~ summer 2010
After a very long season, we have finally found the time to go on a vacation, alone minus kids. Normally I like taking my kids on adventures, and truthfully it was really hard to leave, but in the end we were desperate for some time away.
By Saturday evening the kids had all been delivered to MIL and SIL's, and we headed home to hang out with friends for an hour or so, finish packing and get to bed to get ready for the trip. I slept a whopping 4.5 hours that night lol, I was excited to say the least.
Sunday morning we got up, finished packing and headed out around 9am to get gas, car wash and grab breakfast. We stopped at Denny's on th way out of town and saw our friends Jeff and Cassie (surprise!! lol). After that we headed south, and 4 hours later we arrived in Logan OH to find some very twisty country roads.
Our cabin was down off of one that was way off the beaten path, and the driveway alone was practically hidden and very steep. As a matter of fact we were so far out that we had no cell service, it was truly a *get away* in the very sense of the word.
This is where we stayed... (Ashby Cabins are quiet, cozy and very private).
(notice the indoor hot tub off the bedroom, this was some serious relaxation people!! lol).
We arrived at the cabin around 3pm, check in was not supposed to be until 4, but we decided to check it out anyway, thankfully it was all ready for us early so we went in to scope it out, then started unpacking right away. The cabin itself had everything we needed,...a fully stocked kitchen (cooking wise, we had to bring our own food and spices), a huge bathroom with shower/xl tub, towels etc, a LR with TV, dining area, and a master bedroom suite with another TV , closet and a room off that with the indoor hottub. One of the nice things was everything was labeled so it was easy to navigate everything. There was also this really cool guest book that all the previous guests in the last 2 years had signed. They had also started a game called the dollar game, in the cabin there were 3 dollar bills hidden and the book listed clues to where to find them written by the previous guests. We found #1 right away, and after about half an hour we found what we thought was #3...turned out after searching for #2 for over a day that we actually had found #2 according to the clues, once I realized this I found the actual #3 monday afternoon lol (my brain never really stopped trying to figure it out, my OCD was on a rampage rofl!).
Monday night after we unpacked and had checked things out a bit we headed out and got pizza and ice cream, 2 things I haven't eaten in weeks, omgosh it was good lol.
We came back watched some TV and went to bed. It was a king size bed, it was SUPER soft, I slept like a baby I'm not kidding. I woke up at 7am ready to get my day going LOL. Dean wasn't thrilled, but he got up too (I can't help it, I'm a very motivated person, especially when and where hiking is involved). We had our breakfast there and headed out to the first day of sight seeing and trail blazing.
First stop was Old Man's cave. Mainly because it was the closest to where we stayed (less than 10 minute drive, very close!!). At first we wore pants thinking the trails might be covered with brush, thankfully after we did the cave we headed back up and changed into shorts we had brought with us as it was nearing 85* already at 10am. Old Man's cave was really cool. The twists and turns of the rocks, the formations made by wind and water for centuries really made this place something special to witness. Sadly throughout this part of the state forest and other parts there were many places where visitors and tourists had carved their names into trees, rocks and fallen wood. While I appreciate others wanting to be a part of history, it really detracted from the natural beauty of it all. I really don't care that Joe was there on April 12th of 1998, thats nice but I don't want to see it Joe, how rude of you.
Onto the pics, here is the start of the cave...
shots of what it looks like heading down in...
the path we came down, and one of only a couple of actual cave holes you can travel through...
Trails,ridges and bridges of the cave:
more random pics...one is of the sphinx head at the bottom of the caves ravine, and in one just to the side of the sphinx's head you could see a skull etched into the rock, I believe it was naturally there as I don't see how anyone could get up there to carve that in there...
I took this pic trying to capture the light streaming down into the bottom of the cave, it turned out to be our favorite of the entire trip...beautiful huh?
According to the historical markers, there are approx 13 different species of ferns that grow in the caves, this was one of them, though it was cool, it was paper thin and grew like lace all over the rocks...no clue what its called:
the big rock at the bottom of the cave...we took pics of each other ;) talk about feeling small in the hands of God,...there were many opportunities during this trip to feel that way, hence the reason i personally loved it so much.
Next we hiked to Cedar Falls....sadly because it was the end of August the falls were more like a trickle, but the path to get there was rugged and a big challenge at times, we LOVED it. It was 2 miles there and 2 miles back no including old mans cave which was 1/2mile each way and we hiked it twice, so at the end of the day we had done a total of 5 miles. That indoor hottub was a huge plus by the end of this day...
the falls...
this guy was sitting up on a rock as we climbed out of the falls to find a bathroom...
The next day we ventured to the Rock house, and what we found was this massive rock house with a big cave covered by tons of greenery. The cave apparently has been visited for over a century as there were names carved into the rocks in many areas, again this bugged me a lot, until we saw a few that were dated back to the 1890's, it made me realize that this has been a tourist area for a really long time.
Later that afternoon we ventured to Conkles Hallow. Ask me where the pictures of that are? I'll tell you they aren't anywhere on *my* camera as I was pretty set on using my hands to hold onto anything I could so as not to perish lol! CH is this huge gorge that has a trail around the upper rim which is approx. 200 (yes thats two hundred) feet up. Its breathtaking , however could become treacherous if one were not careful. I didn't stop to get pictures and now I'm sorry I didn't, the hike is 1.5 around the top rim and it took us close to 2 hours because you can't go fast (its a lot of ups and downs, not a stright path, PLUS you have to keep your balance). Dean got one on his Droid of when we first got up there, I'll have to see about getting it and adding it for reference sake.
That was it for day 2's adventures. We did go out to dinner that night to this great BBQ place, forget the name off hand but there was a biker rally there that night, they were busy but the food was outstanding.
Wednesday morning it was time to pack up and head home. It was really hard to leave. I missed the kids but a big part of me wanted to just go get them and bring them back with uis and stay forever <3 this place was like heaven to us, we loved it. That last morning was the only morning on the entire trip that we saw deer, one was in our yard in the morning as we packed, and as we headed up to the cantwell cliffs for one last morning of hiking we stopped along one of the 2 lane highways as 2 mama's and 2 babies crossed our path...the pic didn't come out great, the sunlight prevented it so this was the best shot that could be gotten:
Cantwell cliffs was a ton of fun, we only hiked half of it, and I do have pics of that but again they were on dean's phone as we didn't take the backpack that morning.
I'll try and add that section of it later.
We can't wait to go back, probably in the spring but we are taking the kids with us, they are so excited! They loved seeing the pictures and while we have hiked with them, we have never done it to this extent. Some of the stuff won't be appropriate for the little's so we will need to figure that one out as well. Can't wait to go back though, Thanks again to my friend Jo for suggesting this place, it felt like paradise for the soul <3
By Saturday evening the kids had all been delivered to MIL and SIL's, and we headed home to hang out with friends for an hour or so, finish packing and get to bed to get ready for the trip. I slept a whopping 4.5 hours that night lol, I was excited to say the least.
Sunday morning we got up, finished packing and headed out around 9am to get gas, car wash and grab breakfast. We stopped at Denny's on th way out of town and saw our friends Jeff and Cassie (surprise!! lol). After that we headed south, and 4 hours later we arrived in Logan OH to find some very twisty country roads.
Our cabin was down off of one that was way off the beaten path, and the driveway alone was practically hidden and very steep. As a matter of fact we were so far out that we had no cell service, it was truly a *get away* in the very sense of the word.
This is where we stayed... (Ashby Cabins are quiet, cozy and very private).
(notice the indoor hot tub off the bedroom, this was some serious relaxation people!! lol).
We arrived at the cabin around 3pm, check in was not supposed to be until 4, but we decided to check it out anyway, thankfully it was all ready for us early so we went in to scope it out, then started unpacking right away. The cabin itself had everything we needed,...a fully stocked kitchen (cooking wise, we had to bring our own food and spices), a huge bathroom with shower/xl tub, towels etc, a LR with TV, dining area, and a master bedroom suite with another TV , closet and a room off that with the indoor hottub. One of the nice things was everything was labeled so it was easy to navigate everything. There was also this really cool guest book that all the previous guests in the last 2 years had signed. They had also started a game called the dollar game, in the cabin there were 3 dollar bills hidden and the book listed clues to where to find them written by the previous guests. We found #1 right away, and after about half an hour we found what we thought was #3...turned out after searching for #2 for over a day that we actually had found #2 according to the clues, once I realized this I found the actual #3 monday afternoon lol (my brain never really stopped trying to figure it out, my OCD was on a rampage rofl!).
Monday night after we unpacked and had checked things out a bit we headed out and got pizza and ice cream, 2 things I haven't eaten in weeks, omgosh it was good lol.
We came back watched some TV and went to bed. It was a king size bed, it was SUPER soft, I slept like a baby I'm not kidding. I woke up at 7am ready to get my day going LOL. Dean wasn't thrilled, but he got up too (I can't help it, I'm a very motivated person, especially when and where hiking is involved). We had our breakfast there and headed out to the first day of sight seeing and trail blazing.
First stop was Old Man's cave. Mainly because it was the closest to where we stayed (less than 10 minute drive, very close!!). At first we wore pants thinking the trails might be covered with brush, thankfully after we did the cave we headed back up and changed into shorts we had brought with us as it was nearing 85* already at 10am. Old Man's cave was really cool. The twists and turns of the rocks, the formations made by wind and water for centuries really made this place something special to witness. Sadly throughout this part of the state forest and other parts there were many places where visitors and tourists had carved their names into trees, rocks and fallen wood. While I appreciate others wanting to be a part of history, it really detracted from the natural beauty of it all. I really don't care that Joe was there on April 12th of 1998, thats nice but I don't want to see it Joe, how rude of you.
