Monday, February 28, 2011

59/365

Today was nice... 
Once Jackson headed off to school the little kids and I layed in bed and snuggled while watching cartoons.  It was wonderful and something that we all seemed to need.  We really never lay around in bed.  Once we are up we are usually up, but today Tyler wanted to snuggle under the covers and so we did.  It was nice.
After the crazy weekend we had it was nice to slow down a bit.  Funny to say that about a Monday but that seems to be the case here lately.  Less than 3 weeks to go! 
They got the inside of the house all painted today and the electrician will be there tomorrow to start hanging lights and finishing things up.  The next few days will bring a lot of changes. 
I am excited!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

58/365

This morning Jacob and I were up around 6:30 so that we could get out to the house and finish painting while we still had Jacob's parent's in town.  Painting by lamp light isn't ideal but it helped us get the job done when we were out there until 11:45 last night and up and at it early this morning. 
Jaci's room is a bit more pink than I had anticipated.  I had to switch colors yesterday because the original one was looking way too purple.  I went with the suggestion from Pottery Barn since that is where I got her bedding.  It didn't look quite so bright pink on the sample or when I painted a sample on the wall.  She loves it and it matches so I guess it will work.  It is certainly a little girl's room! 
Tyler's room wasn't quite as difficult.  I pulled a pale yellow/cream color from his bedding and matched it up with another suggested Pottery Barn color.  At first he was really upset that I wouldn't paint his room John Deere Green but he is now happy with the color and thinks it looks like a wheat field. 
Jackson's room and the rest of the house are being painted buy our builder because they are all the same color.  His room will be painted tomorrow.  He was a little sad that his wasn't done but I convinced him that it was better to have his painted by a professional.  He was OK with that. 
Jacob worked so hard all day today getting all of the rock and brick cleared.  We have major dirt work happening tomorrow so it had to be done today.  It looks so nice to not have all of that lumber or brick/rock junking up the yard!  We have a lot of big things happening out at the house this week.  I am excited to see things come together! 
Oh...and can someone please tell me why we have gone from freezing to 90 degrees?  What happened to Spring?  I took this picture around 6 PM tonight so I have a feeling it was even warmer than this today.
I am not ready for it to be hot.  I just want a nice Spring.

57/365

Today was all about basketball, Paint, and working at the new house. 
Jacob's parent's came in this weekend to help us out at the house.  We knew it would be super busy because Jackson had 2 basketball games scheduled.  They ended up throwing in another game as a makeup game as well.  Three games on a Saturday when we are needing to get a lot done was a bit much.  We made the first 2 games but just couldn't make it to the last game.  Jacob's mom went to the last one without us.  I felt terrible missing it but we just wouldn't have been able to get things done if we had gone.  Jacob and I were out at the house painting until 11:45 pm as it was! 
We did take a break to come home and eat a steak.  The kids had sat up a party out at their fort and were so excited for us all to eat out there. 
After supper they sat around and told ghost stories. 
Jacob and I had to eat and run so that we could get back to work. 
It was a crazy busy day!

Friday, February 25, 2011

56/365

Today I spent the day cleaning house and getting ready for Jacob's parent's to come in tonight.  This little house is just beyond help at this point.  We have boxes of things stacked up everywhere and no room in the storage building for anything else.  I just don't care anymore.  There is not way to keep this place organized and clean at this point. 
Tomorrow Jackson has 2 basketball games and then Jacob and I are going to be painting Tyler and Jaci's rooms.  Our builder is taking care of the rest of the painting because we are going to have it all the same color but Jaci and Tyler's rooms will be different colors.  We didn't want to pay for a color change so we are doing it ourselves. 
The past 2 days our builder has primed everything, painted the trim and painted the ceilings.
On Monday he will paint all of the walls and our appliances will be delivered.  Once the painting is done we will be down to the final details.  Our closing date is set for March 18th.  Yay!
Have a great weekend!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

55/365

Tonight Jackson's team had a make up game from back when the games got snowed out.  It made for another crazy evening around our house. 
Jackson did a great job.  That is him with his arms up trying to block a pass.  He is a pretty good defensive player and steals the ball quite often.  He still freezes up a bit when he gets the ball on offense but he is getting more comfortable every game. 
After the game it was time to come home and feed everyone and get ready for bed.  Jacob's parent's are coming in tomorrow so we had quite a bit to do so that we can get ready for them to come in.  At this point there isn't much we can do with this house.  It is all cluttered up with stuff for the new house and we have no room for any of it.  The toys are a mess.  The kitchen is a mess.  The closet is a mess.  There is no organization whatsoever which is torture for me because I am a bit of an OCD neat freak.  I have just given up. 
Oh well...It is what it is at this point.  We only have to live like this for 3 more weeks. 
And with that I am off to bed.
These past few weeks have taken their toll on me and I am not feeling great again.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

54/365

Things are really getting down to the wire with this house and stress and emotions are running high right now.  Believe it or not I have actually found myself longing for last year when I could escape for an evening and go out to Gale's house and relax on her back porch.  Yes it was stressful and so hard living apart but I had my friends around me and there was so much good.  I really miss them. 
We went out tonight to do some more cleaning.  I feel like that is all we ever do.  If it is a night where we don't have basketball we are out at the house working until dark.  Then we are working all weekend (when we aren't at a basketball game).  Given the chance...I would not choose to do the clean up on a house again.  It is just too much work and really takes away that special new feel of a house. 
On a funnier note...this morning Tyler said,  "Mom, I don't want to eat okra anymore because I don't want to get what the dentist told you yesterday." Confused I asked what the dentist had said and he replied, "You know...those okra bites (overbites), I don't want to get those."  It was so random and you could tell he had been thinking about it a lot.  He loves okra and would eat an entire jar of pickled okra if you gave him the chance to so the poor boy had to be really bothered by the thought of Okra causing dental issues.
Have I mentioned how funny he is?
Here is a view of the floors cleaned up.  I was about to have a nervous break down with all of the mess everywhere so I am so happy to have the floors cleaned up and covered good again!

