Life

I have been a bit remiss in updating my blog, but truthfully my schedule has been full, my life is a bit stressful and some things have to go. It's kind of funny but the person who complains the most about my lack of posts is my husband. He wonders how he's supposed to know what's going on in my life if I don't update my blog regularly. (I'm glad I married someone who can always find ways to make me laugh.)

Two weekends ago Ryan and I had an appointment to look at three houses. I didn't really want to go. Ryan scheduled one house that he had already seen, a house he wanted to see, and a third house that the realtor had as one of their listings. We liked the third house and made an offer on it. After counter bids, learning quite a bit about buying a house, and scrambling to finish our loan pre-approval (thankfully we have a super speedy bank), we made an offer on the house that the sellers agreed to. While it's not our dream house and not in our dream location it's a fantastic first home and we're pretty excited about it. I've already been dreaming about paint colors and decorating ideas, two things that really make my creative juices flow. After living in boring white walls all of my life, I'm ready to branch out. We close on the house mid-December and will move in January since I still plan on working until Dec. 31. Ryan and I are excited about having a new house and neither one of us can wait to move. In the meantime we'll be sorting through our stuff, packing and getting rid of junk. I'm hoping to be quite tough about keeping things, I really want to de-clutter our lives and house.

Aric is doing... well, two-year-old-things. Did you know if you search "how to remove coins from a car CD player" multiple results will return? Yes, my two year old stuck spare change into my car CD player slot and now it won't read a CD. Thank you, Aric. I think the monetary amount calculated for how much it costs to raise a child until 18 is really a calculation for how much it costs to replace/fix the things they break. That child owes me a front quarter panel and a CD player for my car.

Kellyn is walking, chattering, teething, dragging baby dolls around the house and trying to do everything Aric does. She's a bit strong-willed and has started throwing herself down on the floor when she's upset. I think we're going to have our hands full with that one!

And that describes our life lately. We're busy with buying a house, thinking about moving and dealing with work, two active toddlers and everything else that life is throwing our way.

Feeling Better and Catching Up

I took an unintentional break from my blog.  It wasn't planned but when your husband is gone on a business trip, one kid gets sick, the other one is teething and not gracious about that, then you end up catching whatever the first kid had, well, it doesn't leave much time for anything else.  I ended up feverish by the end of last week and stayed home from work to rest and break the fever.  (Thanks Laura for watching the kids and allowing me to sleep!)  It worked, sort of.  By Sunday I was getting sick again with another illness.  Hopefully I'm on the road to recovery and won't be sick again for a long time!

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan and I took a day to meet with a realtor and look at some houses.  Well, actually we were planning on looking at one house and ended up looking at five.  Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the day.  The one house that we really wanted to see didn't turn out to be as great as the description and pictures made it out to be.  It was broken up, didn't have a great flow, had a basement that had no rhyme or reason and felt very much like a medieval torture chamber, and Ryan counted at least seven exterior doors.  Thanks but no thanks. 

This was the point where I was speechless.

The flash added more light than was actually there.

Who paints the floor shiny red, the walls blue and uses barn wood for closet doors?  I was afraid to open the doors down there.

Enough said.

We'll keep looking for a house.  With a goal to move in early spring we still have some time.  Which is good because I find looking for a house a little overwhelming at times.  There are days I have a large amount of optimism about finding a great place that will suit our wants and needs. and other days I'm just down about finding a place.  It's in God's hands, though, and he'll bring along the right place.

We have slowly increased our potty training with Aric.  Some days he gets the hang of it and others he seems to digress.  It can be frustrating.  Right now we've pulled back a bit and are letting him have a break and hopefully mature a bit more.  In a couple of weeks we'll try again.  He's so close but so far.  We did realize that maybe there's a little too much TV on at our house.  It's an easy nanny when we're sick, busy with chores, need a break, etc.  It's a bad habit, too, and possibly one of the big hindrances in successful potty training.  Aric can get so absorbed in watching Mickey Mouse or Little Einsteins that he forgets that he needs to go until after he's urinated all over the floor.  Thank goodness we don't have much carpet in the house.  We've set some new family rules in regards to the amount of TV and hopefully the rules will help and encourage more imaginative play between the kids and allow potty training to be easier next time.

Kellyn is teething, crawling everywhere, a little camera ham and just a delight.  Last night I fed her stage 3 baby food for the first time.  Aric is still a picky eater and has difficulty with textures.  We weren't so proactive with introducing him to new textures and I believe we caused some of the problems that we still have today.  I guess that's why they call the first child the practice child.  Thankfully we realized our errors and are trying to be proactive with Kellyn.  She ate the chunky mix of rice, peas and carrots with pureed chicken dinner like a pro last night.  It was only one meal, but hopefully we can keep working with her and give her a chance.  It would be nice not to have two picky eaters.

The End of a Long Bumpy Road

I haven't written much about Ryan's new job because it's been a source of frustration for us both.  Ryan hasn't actually started the job.  For the last five months he has been getting his "packet" ready for several boards that have to approve him before he is able to begin the job.  There have been several speed bumps along the road that have slowed things down and caused so much grief and frustration.  It's been a sore subject for us both.

We found out yesterday that Ryan was approved by the final board.  His new boss called him immediately and wanted to commission him yesterday afternoon.  Thankfully I had the day off.  The kids and I ran home, ate lunch, changed into nicer clothes and went with Ryan to the impromptu ceremony.  It was wonderful to witness it.  Except for a few minor issues with the kids which were quickly resolved by a prayer in the middle of the ceremony that they would both settle down.  (I'm glad God can answer prayers immediately!)

The best news is that he starts his job next week.

Birthday and Getting in Shape

Last week I celebrated my 31st 25th birthday.  I left work a little early, did some shopping by myself, picked up the kids from daycare at the usual time, went home and cooked dinner.  Yes, I had to cook my birthday dinner.  Ryan spent all day working on our car with some buddies and they were having problems removing some of the old parts off of the car.  The car is 12 years old with 182,000 + miles on it.  We're just trying to nurse it along for awhile since it does get great gas mileage compared to our truck, which is what we've had to use lately.  I digress, though.  It was a good birthday spent with family and friends.

Ryan bought me a new seatbelt purse for my birthday/Valentine's day present.  I used birthday money to purchase the matching wallet.  I feel very spoiled:

To work off all of that birthday cake baby weight, I began using Ryan's birthday/Valentine's gift on Monday:

Today I completed day 3 of 90.  I'm alive, but barely.  My goal is to use this as my boost to get back in shape not to achieve a ripped body-builder figure.  It helps that Ryan is doing this program also.  We're exercising at separate times of the day, but we've been motivation to each other to get up and do it.  Hopefully by the time the 90 days is up I'll be in amazing shape and have my treadmill put back together and usable.  Then all I will have to do is maintain.