Onto the pics, here is the start of the cave...
shots of what it looks like heading down in...
the path we came down, and one of only a couple of actual cave holes you can travel through...
Trails,ridges and bridges of the cave:
more random pics...one is of the sphinx head at the bottom of the caves ravine, and in one just to the side of the sphinx's head you could see a skull etched into the rock, I believe it was naturally there as I don't see how anyone could get up there to carve that in there...
I took this pic trying to capture the light streaming down into the bottom of the cave, it turned out to be our favorite of the entire trip...beautiful huh?
According to the historical markers, there are approx 13 different species of ferns that grow in the caves, this was one of them, though it was cool, it was paper thin and grew like lace all over the rocks...no clue what its called:
the big rock at the bottom of the cave...we took pics of each other ;) talk about feeling small in the hands of God,...there were many opportunities during this trip to feel that way, hence the reason i personally loved it so much.
Next we hiked to Cedar Falls....sadly because it was the end of August the falls were more like a trickle, but the path to get there was rugged and a big challenge at times, we LOVED it. It was 2 miles there and 2 miles back no including old mans cave which was 1/2mile each way and we hiked it twice, so at the end of the day we had done a total of 5 miles. That indoor hottub was a huge plus by the end of this day...
the falls...
this guy was sitting up on a rock as we climbed out of the falls to find a bathroom...
The next day we ventured to the Rock house, and what we found was this massive rock house with a big cave covered by tons of greenery. The cave apparently has been visited for over a century as there were names carved into the rocks in many areas, again this bugged me a lot, until we saw a few that were dated back to the 1890's, it made me realize that this has been a tourist area for a really long time.
Later that afternoon we ventured to Conkles Hallow. Ask me where the pictures of that are? I'll tell you they aren't anywhere on *my* camera as I was pretty set on using my hands to hold onto anything I could so as not to perish lol! CH is this huge gorge that has a trail around the upper rim which is approx. 200 (yes thats two hundred) feet up. Its breathtaking , however could become treacherous if one were not careful. I didn't stop to get pictures and now I'm sorry I didn't, the hike is 1.5 around the top rim and it took us close to 2 hours because you can't go fast (its a lot of ups and downs, not a stright path, PLUS you have to keep your balance). Dean got one on his Droid of when we first got up there, I'll have to see about getting it and adding it for reference sake.
That was it for day 2's adventures. We did go out to dinner that night to this great BBQ place, forget the name off hand but there was a biker rally there that night, they were busy but the food was outstanding.
Wednesday morning it was time to pack up and head home. It was really hard to leave. I missed the kids but a big part of me wanted to just go get them and bring them back with uis and stay forever <3 this place was like heaven to us, we loved it. That last morning was the only morning on the entire trip that we saw deer, one was in our yard in the morning as we packed, and as we headed up to the cantwell cliffs for one last morning of hiking we stopped along one of the 2 lane highways as 2 mama's and 2 babies crossed our path...the pic didn't come out great, the sunlight prevented it so this was the best shot that could be gotten:
Cantwell cliffs was a ton of fun, we only hiked half of it, and I do have pics of that but again they were on dean's phone as we didn't take the backpack that morning.
I'll try and add that section of it later.
We can't wait to go back, probably in the spring but we are taking the kids with us, they are so excited! They loved seeing the pictures and while we have hiked with them, we have never done it to this extent. Some of the stuff won't be appropriate for the little's so we will need to figure that one out as well. Can't wait to go back though, Thanks again to my friend Jo for suggesting this place, it felt like paradise for the soul <3
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Its my blog and I'll GUSH if I want too!! :)
Quite simply put, I am seriously enamored with my youngest child.
She is , well words really can't describe honestly so here, have a looky and decide for yourself...
See what I mean?
She is , well words really can't describe honestly so here, have a looky and decide for yourself...
See what I mean?
*S* gang house hunters season 2 episode one, and...action!
Here.....we go......again.
LOL
No really I'm not down in the dumps, or upset, or even stressing about whats to come because honestly when its right it will happen I know that.
So we have 5 good prospects on homes, of which we will begin looking at again come wednesday of this week.
The first 2 up are North of here, so closer to family which is good. The trade off is higher taxes and less yard....do I care? not sure on that yet.
We still have touch ups needed here at this house as well, such as half the kitchen floor, but we are going to put forth extra effort to whip it out.
In the meantime, I'm thankful school begins soon as it will give me extra time in the afternoons to get some of those projects completed.
First up this week is carpet cleaning. Oh for the love of God children + carpet = disaster. They have needed it for awhile but I've put it off thinking we were moving, then we didn't....now we might. Forgetaboutit. I'm having them done, then if they are awful when we move, redone.
I'm excited, I have to say! I'm looking forward not only to more space and a fresh new start but also the fall weather in which to do it (or winter as it might take that long...who would have thought we could house hunt for a YEAR? Thats nuts!). It will be a year since this madness began come Dec, thats so hard to believe. It feels different this time, pressure is off. Granted we still have the one bathroom and that is seriously, not fun? lol Let's just say my new laundry room has made life livable, and laundry no longer a chore. Reminds me...pics, I know lol. In my defense I did just get my computer back so I have not even thought about my camera, and right now I have about 12 loads to put AWAY lol, so maybe I'll snag that camera once I get that done tomorrow?? :)
thats all for now as I have a princess sitting to my left who is having a serious meltdown because I won't take her to eat chinese tonight. Oh the drama lol. I would but I'm on the 24 day challenge right now so my diet is super strict. But that's another post for another time ;)
LOL
No really I'm not down in the dumps, or upset, or even stressing about whats to come because honestly when its right it will happen I know that.
So we have 5 good prospects on homes, of which we will begin looking at again come wednesday of this week.
The first 2 up are North of here, so closer to family which is good. The trade off is higher taxes and less yard....do I care? not sure on that yet.
We still have touch ups needed here at this house as well, such as half the kitchen floor, but we are going to put forth extra effort to whip it out.
In the meantime, I'm thankful school begins soon as it will give me extra time in the afternoons to get some of those projects completed.
First up this week is carpet cleaning. Oh for the love of God children + carpet = disaster. They have needed it for awhile but I've put it off thinking we were moving, then we didn't....now we might. Forgetaboutit. I'm having them done, then if they are awful when we move, redone.
I'm excited, I have to say! I'm looking forward not only to more space and a fresh new start but also the fall weather in which to do it (or winter as it might take that long...who would have thought we could house hunt for a YEAR? Thats nuts!). It will be a year since this madness began come Dec, thats so hard to believe. It feels different this time, pressure is off. Granted we still have the one bathroom and that is seriously, not fun? lol Let's just say my new laundry room has made life livable, and laundry no longer a chore. Reminds me...pics, I know lol. In my defense I did just get my computer back so I have not even thought about my camera, and right now I have about 12 loads to put AWAY lol, so maybe I'll snag that camera once I get that done tomorrow?? :)
thats all for now as I have a princess sitting to my left who is having a serious meltdown because I won't take her to eat chinese tonight. Oh the drama lol. I would but I'm on the 24 day challenge right now so my diet is super strict. But that's another post for another time ;)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
The end of summer approaches, and i'm reflective...
This has been what seems to me probably the shortest summer I can recall as an adult. Over the last few years (read probably like 10+ or so) summertime has presented itself as a time of challenge....how to keep the children occupied lol!
This summer has been so different, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe we have had more opportunities to enjoy activities? 5 of the kids took swim lessons this summer, 2 played baseball, we started kiddie bootcamps, I spent the first half of the summer in my own bootcamp, and also prepping for my first ever 5 mile marathon....we did a house addition, and did 3 other major house projects (2 of which still need a bit of finishing ;) ),....and still somehow managed to find time as a family to relax and just enjoy the weather.
A few of my kids got the chance to visit relatives, and will do so again in a few weeks when Dean and I take our first vacation away from the kids in like....ever lol. My 3 oldest girls got a chance to attend my cousins wedding in Valpo IN a few weeks ago, then spent 12 days afterward with my mom and step dad in IA. They had a blast but were sorely missed by mommy and daddy!! :) Nate also got a chance to go stay with his Nana for 2 nights along with his older cousin Catie up at Nana and Papa's cabin in central MI.
With all that said, this summer has literally flown by. I cannot recall ever a summer where we were quite so busy. In retrospect it was great....I wouldn't change a thing (other than maybe Dean being home a teensy bit more ;) ).
As I stood on my driveway a few mornings ago while Dean and I sipped our morning coffee, I felt summer making it's last stand. The seasons speak to me, and as funny as that seems its true. I can smell fall on the tip of the breeze now, as if it has a foot in the door just waiting for summer to finish it's final moment of glory and begin its journey away for 9 more months. It feels good, that feeling of life having been renewed, and the blessings of the harvest coming to a head. I love fall, thats no secret if you know me. While I used to loathe all other seasons, in the last few years I have actually come to love them almost as much, and find good things about each, especially since Lettie was born in the spring. I never appreciated spring before that other than the rain, but that was it. It was nothing more than a wet soggy (yet still cold lol) time of year. Now I so look forward to those fresh cool days where its almost warm enough to go without a jacket, and where you see the first signs of crocuses peeking out from the newly thawed ground.
Anyway, this post isn't about weather so much as its about seasons. I feel like I have finally come to peace with this season of my life. The past few years have brought many challenges, some of which I feared would break me because of how difficult they were, but this summer has taken a lot of those things and given me life perspective on them. I have come to terms (or am working on) with friendships, my job as mother, having 8 kids, where my future is leading me, losses and how to accept them, and finding joy regardless of what life throws my way. I wouldn't say I'm content, lol...I'm never content, I'm always searching to learn more, be better, love harder, see the beauty in simple things, be more thankful and trust God as much as humanly possible.