53/365

Today the kids all had dentist appointments.  All 3 had a perfect report!  The dentist did mention that Jaci will most likely have to get braces.  She has a pretty serious cross bite.  I am not too thrilled about that but we kind of knew that she would likely have issues.  She has always has a different mouth structure than the boys and has a really narrow bridge.
Tyler had an excellent report other than the dentist is a bit concerned about him grinding his teeth.  He said he is wearing them down quite a bit in the front.  Perhaps this could explain all of his mystery headaches.
 Everything with Jackson looked great as well.  This was our first time taking all 3 kids to the dentist without dental insurance and let me tell you it was painful!   I love this dentist but he is way too expensive without insurance and he doesn't discount for self pay so I think we will be looking for a new dentist for the kids soon.
The fireplace is now finished.  I am so happy with how it turned out.
It is big and taks up a lot of space but it is just what Jacob wanted.  They also finished up staining the cabinets today.  They are dark but our builder said it was because they are against the stark white background.  They also have a shinier finish than that I was hoping for but everything always changes as things come together so hopefully it won't stand out so much once it is all done.

Monday, February 21, 2011

52/365

Today I may have had a minor break down.
Probably brought on by the never ending lists of things I need to take care of RIGHT NOW...And the current state of our houses...and the fact that I can't seem to find the right ceiling fan for our living room and I spent at least an hour looking up today between 2 trips to Lowes and 1 to Home Depot and now my neck hurts. 
When I got in from Lowes around 5:30 I headed out to the new house until around 7.  We need to clean so our builder can do what he needs to do BUT our builder has stuff everywhere and the masonry guys have such a mess in our living room.  It is like shoveling snow in the middle of a blizzard. 
When we got home at 7 there was a message from Jackson's tutor for me to give her a call.  She had given him a lot of work for tomorrow and wanted to talk to me about it.  (Great...a ton of homework!)  Then the basketball coach called and said we had practice at 7.  (It was 7...we don't text so you have to call us!)  We didn't make it.   
As I was cooking dinner Jacob mentioned that thekids dentist had called and all 3 kids had a dentist appointment tomorrow afternoon.  (Guess I didn't get that on my list of things to take care of this week!)
I am done.  I am ready to be in this house and not have it controlling our lives anymore!  Only about 4 weeks left to go.
I will miss walking into the room and seeing Jaci all snuggled up in her bed with her kitties.
I am sure she won't miss still sleeping in a crib. 
I snapped these with my camera phone today because I didn't have my camera with me.  You can see that we have all of the brick cleaned up and the rock is slowly being used up. 
The fireplace is coming along.  I have to go to the rock quarry tomorrow to pick out rock for our hearth.
(Something I was supposed to do today and forgot!) 
The cabinets were all stained today.  They look really dark in these pictures (and they are), but they aren't quite as dark as the pictures make them look. 
All of the painting and staining will be done this week.  Next week the appliances will come in.  The granite will go in and the electrician will get started installing everything.  It is going so fast!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

51/365

TIRED... 
Sunburned...
Kids!

Today Tiffany, Felipe and Rhett came here.  Felipe had to finish up our shower so Tiffany decided to come in and keep me company while cleaning the house.  It was a long day out at the house cleaning up but it went by so much faster with her to keep me company.  Jackson went over and played with his new friend most of the afternoon.  I am just so happy that he has made a friend that we like and are comfortable with him going over there.  He can't wait until our house is finished so he can have friends come over to his place.  I also really like this boy's mom and am so happy to have someone to talk to.  It is so refreshing.  We are officially less than one month away from moving into our house.  I am so ready to feel like we can have a normal life again.

50/365

Today we started our day off with a basketball game at 9.  Then we had another one at 11.
I also had concession duty at 12.  It was a lot of time spent at the gym. 
The kids did great.  They have improved so much from last week! 
After the games we had planned to meet Tiffany and Felipe at the Zoo.  Tiffany had an ultrasound in Abilene at 12:30 so it worked out for us to meet after the games.  To my surprise, Jackson didn't want to go with me.  It makes me a little sad that things like going to the zoo aren't as fun for him anymore.  He opted to stay home with Jacob and work on some baseball and then go out to the house and clean up bricks.
Jaci and Tyler happily went along.  Jaci couldn't wait to see the Sophies.  (Giraffes)
She had her Sophie the Giraffe as a baby and it was her favorite toy.  She still has it in her bed with her.  I would say that other than her kittie, her Sophie is her next favorite thing. 
Tyler was disappointed that the Alligators weren't out but he was super excited about seeing the king cobra.  (Which was curled up where we couldn't really see it.) 
They were also so excited to see Rhett! 
It was a great day.  A busy day...but a great day!