As the days grow shorter and the sun sets earlier, I'm reminded yet once again how truly blessed I am, and how amazing this journey called life continues to be.
This summer has been so different, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe we have had more opportunities to enjoy activities? 5 of the kids took swim lessons this summer, 2 played baseball, we started kiddie bootcamps, I spent the first half of the summer in my own bootcamp, and also prepping for my first ever 5 mile marathon....we did a house addition, and did 3 other major house projects (2 of which still need a bit of finishing ;) ),....and still somehow managed to find time as a family to relax and just enjoy the weather.
A few of my kids got the chance to visit relatives, and will do so again in a few weeks when Dean and I take our first vacation away from the kids in like....ever lol. My 3 oldest girls got a chance to attend my cousins wedding in Valpo IN a few weeks ago, then spent 12 days afterward with my mom and step dad in IA. They had a blast but were sorely missed by mommy and daddy!! :) Nate also got a chance to go stay with his Nana for 2 nights along with his older cousin Catie up at Nana and Papa's cabin in central MI.
With all that said, this summer has literally flown by. I cannot recall ever a summer where we were quite so busy. In retrospect it was great....I wouldn't change a thing (other than maybe Dean being home a teensy bit more ;) ).
As I stood on my driveway a few mornings ago while Dean and I sipped our morning coffee, I felt summer making it's last stand. The seasons speak to me, and as funny as that seems its true. I can smell fall on the tip of the breeze now, as if it has a foot in the door just waiting for summer to finish it's final moment of glory and begin its journey away for 9 more months. It feels good, that feeling of life having been renewed, and the blessings of the harvest coming to a head. I love fall, thats no secret if you know me. While I used to loathe all other seasons, in the last few years I have actually come to love them almost as much, and find good things about each, especially since Lettie was born in the spring. I never appreciated spring before that other than the rain, but that was it. It was nothing more than a wet soggy (yet still cold lol) time of year. Now I so look forward to those fresh cool days where its almost warm enough to go without a jacket, and where you see the first signs of crocuses peeking out from the newly thawed ground.
Anyway, this post isn't about weather so much as its about seasons. I feel like I have finally come to peace with this season of my life. The past few years have brought many challenges, some of which I feared would break me because of how difficult they were, but this summer has taken a lot of those things and given me life perspective on them. I have come to terms (or am working on) with friendships, my job as mother, having 8 kids, where my future is leading me, losses and how to accept them, and finding joy regardless of what life throws my way. I wouldn't say I'm content, lol...I'm never content, I'm always searching to learn more, be better, love harder, see the beauty in simple things, be more thankful and trust God as much as humanly possible.
As the days grow shorter and the sun sets earlier, I'm reminded yet once again how truly blessed I am, and how amazing this journey called life continues to be.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
bullets on a positive note.
Trying really hard to stay positive tonight, its been a really awful week full of my personal belongings, time and overall self being used, broken and invaded but never-the-less I’m trying to put the best foot forward and look for that tiny ray of sunshine in the midst of it all.
Here is my list style update, bullets of info about us this week.
1. My girls have been successfully delivered to IA as of Sunday evening. They will spend 10 days total with my mom, brother & wife and cousins until they return on the 2nd via a midnight train ( obligatory journey reference here ;) ). I miss them but am very happy that they are having such a great time out there. (and I wish I was with them, boo hoo!).
2. I am blogging right now for the first time on my brand new laptop. Just one of the expensive items my children sabotaged this week.
3. you would think with my girls being gone my house would be much quieter, but the truth is,…it isn’t. Boys make noise.period.
4. We are going to look at 2 houses tomorrow for fun…I say fun because while we qualify for another loan, I’m still not convinced that is where we are meant to head despite my own personal tiny house hell. Part of me had a serious mental flip out today even thinking about that drama again. I am still in house loan losers land and I don’t know when I will leave. Maybe after the new year when my plate look normal…yeah maybe then.
5. Only 32 days till Big Daddy and I leave for vaca ;) omgosh………………..I C.A.N.N.O.T. wait. I will miss Lettie……………………….. lol, the others, well I’ll miss them at the end of the four days ha! jk, I’ll miss them but this mama needs a break with my heart and soul. 4 beautiful long days to sleep, hike, sleep, eat, drink wine, relax in the indoor hottub in our cabin….sleep lol.
6. I just wanted to say how relieved I am that the oil spill has finally mostly been contained. I’ve been praying they would find a solution, it makes me SO sick to think of all that grime and slime in our waters :( so awful.
7. I keep forgetting to mention this, but I have made the switch back to being a carnivore. Originally I gave up meat (with fish as the exception) in order to be healthier, but I have found that I have a really tough time finding decent protein sources without it. Maybe I’m not educated enough?? I dunno…what I do know is that I personally cannot live on beans alone LOL and i don’t think anyone wants me too either haha!! No seriously while I consume mostly veggies, and we do eat fish or shellfish at least 2 x’s a week,…I will still eat red meat and especially lean chicken breast on occassion.
8. I finished boot camp only losing 2 lbs and 1 inch off my hips. I kind of got ticked when the trainer acted like he expected more??? and then tried to blame it on me missing a bunch of classes. I gave him a puzzled look because that was anything but the truth honestly…I missed 2 classes only, 1 of those was the night they played soccer (and i do NOT do soccer for a multitude of reasons) …that night I ran 2 miles, and the 2nd day I missed was the day I ran a 5 mile marathon??? yeah I’m a TOTAL SLACKER, whatever dude lol!
9. Speaking of workout my sil is in a biggest loser contest of which I had the privilege of joining last week for a 2 hour workout. Hoooooly smokes did my legs hurt the next day rofl! Must have been those bleacher step ups ;) love what they do for my bootie heh heh! I am going back friday night, I seriously can’t wait. THAT’S the kind of workout that will make me lose those pesky 10 lbs I want off this month. ;)
10. Ok…you heard it here first (well, maybe). I’m applying to Extreme home makeover. I have no expectations what so ever…matter of fact its been a huge mental battle just to make myself do it because I’m like ok why waste my time….not because i don’t think it can happen but because I know there are so many people out there that have bad situations. Bad as in way worse than mine….even though mine majorly stinks and it upsets me often, I just still consider myself blessed in many ways so, I dunno take that for what you will.
11. i’ve had a lot of time to spend with Dyl Pickle’s this week, man he is such a cool kid <3 we are addicted Zelda Twilight princess game (Wii)….way too much fun and way to much of a distraction for this already overly busy mama.
12. I freaking LOVE Ikea. I need to go there again soon but I don’t have a lot of money to spend so I’m a little scared too lol.
13. do you have any idea how much school supplies for 6 kids in school costs? geeeeeeeeeeezzzz.
14. I need to take some pics and post them and I think tomorrow is the perfect day to work on that. Dean is off this weekend, I think…first full 2 days off in, a month? :/ so glad he is too, i want to take the kids to the fair sunday. I <3 the county fair.
Thats all, I have itunes to download tonight, and I have to get up early and get my new Droid ordered….Thanks to my 2 yr old my 6 day old phone now needs replacing. My little Tiget has caused quite the stir here this week, he’s lucky he has mama wrapped around his finger ;)
15. oh and speaking of fingers…………the OTHER thing that happened was, stupid me I wore my GORGEOUS filigree diamond ring to IN this past weekend and sure and shootin, it fell off and I lost it. So much for getting it resized. Here is hoping this next week brings some better things into my path.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Something that I really hate...
Well 2 things actually.
1 is when people make a huge deal out of the size of my family. Granted...I know its not everyday in today's day and age that you see a young couple who has been married for nearly 17 years and has a very large family that shares the same mommy and daddy, I get that. What bothers me is the way people react when you tell them how many kids you have and make snide/rude comments, such as a few weeks ago while at a public function and it came out in conversation that I was a mom to 8 kids and someone nearby who didn't know me actually said out loud , and I kid you not... "WHY?!" with a puzzled look on their face. It's not so much the tone of voice as it was the question in general and the flippancy in regards to the fact of my children's lives. It might not have been meant as personal but it was taken as such. WHY I have 8 kids isn't really anyone's business to be honest, however if they or anyone must know ...we have eight kids because of the following reasons.
1. we believe they are blessings
2. we believe that life is sacred and beautiful
3. we fell in love with our first one and it snowballed from there
4. we prayed for God to tell us when we reached the number HE wanted for us
5. we tried to use NFP and we sucked at it
6. kids are amazing and if time/money/energy were of no consequence, we would have kept going
7. overpopulation is a lie
8. somedays I don't believe any of the above 7 bulleted items, but I love them and cherish each of them none the less and believe that regardless of how I feel they were meant to be here.
The 2nd thing that seriously irritates me is when people feel the need to remind me that I CHOOSE to have a large family.
Ex: JP's preschool teacher who reminded me that I should have thought about having a large family before I actually did it (in reference to me telling her I would not be able to participate in PRESCHOOL activities on a regular basis like they were asking me too because ....i have 7 other kids, several of which are older and involved in more important things than PRESCHOOL activities, 1 of which has major special needs, another which has ADHD and requires constant school contact, 1 of which at the time was a nursing newborn, another of which was a homeschooled teenager, also my husband works anywhere from 60-90 hours per week and I literally do it all on my own. Yeah, as you can see I don't sit in my lounge chair and read books all day.)
This morning was another example. The city in which I live in allows only 3 cans of trash each week per house. When i called to ask them to give us ONE extra can I was told the only option I have is to BUY bag tags to the tune of $1.50 each extra and attach them to each extra bag we have. The best part is, I have to try and find the time to drive to city hall, park my min church bus, pay the marking meter and go purchase these tags. I told her it wasn't so much the extra $ but the fact that they make it seriously inconvenient to get them. I asked if there was someway they could just bill me LOL CC, payment in advance or whatever via the phone and was told no, this is the only way. I said that's ridiculous that this is what my tax $ as a homeowner gets me and to that she replied "well it was your choice to have a large family"
huh, nice. Prime example # 2 of why I hate dealing with people in general. The ignorance just screams at me through a comment like this. I could write a book on the stupid comments I hear all the time over the life we live.
In defense against my hatred lol, I will say that on occasion I meet someone who has nothing but sweet kind loving words of awe and or thankfulness over the sacrifice Dean and I (and other families like us) make to raise a large group of children. God forbid we actually populate the earth with good , beautiful well rounded loving citizens who will grow up to pay the idiots above social security, but ya know....that was MY CHOICE to contribute to their future retirement/benefits. How dare I?! :P
1 is when people make a huge deal out of the size of my family. Granted...I know its not everyday in today's day and age that you see a young couple who has been married for nearly 17 years and has a very large family that shares the same mommy and daddy, I get that. What bothers me is the way people react when you tell them how many kids you have and make snide/rude comments, such as a few weeks ago while at a public function and it came out in conversation that I was a mom to 8 kids and someone nearby who didn't know me actually said out loud , and I kid you not... "WHY?!" with a puzzled look on their face. It's not so much the tone of voice as it was the question in general and the flippancy in regards to the fact of my children's lives. It might not have been meant as personal but it was taken as such. WHY I have 8 kids isn't really anyone's business to be honest, however if they or anyone must know ...we have eight kids because of the following reasons.
1. we believe they are blessings
2. we believe that life is sacred and beautiful
3. we fell in love with our first one and it snowballed from there
4. we prayed for God to tell us when we reached the number HE wanted for us
5. we tried to use NFP and we sucked at it
6. kids are amazing and if time/money/energy were of no consequence, we would have kept going
7. overpopulation is a lie
8. somedays I don't believe any of the above 7 bulleted items, but I love them and cherish each of them none the less and believe that regardless of how I feel they were meant to be here.
The 2nd thing that seriously irritates me is when people feel the need to remind me that I CHOOSE to have a large family.
Ex: JP's preschool teacher who reminded me that I should have thought about having a large family before I actually did it (in reference to me telling her I would not be able to participate in PRESCHOOL activities on a regular basis like they were asking me too because ....i have 7 other kids, several of which are older and involved in more important things than PRESCHOOL activities, 1 of which has major special needs, another which has ADHD and requires constant school contact, 1 of which at the time was a nursing newborn, another of which was a homeschooled teenager, also my husband works anywhere from 60-90 hours per week and I literally do it all on my own. Yeah, as you can see I don't sit in my lounge chair and read books all day.)
This morning was another example. The city in which I live in allows only 3 cans of trash each week per house. When i called to ask them to give us ONE extra can I was told the only option I have is to BUY bag tags to the tune of $1.50 each extra and attach them to each extra bag we have. The best part is, I have to try and find the time to drive to city hall, park my min church bus, pay the marking meter and go purchase these tags. I told her it wasn't so much the extra $ but the fact that they make it seriously inconvenient to get them. I asked if there was someway they could just bill me LOL CC, payment in advance or whatever via the phone and was told no, this is the only way. I said that's ridiculous that this is what my tax $ as a homeowner gets me and to that she replied "well it was your choice to have a large family"
huh, nice. Prime example # 2 of why I hate dealing with people in general. The ignorance just screams at me through a comment like this. I could write a book on the stupid comments I hear all the time over the life we live.
In defense against my hatred lol, I will say that on occasion I meet someone who has nothing but sweet kind loving words of awe and or thankfulness over the sacrifice Dean and I (and other families like us) make to raise a large group of children. God forbid we actually populate the earth with good , beautiful well rounded loving citizens who will grow up to pay the idiots above social security, but ya know....that was MY CHOICE to contribute to their future retirement/benefits. How dare I?! :P
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Oh how i've missed you dear cloth diapers.
Yes , its true,...I have a full blown love relationship with cloth diapers. If you've never been down that road it's hard to explain but here is how I fell onto this road. While pg with my 5th child I started researching them, and by the time I was pregnant with my 6th child (just 16 months later lol) I realized I wanted to give it a shot.
It officially began when I went for my post partum check up after #6 and held a brand new fuzzi bunz that my midwife had in her office. I instantly fell in love and realized that nothing would ever been good enough to put on my babies bums except this gorgeous soft piece of fluff i was holding in my greedy little hands.
Don't get me wrong, i've had my time (or two) going back to sposies, even though I totally despise them....the smell, the paper-ness of them in general, the look, the chemicals that I KNOW are lurking deep inside them, etc. However each time I do is purely out of necessity versus wanting. the last 6 months have been a huge example of that. In the midst of the house hunt/house loss/laundry room redo and only having 1 W/D set, well lets just say that I had no other choice than to stop using them exclusively for a time (and for awhile wasn't using them at all).
However as of this week I am happy to report that outside of the random sposie my teenager or dh manages to sneak in LOL, we are now back in our fluff full time, yay!! :)
Here is a pic of Scarlett in the cutest scrappy skirty made by my dear friend Holly of handmadebymama. Holly makes the CUTEST stuff, Scarlett only wears her wollies lol and from you pic you can see why (as if she could get any cuter?! LOL).
In the meantime, provided my PC cooperates I'll probably have some pics of the new room and the kitchen (in progress) here in the next day or so :) I spoke with a really good financial advisor today about our sitch and he agreed with what we have known this whole time as well so it looks like God's going to have to pull a big one out to solve our housing issue lol. I know he can do it, I just hope I remain faithful waiting on him in the process.
In the meantime I'm trying really hard not to spend any $ on the goodmama cuteness (my fav's! <3 ). I did buy 1 new one this week, mainly because there was a FB contest to name said diaper and I suggested a name and the name I suggested got choosen, too cool! I had to have it after that rofl! ;)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Summer Day ~ a poem by Cessalie
Summer Days are osome (awesome) because no of no school.
And no homework to do.
Summer lasts for sixtie days because june and july are 31 days, so 30+30=60 and 1+1=2 so it's 62 days of summer.
Vacation is going to be osome, so osome.
(** note from me.... going to try really hard to post more stuff like this, esp kids art pics, you won't believe some of the things my kids make. Nate recently constructed the flim-sim-de-fur from Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, and Susie was recently told her artwork is college level, no joke.)
And no homework to do.
Summer lasts for sixtie days because june and july are 31 days, so 30+30=60 and 1+1=2 so it's 62 days of summer.
Vacation is going to be osome, so osome.
(** note from me.... going to try really hard to post more stuff like this, esp kids art pics, you won't believe some of the things my kids make. Nate recently constructed the flim-sim-de-fur from Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, and Susie was recently told her artwork is college level, no joke.)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Decisions, decisions.
I probably ought not post this, as my thinking is my hubby will kill me for even saying it out loud LOL!
I can't help it though, i am so confused as to what we should do and would like some opinions, so here is your chance to share what you think (within reason of course lol ;) )
As you know we are no longer house hunting. 8 weeks ago that came to an abrupt halt when we found out there were stipulations to the loan we were getting which basically made it impossible to obtain at the time. We have since found out that we can still get said loan, however we have to spend a certain amount of $ (for 1) and 2 we have to wait until August. The first part is no problem as we would need to spend at least that to get the size house we need anyway thats in decent shape (able to pass VA basically) however the waiting until August part not so much.
For one we had already decided to add on a laundry room here and have spent every last penny we had in savings (minus a very small emergency fund amt) to get that accomplished. It will by far make this house more livable and easier to sell if and when that need ever arises. the problem is that while this address's one of the issues, it does not address the other 2 major issues.
Those 2 major issues are this....we need another bedroom AND another bathroom in order to live here long term. As it stands right now I have the 4 little kids in one of the big bedrooms together. This would be no big deal if they were all the same gender, however they are not. Right now seeing as the oldest is 6...we have maybe 2 years before this is a problem. The second issue, while major is slightly minor in the fact that we have only 1 bathroom for 10 people. I would go into why this is a major PITB but I'm guessing its fairly obvious right now? LOL!!
In short....we need these 2 things (minimum) OR....we need a bigger/different house.
I honestly could not tell you what we are supposed to do at this point. This has been a huge source of stress for Dean and I over the last 2 years as we have tried to figure out what to do.
Our options are buy a second house and move (like we had planned) OR, add onto this one. So far adding onto this one (which is my first choice because we would not have to move, nor would we have to take on a second mortgage. This is ideal in many many ways above the first option. While I'd like to sit here and only focus on the *positives* I can't tell you that there are any at this point. Not because I refuse to find them or I'm not looking but because there really are NOT any. We would love to stay here and add on but its impossible at this point because the banks we have spoken with refuse to loan any $ on home improvements right now thanks to values having dropped. This puts our family in a huge predicament. I spoke with one of those mortage payment lowering people on the phone yesterday and I told her what Dean's income was and she was like yeah....you don't qualify. I said ya know what, I get that but what i don't get is why family size isn't counted?? Lets face it, my hubby makes great money but we have way more expenses than the average family (namely groceries!). Anyways, before I get on THAT soap box LOL, it puts us to high to be helped and too low to be able to pay out of pocket for an addition (unless I save for like 5 or 6 years...and that's not going to cut it I'm afraid).
So in essence we are really baffled which direction to go in right now. I'm at peace with staying here for now, as is Dean but that peace is not long lived, especially with fall/winter approaching in 3 more months. I can't even tell you how cramped this house is with all my kids locked up in the house during the winter. It's maddening. I'd love to sit here and tell you that i smile through all of it but I refuse to act like everything is *ok* in order to keep face with people, kwim? i try really hard not to discuss our problems, as I know they pale in comparison to many others, however this is a big one for us right now. I don't know what to do, but feel the need to head in some sort of direction one way or the other.
Do we stay here and try to save the $ to add on? (this one is laughable honestly)
Do we buy a 2nd house and risk a little for a possible long term financial benefit, or on the flip side possible financial ruin??
option 3...is there one? LOL
I'd love to hear suggestions...i'm out of ideas.
I can't help it though, i am so confused as to what we should do and would like some opinions, so here is your chance to share what you think (within reason of course lol ;) )
As you know we are no longer house hunting. 8 weeks ago that came to an abrupt halt when we found out there were stipulations to the loan we were getting which basically made it impossible to obtain at the time. We have since found out that we can still get said loan, however we have to spend a certain amount of $ (for 1) and 2 we have to wait until August. The first part is no problem as we would need to spend at least that to get the size house we need anyway thats in decent shape (able to pass VA basically) however the waiting until August part not so much.
For one we had already decided to add on a laundry room here and have spent every last penny we had in savings (minus a very small emergency fund amt) to get that accomplished. It will by far make this house more livable and easier to sell if and when that need ever arises. the problem is that while this address's one of the issues, it does not address the other 2 major issues.
Those 2 major issues are this....we need another bedroom AND another bathroom in order to live here long term. As it stands right now I have the 4 little kids in one of the big bedrooms together. This would be no big deal if they were all the same gender, however they are not. Right now seeing as the oldest is 6...we have maybe 2 years before this is a problem. The second issue, while major is slightly minor in the fact that we have only 1 bathroom for 10 people. I would go into why this is a major PITB but I'm guessing its fairly obvious right now? LOL!!
In short....we need these 2 things (minimum) OR....we need a bigger/different house.
I honestly could not tell you what we are supposed to do at this point. This has been a huge source of stress for Dean and I over the last 2 years as we have tried to figure out what to do.
Our options are buy a second house and move (like we had planned) OR, add onto this one. So far adding onto this one (which is my first choice because we would not have to move, nor would we have to take on a second mortgage. This is ideal in many many ways above the first option. While I'd like to sit here and only focus on the *positives* I can't tell you that there are any at this point. Not because I refuse to find them or I'm not looking but because there really are NOT any. We would love to stay here and add on but its impossible at this point because the banks we have spoken with refuse to loan any $ on home improvements right now thanks to values having dropped. This puts our family in a huge predicament. I spoke with one of those mortage payment lowering people on the phone yesterday and I told her what Dean's income was and she was like yeah....you don't qualify. I said ya know what, I get that but what i don't get is why family size isn't counted?? Lets face it, my hubby makes great money but we have way more expenses than the average family (namely groceries!). Anyways, before I get on THAT soap box LOL, it puts us to high to be helped and too low to be able to pay out of pocket for an addition (unless I save for like 5 or 6 years...and that's not going to cut it I'm afraid).
So in essence we are really baffled which direction to go in right now. I'm at peace with staying here for now, as is Dean but that peace is not long lived, especially with fall/winter approaching in 3 more months. I can't even tell you how cramped this house is with all my kids locked up in the house during the winter. It's maddening. I'd love to sit here and tell you that i smile through all of it but I refuse to act like everything is *ok* in order to keep face with people, kwim? i try really hard not to discuss our problems, as I know they pale in comparison to many others, however this is a big one for us right now. I don't know what to do, but feel the need to head in some sort of direction one way or the other.
Do we stay here and try to save the $ to add on? (this one is laughable honestly)
Do we buy a 2nd house and risk a little for a possible long term financial benefit, or on the flip side possible financial ruin??
option 3...is there one? LOL
I'd love to hear suggestions...i'm out of ideas.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
random list update....
1. I LOVE mornings, I swear I have 10x's the energy before noon than after lol.
2. its HOT out, but thankfully we have been swimming a lot so thats good.
3. went to zoo yesterday alone with 8 kids, what was I thinking?
4. did i mention yet that Lettie is walking? its so cute, omgosh is it ever cute.
5. her hair is down to the middle of her back and she is only 14 months old....no lie.
6. I love bootcamp. the first week kicked my UU and this week I'm noticing huge differences.
7. my kids broke my scale and I doubt i'll be buying a new one.
8. Nate is really really good at baseball, and so is JP. We discovered last week that JP can actually hit a pitched ball versus just the T stand, he's such an amazing little guy!
9. if my kids fight over their go-go crazy bones one more time i'm going to kidnap them all and hold them for chore ransom.
10. Dean is nearly done with my laundry room <3 I seriously do not deserve my amazing hubby.
11. Susie is enrolled in MHS for next year, no more homeschool. When i took her in for reg. they were seriously blown away at her drawings. She was recently told too that her stuff is college level ability. I need to post pics of her stuff.
12. reminds me I have a TON of pics to post,...yeah same old time story inserted here lol
13. I think I've finally realized that having a best friend is over rated and I'm pretty sure I'll never entertain the idea ever again.
14. my van needs a tune up BAD.
15. next saturday is my first marathon, I'm really excited. This bootcamp has def gotten me into shape for it. Dylan is running it too, he is getting really fast....totally faster than me lol, but thats ok because he has cross country in the fall ;)
Thats all I have time for, class starts in 45 and I have kids to get ready for the day.
2. its HOT out, but thankfully we have been swimming a lot so thats good.
3. went to zoo yesterday alone with 8 kids, what was I thinking?
4. did i mention yet that Lettie is walking? its so cute, omgosh is it ever cute.
5. her hair is down to the middle of her back and she is only 14 months old....no lie.
6. I love bootcamp. the first week kicked my UU and this week I'm noticing huge differences.
7. my kids broke my scale and I doubt i'll be buying a new one.
8. Nate is really really good at baseball, and so is JP. We discovered last week that JP can actually hit a pitched ball versus just the T stand, he's such an amazing little guy!
9. if my kids fight over their go-go crazy bones one more time i'm going to kidnap them all and hold them for chore ransom.
10. Dean is nearly done with my laundry room <3 I seriously do not deserve my amazing hubby.
11. Susie is enrolled in MHS for next year, no more homeschool. When i took her in for reg. they were seriously blown away at her drawings. She was recently told too that her stuff is college level ability. I need to post pics of her stuff.
12. reminds me I have a TON of pics to post,...yeah same old time story inserted here lol
13. I think I've finally realized that having a best friend is over rated and I'm pretty sure I'll never entertain the idea ever again.
14. my van needs a tune up BAD.
15. next saturday is my first marathon, I'm really excited. This bootcamp has def gotten me into shape for it. Dylan is running it too, he is getting really fast....totally faster than me lol, but thats ok because he has cross country in the fall ;)
Thats all I have time for, class starts in 45 and I have kids to get ready for the day.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Are we done yet?
The answer to that is a big fat NOOOO. :/
Gosh I hate being this busy,...I seriously need to finish this madness called summertime projects and call it good.
The kids are done with school as of Wed. It was a half day and thats it for the year. Part of me is happy with this, part of me not so much. The happy part is less running around, more time together as a family, the not so fun part is I didn't get my projects completed and so I have to figure out how to do those on top of keeping everyone happy/occupied/safe etc.
The laundry room is about 70% of the way done. The roof took an extra week because right as Dean was pulling the old boards off to replace this horrible storm hit with what I would describe as jungle rain (not exaggerating either! lol). I ran outside to help throw tarps on everything and we did get several roof leaks which meant back out into the rain to adjust the tarps and re-nail them. When it was all said and done it looked like I had been thrown in a lake, not an inch of me was dry (same for everyone else too). Anyways the rain has been pretty consistent in the last 2 weeks so it wasn't until last weekend he finished it on saturday just before a really bad storm hit our area saturday night. There were tornadoes in our area, one hit the town of Dundee and did quite a bit of damage and hurt several people. Our town got hit in certain places...our neighborhood got pummeled pretty bad....trees were twisted and snapped off, branches covered the ground, 2 cars were totaled, downed power lines everywhere. We lost power for about 18 hours, of course I did just grocery shop friday afternoon, figures. Thankfully it wasn't long enough to harm anything and we kept the freezers shut. My big tree out back stood tall and strong though, that mighty maple has lost but 1 branch in the 5 years we have been here and we have had many storms like this in the past. It's odd yet comforting as well seeing as if it did go down half my house would be gone. The tree diameter is probably about 3-4 feet no joke. It's probably been here almost as long as the house has been.
In other news I started body bootcamp. I'm sore everywhere but I know that means its doing what I hoped it would so its all good lol.
Sadie turned 6 yesterday. So hard to believe.
I have pictures to update with but they will have to wait until I have a moment (read get above named projects done).
Nate and JP are in baseball right now, so that on top of BC, zoo teens, and the projects well yeah you get the picture. So sick of being this busy.................
Gosh I hate being this busy,...I seriously need to finish this madness called summertime projects and call it good.
The kids are done with school as of Wed. It was a half day and thats it for the year. Part of me is happy with this, part of me not so much. The happy part is less running around, more time together as a family, the not so fun part is I didn't get my projects completed and so I have to figure out how to do those on top of keeping everyone happy/occupied/safe etc.
The laundry room is about 70% of the way done. The roof took an extra week because right as Dean was pulling the old boards off to replace this horrible storm hit with what I would describe as jungle rain (not exaggerating either! lol). I ran outside to help throw tarps on everything and we did get several roof leaks which meant back out into the rain to adjust the tarps and re-nail them. When it was all said and done it looked like I had been thrown in a lake, not an inch of me was dry (same for everyone else too). Anyways the rain has been pretty consistent in the last 2 weeks so it wasn't until last weekend he finished it on saturday just before a really bad storm hit our area saturday night. There were tornadoes in our area, one hit the town of Dundee and did quite a bit of damage and hurt several people. Our town got hit in certain places...our neighborhood got pummeled pretty bad....trees were twisted and snapped off, branches covered the ground, 2 cars were totaled, downed power lines everywhere. We lost power for about 18 hours, of course I did just grocery shop friday afternoon, figures. Thankfully it wasn't long enough to harm anything and we kept the freezers shut. My big tree out back stood tall and strong though, that mighty maple has lost but 1 branch in the 5 years we have been here and we have had many storms like this in the past. It's odd yet comforting as well seeing as if it did go down half my house would be gone. The tree diameter is probably about 3-4 feet no joke. It's probably been here almost as long as the house has been.
In other news I started body bootcamp. I'm sore everywhere but I know that means its doing what I hoped it would so its all good lol.
Sadie turned 6 yesterday. So hard to believe.
I have pictures to update with but they will have to wait until I have a moment (read get above named projects done).
Nate and JP are in baseball right now, so that on top of BC, zoo teens, and the projects well yeah you get the picture. So sick of being this busy.................
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I should be sleeping rambler.
It's 4:41 am as i begin this post.
This weekend was crazy busy. We started the new laundry room, it is about 60% of the way there at this point and would have been more like 75 had the rain not come today when it did.
Dean has to head back to work today so it remains unfinished, sadly. The roof, siding and interior are still left, but we have walls windows and a door!! :)
Note to self....self, if you ever plan another major home improvement in your lifetime, let's keep a few reality checks in mind.
First...things do not go as smoothly IRL as they do on HGTV, nor do they go as quickly.
2. Always always plan and budget about 20% more than you originally shoot for, as things crop up that you didn't expect frequently.
3. Never ever order pizza again for dinner...its why your awake right now thanks to that high gluten flour, um yeah.
Speaking of, before this whole weekend shenanigan took place I was on a roll with trying to figure out some stuff in terms of helping Dylan. I should post *over there* in i heart Dyl pickle blog-land but no time for that at 4 am I suppose. Anyway i read Jenny McCarthy's book about her and her sons journey and I was really inspired to do more for Dyl. Not that we don't already do a lot...we do but I definitely have felt for a long time he was not getting the social skills/training he needed. The PS is of no help, lets face it. I have turned to some outside webrings of other parents of asperger's kids and have found a new hopeful avenues to pursue. Now...to just work that into my already hectic schedule. I won't go there right now........ LOL.
I'm exhausted from these house renovations, and I'm ready for this crap to hit the road, seriously!! I have 2 major , no wait 3 to finish... 1 is painting the house trim, 2 is the gutters (more on that in a moment), 3 is painting the boys room (it is primed and ready though!). I also have window treatments to get and hang for 3 or 4 more rooms but then i'll be finished so thats good. I'm hoping to get most of this done this week as summe break begins in 6 more school days. I'm actually looking forward to this summer with my kids hanging out and having fun. The last 2 summers were not like this for me so its a good refreshing pace of mind if nothing else.
Gutters...ok so 18 months ago when my dh cleaned out our gutters (we have XL trees in our yard that dump a TON and I mean 10 MILLION tons of those stupid helicopter seeds everywhere) for the 3rd time since we bought this house, he begged me to consider gutter guards. Seeing as we pay for pretty much everything with cash (or we don't get it!!) we were running low that summer and I said *no*. Well let me just tell you, i got the pleasure of getting up on a ladder today and cleaning out 2 20 ft sections of this stuff and oh GAG-OH-RIFICAL stench from hell! *puke* It was seriously one of the most vile things i've ever smelled on the planet no joke. Well now I feel obligated to at least do most of it myself, including installing the guards so we won't have to do this anymore. So sorry Dino...should have listened to ya lol.
With that said, I think its time to head back to bed and try and sleep...if not I'll probably go put on my gym clothes and go workout. I only got 1 day in this week thanks to the projects needing to get done. Thats ok as i have a bootcamp coming up in another week , hoping to see those last few results i want come to fruition soon.
Next weekend begin baseball season games, tball, more family visits, end of school, bootcamp and swim lessons for a couple of the kids, its gonna be a fun summer :) and i think I'm finally tired........
This weekend was crazy busy. We started the new laundry room, it is about 60% of the way there at this point and would have been more like 75 had the rain not come today when it did.
Dean has to head back to work today so it remains unfinished, sadly. The roof, siding and interior are still left, but we have walls windows and a door!! :)
Note to self....self, if you ever plan another major home improvement in your lifetime, let's keep a few reality checks in mind.
First...things do not go as smoothly IRL as they do on HGTV, nor do they go as quickly.
2. Always always plan and budget about 20% more than you originally shoot for, as things crop up that you didn't expect frequently.
3. Never ever order pizza again for dinner...its why your awake right now thanks to that high gluten flour, um yeah.
Speaking of, before this whole weekend shenanigan took place I was on a roll with trying to figure out some stuff in terms of helping Dylan. I should post *over there* in i heart Dyl pickle blog-land but no time for that at 4 am I suppose. Anyway i read Jenny McCarthy's book about her and her sons journey and I was really inspired to do more for Dyl. Not that we don't already do a lot...we do but I definitely have felt for a long time he was not getting the social skills/training he needed. The PS is of no help, lets face it. I have turned to some outside webrings of other parents of asperger's kids and have found a new hopeful avenues to pursue. Now...to just work that into my already hectic schedule. I won't go there right now........ LOL.
I'm exhausted from these house renovations, and I'm ready for this crap to hit the road, seriously!! I have 2 major , no wait 3 to finish... 1 is painting the house trim, 2 is the gutters (more on that in a moment), 3 is painting the boys room (it is primed and ready though!). I also have window treatments to get and hang for 3 or 4 more rooms but then i'll be finished so thats good. I'm hoping to get most of this done this week as summe break begins in 6 more school days. I'm actually looking forward to this summer with my kids hanging out and having fun. The last 2 summers were not like this for me so its a good refreshing pace of mind if nothing else.
Gutters...ok so 18 months ago when my dh cleaned out our gutters (we have XL trees in our yard that dump a TON and I mean 10 MILLION tons of those stupid helicopter seeds everywhere) for the 3rd time since we bought this house, he begged me to consider gutter guards. Seeing as we pay for pretty much everything with cash (or we don't get it!!) we were running low that summer and I said *no*. Well let me just tell you, i got the pleasure of getting up on a ladder today and cleaning out 2 20 ft sections of this stuff and oh GAG-OH-RIFICAL stench from hell! *puke* It was seriously one of the most vile things i've ever smelled on the planet no joke. Well now I feel obligated to at least do most of it myself, including installing the guards so we won't have to do this anymore. So sorry Dino...should have listened to ya lol.
With that said, I think its time to head back to bed and try and sleep...if not I'll probably go put on my gym clothes and go workout. I only got 1 day in this week thanks to the projects needing to get done. Thats ok as i have a bootcamp coming up in another week , hoping to see those last few results i want come to fruition soon.
Next weekend begin baseball season games, tball, more family visits, end of school, bootcamp and swim lessons for a couple of the kids, its gonna be a fun summer :) and i think I'm finally tired........
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Getting there one step at a time.
The landscape out in front of the house is nearly done...simply awaiting the tree i bought to be put in and mulch to be added then thats done.
I have window trim left to paint still, lots of it and most of it is the high up stuff, but it has rained so much the last 2 weeks I have hardly had a day where i could tackle it.
The kids rooms are on their way as well, we still have 2 rooms to paint, and i am hitting ikea for the boys this week to score some new bedding for them to prep up their new space now that we got them some new bunkbeds (new to us that is ;) ).
The plumbing on my laundry room might get done tomorrow, not sure yet...and weekend after this the whole thing will get finished by Dean and his dad. That weekend is going to be hell in a lot of ways, I might need to get out of here and go find tings for me and the kids that do not require daddy time...they always act up when Daddy has not been around a ton, not their fault of course but I dread those times because its hard on them. Either way that room HAS to get done...we can't start on the kitchen until thats done and I NEED my kitchen done in the next year come hell or high water.
I'm going through a phase right now lol, not really wanting to delve into it as its kind of private but in retrospect the last year (nearly 2) of my life have brought on some really difficult challenges that I feel I've only faced halfheartedly. Anyways my biggest issue with myself right now is losing these last few lbs by summertime. I've worked my UU off to get them off and they are still coming off but its slower than I would like lol, so i think i'm enlisting in a bootcamp in June through the gym. It's only 3 days a week and i figure if i do that and run one other day it ought to push me over the edge to get the last 10-15 lbs off. My upper body actually looks pretty darn good LOL, its my lower half I struggle with and always have all my life. I actually got a size 9/10 jeans on this past week....this is momentous for me as I wasn't even that small when i lost between baby's #4 and 5. (i got down to a size 12 then I believe). Also I have a TON more muscle this time around so the scale has been difficult to understand...I weigh more but am smaller because of the muscle, but you have to build muscle to burn fat...the bigger the muscles, the more fat you burn which is why i don't weight lift like a sissy LOL. I lift as heavy as I can handle and increase whenever I need too versus endless reps on lower weights. You can do it that way, but I don't want a body that's super skinny with tiny muscles, I want muscles you can actually see and that give me better curves ;) (natural curves that is!). I'm also hoping to avoid the long anticipated tummy tuck. I've lost almost all the fat off my waist at this point, only a small portion remains so even if I did need to go there later I could probably go with a mini versus a full (let's face it...after having four , 10 lb babies there is a good chance that the skin might never go back to what it was).
All in all i'm happy with my results. I really need to take updated shots but I'm a total chicken lol...maybe next week, who knows. One day i'll just do them and post them, ha.
My time is now up now, hope everyone is having a good week despite this yuck weather. I can't wait for some real sunny days! :)
I have window trim left to paint still, lots of it and most of it is the high up stuff, but it has rained so much the last 2 weeks I have hardly had a day where i could tackle it.
The kids rooms are on their way as well, we still have 2 rooms to paint, and i am hitting ikea for the boys this week to score some new bedding for them to prep up their new space now that we got them some new bunkbeds (new to us that is ;) ).
The plumbing on my laundry room might get done tomorrow, not sure yet...and weekend after this the whole thing will get finished by Dean and his dad. That weekend is going to be hell in a lot of ways, I might need to get out of here and go find tings for me and the kids that do not require daddy time...they always act up when Daddy has not been around a ton, not their fault of course but I dread those times because its hard on them. Either way that room HAS to get done...we can't start on the kitchen until thats done and I NEED my kitchen done in the next year come hell or high water.
I'm going through a phase right now lol, not really wanting to delve into it as its kind of private but in retrospect the last year (nearly 2) of my life have brought on some really difficult challenges that I feel I've only faced halfheartedly. Anyways my biggest issue with myself right now is losing these last few lbs by summertime. I've worked my UU off to get them off and they are still coming off but its slower than I would like lol, so i think i'm enlisting in a bootcamp in June through the gym. It's only 3 days a week and i figure if i do that and run one other day it ought to push me over the edge to get the last 10-15 lbs off. My upper body actually looks pretty darn good LOL, its my lower half I struggle with and always have all my life. I actually got a size 9/10 jeans on this past week....this is momentous for me as I wasn't even that small when i lost between baby's #4 and 5. (i got down to a size 12 then I believe). Also I have a TON more muscle this time around so the scale has been difficult to understand...I weigh more but am smaller because of the muscle, but you have to build muscle to burn fat...the bigger the muscles, the more fat you burn which is why i don't weight lift like a sissy LOL. I lift as heavy as I can handle and increase whenever I need too versus endless reps on lower weights. You can do it that way, but I don't want a body that's super skinny with tiny muscles, I want muscles you can actually see and that give me better curves ;) (natural curves that is!). I'm also hoping to avoid the long anticipated tummy tuck. I've lost almost all the fat off my waist at this point, only a small portion remains so even if I did need to go there later I could probably go with a mini versus a full (let's face it...after having four , 10 lb babies there is a good chance that the skin might never go back to what it was).
All in all i'm happy with my results. I really need to take updated shots but I'm a total chicken lol...maybe next week, who knows. One day i'll just do them and post them, ha.
My time is now up now, hope everyone is having a good week despite this yuck weather. I can't wait for some real sunny days! :)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Your joking , right?!
You'll have to excuse any major typo errors in this post, my laptop is in serious need of a new keyboard thanks to my 2 youngest babes ;) ah gotta love toddlers that pick keys off your laptop.
Anyway, my bedtime is drawing near as we speak so I only have a few to get down what I have to say. I have recently made a commitment to making sure I go to bed nlt 10pm because staying up later is not conducive to workouts in the wee morning hours....and if I want to drop these last few lbs, something's gotta give, namely my staying up late.
So in a nutshell this week we recieved some news. Normally in light of the past 5 months this would be great news, however I find myself even more confused now than I have ever been in my life I think.
Our mortgage guy called yesterday to tell us that we are back on again for the loan approval, with one catch....we have to wait until August. I won't go into why except to say apparently you can bankrupt the govt. if you plan to spend a lot of $ upon gaining your next loan ;) true story...
So in light of this news as I said above confusion is without a doubt raining in this house like there is no tomorrow. We had resolved over the last 2 weeks (in between the weeping, heart wrenching and overall depressive nature of our life mind you) that we were staying in this house a minimum of 2-3 years in order to #1 pay down the loan and hopefully see a market rebound and B do some improvements to make the house more livable and better for resale down the line if that day ever came. This was of course after speaking with another bank loan officer who told us we can't even get a loan for putting on an addition...not because we don't qualify but because it would never appraise after the fact. You have no idea how bad it sucks to not only need a bigger house but to be able to actually afford having so much more only to be stopped at every angel. I guess you could say that we felt this was the *answer* we had been asking God for all along, as difficult as that was to swallow.
So much has gone throug my head over the last few weeks...the why's, the what next...even trying to figure out how to pay out of pocket for the extensive updates to this house and fixing our lives to gear up for that.
I even went to far as to realize that honestly...i wish we could stay here for a lot of reasons. I love our neighborhood. When we first moved here there were a few neighbors that were down right awful...they are now gone. We do have some rif raf in the general area but not directly on our block (and hello what city/street in the world doesn't kwim??). We have friends here, ...and while that is no substitute for family its still kind of reassuring. I know there are at least 2 dozen sets of eyes watching out for my kids on any given day here, that holds some level of comfort. Also, this house would be hard to walk away from from the sheer fact that 2 of my babies were born right here in the kitchen. granted...not really a reason to stay in a house too small (and lets face it this house is WAY too small for our gang), i guess it was just one of those things that crossed my mind while *making peace* wit staying here the last 3 weeks.
I must say that above all I'm just shaking my head trying to figure out what the heck is going on around here lol. We were adding on and staying...then we got approved and house hunted, losing 3 houses and countless hours of time before being told NOPE sorry, now your not. And now 3 weeks later after we have had 3 contractors out for mud room bids, and dropped over $500. on landscape for the front of the house (and its still not done LOl) we find out we can still get one in 3 months???
What am I missing here?!!!???????
I'm frustrated beyond belief with everything right now. I don't get it and I don't know that I care to get it, period. This is a walk of faith without a doubt because we are seriously in the dark and there are landmines at every turn. I am so over house hunting...no way I'll consider it come August I can tell you that right now....that would put us moving before xmas, um.................no,thankyouverymuch.
So with that said, we are moving ahead with making a mud/laundry room out back , the landscape is nearly done (waiting for the temp to come up before I buy my precious plants :) ), and if we have $ left after that we are fixing up the attic space for the big kids' new hang out. We also plan to buy bits and peices of the kitchen cabinets as we go along and eventually probably come feb or march of next year latest we will redo the kitchen. I CANNOT WAIT. We will also most likely put in a second bathroom off the mudroom as long as its possible (and I am pretty sure it is). THEN...we might see what the market is like and THEN sell this and move. I dunno, maybe lol.
I'm over it.
I haven't been online much at all lately because of all my spring projects. I have window trim still left to paint (again waiting on warmer weather) and one more coat on my door surround, then a trip to Ikea is in order with my enthusiastic SIL, can't wait!! My LR furniture will be picked up this weekend and then i can work on some indoor projects, it should all be done soon then we can relax and enjoy the summer with the kids. The littles are all taking swim lessons this year....and peanut turns 6, so hard to believe!!
Anyway, my bedtime is drawing near as we speak so I only have a few to get down what I have to say. I have recently made a commitment to making sure I go to bed nlt 10pm because staying up later is not conducive to workouts in the wee morning hours....and if I want to drop these last few lbs, something's gotta give, namely my staying up late.
So in a nutshell this week we recieved some news. Normally in light of the past 5 months this would be great news, however I find myself even more confused now than I have ever been in my life I think.
Our mortgage guy called yesterday to tell us that we are back on again for the loan approval, with one catch....we have to wait until August. I won't go into why except to say apparently you can bankrupt the govt. if you plan to spend a lot of $ upon gaining your next loan ;) true story...
So in light of this news as I said above confusion is without a doubt raining in this house like there is no tomorrow. We had resolved over the last 2 weeks (in between the weeping, heart wrenching and overall depressive nature of our life mind you) that we were staying in this house a minimum of 2-3 years in order to #1 pay down the loan and hopefully see a market rebound and B do some improvements to make the house more livable and better for resale down the line if that day ever came. This was of course after speaking with another bank loan officer who told us we can't even get a loan for putting on an addition...not because we don't qualify but because it would never appraise after the fact. You have no idea how bad it sucks to not only need a bigger house but to be able to actually afford having so much more only to be stopped at every angel. I guess you could say that we felt this was the *answer* we had been asking God for all along, as difficult as that was to swallow.
So much has gone throug my head over the last few weeks...the why's, the what next...even trying to figure out how to pay out of pocket for the extensive updates to this house and fixing our lives to gear up for that.
I even went to far as to realize that honestly...i wish we could stay here for a lot of reasons. I love our neighborhood. When we first moved here there were a few neighbors that were down right awful...they are now gone. We do have some rif raf in the general area but not directly on our block (and hello what city/street in the world doesn't kwim??). We have friends here, ...and while that is no substitute for family its still kind of reassuring. I know there are at least 2 dozen sets of eyes watching out for my kids on any given day here, that holds some level of comfort. Also, this house would be hard to walk away from from the sheer fact that 2 of my babies were born right here in the kitchen. granted...not really a reason to stay in a house too small (and lets face it this house is WAY too small for our gang), i guess it was just one of those things that crossed my mind while *making peace* wit staying here the last 3 weeks.
I must say that above all I'm just shaking my head trying to figure out what the heck is going on around here lol. We were adding on and staying...then we got approved and house hunted, losing 3 houses and countless hours of time before being told NOPE sorry, now your not. And now 3 weeks later after we have had 3 contractors out for mud room bids, and dropped over $500. on landscape for the front of the house (and its still not done LOl) we find out we can still get one in 3 months???
What am I missing here?!!!???????
I'm frustrated beyond belief with everything right now. I don't get it and I don't know that I care to get it, period. This is a walk of faith without a doubt because we are seriously in the dark and there are landmines at every turn. I am so over house hunting...no way I'll consider it come August I can tell you that right now....that would put us moving before xmas, um.................no,thankyouverymuch.
So with that said, we are moving ahead with making a mud/laundry room out back , the landscape is nearly done (waiting for the temp to come up before I buy my precious plants :) ), and if we have $ left after that we are fixing up the attic space for the big kids' new hang out. We also plan to buy bits and peices of the kitchen cabinets as we go along and eventually probably come feb or march of next year latest we will redo the kitchen. I CANNOT WAIT. We will also most likely put in a second bathroom off the mudroom as long as its possible (and I am pretty sure it is). THEN...we might see what the market is like and THEN sell this and move. I dunno, maybe lol.
I'm over it.
I haven't been online much at all lately because of all my spring projects. I have window trim still left to paint (again waiting on warmer weather) and one more coat on my door surround, then a trip to Ikea is in order with my enthusiastic SIL, can't wait!! My LR furniture will be picked up this weekend and then i can work on some indoor projects, it should all be done soon then we can relax and enjoy the summer with the kids. The littles are all taking swim lessons this year....and peanut turns 6, so hard to believe!!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Welcome rain.
So its been a few weeks since I have been able to post. Some of that is due to all I have had going on and some of it was not really wanting to perm. put it out there...
it would be ....we are not moving.
long story short, after making the offer on the house, paying for the inspection...and waiting the appraisal, we found out that Dean's VA cert is no longer any good thanks to early (read young) stupid financial mistakes in our 20's. There is nothing quite like reliving mistakes you made when you were young....ahhhhh LOL.
This was something unforseen by any of us during this journey, and while it stinks the hardest part was the 4.5 months we have spent living this whole thing out. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of stress that it put on our family. Maybe...that should have been my first clue, I dunno. I will say this though, living here in this tiny house with my troop was enough to push me through said stress for the bigger goal ahead. With that now said while i am really sad we are not moving (right now anyway) part of me is a bit relieved over not having to deal with it all right now. Dean is working an ungodly amount of hours right now thanks to the position he has been in for the last year (minimum of 65 hours a week for the most part) so while it sucks.........i'm ok with one less thing on my plate.
In the meantime, we HAVE to make this house more livable for crying out loud. I don't think i've ever dove into what we live in here too much so I'll try and paint the picture for you here. In a nut shell...we have a 4 bedroom house that is roughly 1450 sq ft. We have ONE....count it ONE bathroom. The bedroom sitch is very tight, 4 of the kids (currently the 4 girls) all share the master BR and then we have 2 boys in each of the other (we had the boys all in the bigger room at one point...yeah NOT good). My least fav part of this whole scenario is the fact that 1/4 of my huge kitchen is consumed by my laundry room. For the average family this would be a pain...for us? It's a major fat PITB daily. I am always working on laundry, it never ends, but having it right in my face in my kitchen? it doesn't get any worse than that. its so bad that many times we can't even sit together as a family at the table because there are clean folded clothes everywhere. I know it seems obvious to just put them away...however in my day sometimes thats not always possible.
Anyways, the point of this is, we live in a shoe (but i'm NOT old lol).
The good news is that we found out that we actually can still use my VA loan, we just have to get a few things lined up in order too, which could mean another 6-12 months. So for now we have to figure out how to make this house work. As of right now we have plans in the works to convert our covered porch into a laundry room (yes!!) and also to finish the attic area upstairs for a bonus room for the kids. This will give us an additional 300 sq ft so not only adding value to the house (for not a lot of $ i might add) but also will be a selling point eventually.
In the meantime, I've been busy doing a few other improvements to the house that *I* want. I am currently working on painting the trim on the outside of the house a new fresh color, and I just painted my door in a gorgeous deep (antigue) teal color yesterday. We went to Lowe's last night and bought a new Pella screen door and a new door mat and I finally splurged and bought some patio furniture that wasn't lawn chairs (ROFL!). These few little things alone have made a huge difference. It didn't add any space, but it makes the house more beautiful for sure. I also have the front flower bed to redo, I think I'm putting in hydrangea bushes and hostas, but first I have to buy dirt. Huh...dirt. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to spend my $ on DIRT?! lol!! O well...
In other news, the struggle with Dyl continues at school. I cannot begin to express my fears about him entering into MS next year. Out of all the things about not moving have meant for us in the past week, this one is the toughest for me. I had every intention of putting him into the autistic school in Garden city, and now that won't be happening. There is too much to say to put here, but the good news is I have opened a new blog for him that is directly attached to this one so it should be easier for me to actually post on it. If you would like to read, here ya go...
http://ilovedylpickles.blogspot.com/
I always have the best intentions of blogging then don't seem to find time. The night is usually best, but lately I'm either tired or know I have to get up early to workout that I skip it in favor of rest. I'm hoping that now that the moving sitch has been summed up i'll be able to find more time for it both here at on Dyl's. Today was the exception because its sat., Daddy is working and it's raining outside...thus giving me a chance to sit here for a little bit while the kids are enjoying TV and video games curled up in blanket masses on the couch :). I love the rain, and this morning it has hit the proverbial spot.
it would be ....we are not moving.
long story short, after making the offer on the house, paying for the inspection...and waiting the appraisal, we found out that Dean's VA cert is no longer any good thanks to early (read young) stupid financial mistakes in our 20's. There is nothing quite like reliving mistakes you made when you were young....ahhhhh LOL.
This was something unforseen by any of us during this journey, and while it stinks the hardest part was the 4.5 months we have spent living this whole thing out. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of stress that it put on our family. Maybe...that should have been my first clue, I dunno. I will say this though, living here in this tiny house with my troop was enough to push me through said stress for the bigger goal ahead. With that now said while i am really sad we are not moving (right now anyway) part of me is a bit relieved over not having to deal with it all right now. Dean is working an ungodly amount of hours right now thanks to the position he has been in for the last year (minimum of 65 hours a week for the most part) so while it sucks.........i'm ok with one less thing on my plate.
In the meantime, we HAVE to make this house more livable for crying out loud. I don't think i've ever dove into what we live in here too much so I'll try and paint the picture for you here. In a nut shell...we have a 4 bedroom house that is roughly 1450 sq ft. We have ONE....count it ONE bathroom. The bedroom sitch is very tight, 4 of the kids (currently the 4 girls) all share the master BR and then we have 2 boys in each of the other (we had the boys all in the bigger room at one point...yeah NOT good). My least fav part of this whole scenario is the fact that 1/4 of my huge kitchen is consumed by my laundry room. For the average family this would be a pain...for us? It's a major fat PITB daily. I am always working on laundry, it never ends, but having it right in my face in my kitchen? it doesn't get any worse than that. its so bad that many times we can't even sit together as a family at the table because there are clean folded clothes everywhere. I know it seems obvious to just put them away...however in my day sometimes thats not always possible.
Anyways, the point of this is, we live in a shoe (but i'm NOT old lol).
The good news is that we found out that we actually can still use my VA loan, we just have to get a few things lined up in order too, which could mean another 6-12 months. So for now we have to figure out how to make this house work. As of right now we have plans in the works to convert our covered porch into a laundry room (yes!!) and also to finish the attic area upstairs for a bonus room for the kids. This will give us an additional 300 sq ft so not only adding value to the house (for not a lot of $ i might add) but also will be a selling point eventually.
In the meantime, I've been busy doing a few other improvements to the house that *I* want. I am currently working on painting the trim on the outside of the house a new fresh color, and I just painted my door in a gorgeous deep (antigue) teal color yesterday. We went to Lowe's last night and bought a new Pella screen door and a new door mat and I finally splurged and bought some patio furniture that wasn't lawn chairs (ROFL!). These few little things alone have made a huge difference. It didn't add any space, but it makes the house more beautiful for sure. I also have the front flower bed to redo, I think I'm putting in hydrangea bushes and hostas, but first I have to buy dirt. Huh...dirt. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to spend my $ on DIRT?! lol!! O well...
In other news, the struggle with Dyl continues at school. I cannot begin to express my fears about him entering into MS next year. Out of all the things about not moving have meant for us in the past week, this one is the toughest for me. I had every intention of putting him into the autistic school in Garden city, and now that won't be happening. There is too much to say to put here, but the good news is I have opened a new blog for him that is directly attached to this one so it should be easier for me to actually post on it. If you would like to read, here ya go...
http://ilovedylpickles.blogspot.com/
I always have the best intentions of blogging then don't seem to find time. The night is usually best, but lately I'm either tired or know I have to get up early to workout that I skip it in favor of rest. I'm hoping that now that the moving sitch has been summed up i'll be able to find more time for it both here at on Dyl's. Today was the exception because its sat., Daddy is working and it's raining outside...thus giving me a chance to sit here for a little bit while the kids are enjoying TV and video games curled up in blanket masses on the couch :). I love the rain, and this morning it has hit the proverbial spot.
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