Imagine my patience in waiting the whole day -- until about 5:30 PM! -- on Monday before going by the house. We figured we'd give the crew a full day to get some work done before checking in on 'em. Plus, hubs had the day off so we spent a lot of time together as a family doing family things... like replacing the toilet in our guest bath (hubs) and packing wall photos and decor (me). Gee. It was awesome. ;)
But all four of us loaded up to head out to the house to check on the progress. I was certain we'd have the trusses up by the end of the day Monday, and I was right!
Ack! She's beautiful! Only 3 work days ago, she was just a little slab of concrete. And now look at her!
The house definitely looked bigger now that both floors and the framing for the roof are complete. Plus, the house is very "deep" -- meaning, it goes back pretty far from front of the garage to the back of the morning room.
Speaking of garages and morning rooms, I don't think I've ever shared the floor plan of this beauty with you guys! For those of you who are interested, here is the awesomeness that is to be our new home!
We're so crazy excited! I CAN. NOT. WAIT. to get into my new gourmet kitchen. It's amazing! And the appliances I selected are totally legit. In fact, the kitchen definitely deserves its own post... in due time! The loft upstairs is one of my favorite things about the floor plan. Basically it'll be a huge play area for the kids. I'm already getting tons of ideas from Pinterest for furniture, toy storage, etc. If only I could find the time and money to make all of them happen! Haha!
Good Monday morning!!! Hope you had a great weekend and are feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the week ahead! And I hope you're up for some house fun, because I'm about to bring it to ya!
So... where did we last leave off? Oh, that's right. It was Thursday afternoon -- 1:19 PM to be exact -- and I was so stoked to see our concrete poured and being perfected.
THURSDAY:
FRIDAY:
Friday morning, around 11:55 AM, Chase and I headed over to the house before picking LO up from school. I can't put into words what I felt when I saw this:
It was so surreal to see actual lumber being used in the actual construction of our actual house. I almost actually cried. It was an amazing sight!
I couldn't help myself, so the kids and I went back for another drive-by after lunch, at 2:13 PM. It's so amazing how well (read: quickly) these guys do what they do!
Due to a slight lack of patience and overeagerness to see progress as it happens, LO and I drove by the house for, yes, the THIRD TIME on Friday, at 5:36 PM. They had put in one of the headers over the garage and lots of the internal structure of our house (I know about the internal structure 'cause I got out and walked through our house and took pics... but I won't bore you with those... yet).
Don't she look purdy? Still seems tiny to me, though, especially with it only having one story so far.
SATURDAY:
It should come as no surprise that we stopped by the house on our way to a birthday party Saturday morning at 10:48 AM. It doesn't look like a lot happened since the previous pic above, but they've actually got the entire second floor plywood flooring down. And they've started moving the wall sections up to the second floor (that's what those 4 guys are doing -- they literally heave those heavy wall sections up the side of the house to the TWO lone guys up there who pull them up -- so glad I don't have their job!).
I had to work Saturday but I asked hubs to take the kids by the house after nap time to take another look. I was NOT surprised (but totally thrilled!!) to see our second floor walls in place when they went by at 5:29 PM! Ack!!
SUNDAY:
Yes, we did a drive-by Sunday afternoon around 5:30 PM and yes, as we had expected, the crew took the day off (they earned it!). I'm sure they will have a busy Monday and I'm quite certain there will be a roof on our home by the end of the day today.
The kids and I drove by the house yesterday since our PM told us the concrete was scheduled to be poured that morning. We were so surprised when we arrived to see so much happening to OUR LOT! It was awesome! The concrete pour was just about finished and there were several fellas out there smoothing it over (pardon the rear-end trifecta shot below):
The kids and I were so excited to see so much bustling activity taking place after staring at our empty lot for so many weeks.
One pleasant yet unexpected surprise was that our lumber package had also arrived! We're talking like actual home-building materials here, people! One truck had already been unloaded in front of our lot and there was another semi there with a flatbed full of our materials. It's getting to be so real... FINALLY!
We had to leave and headed off to meet one of my most awesome and adored friends for lunch, but couldn't resist the urge to complete another drive-by afterwards to see how things were looking. They had unloaded all of our building materials onto the street, and there was just one lone concrete worker guy putting the finishing touches on our slab.
Seriously. How tiny does our house look in this photo? I mean, that square area there with the step is our 2-car garage. Does it actually look like it'll fit TWO CARS in the picture above? It's just so weird how small it all seems now, but I'm sure it'll finally start looking like a "real" house soon.
The plan is to check on the house again today before picking LO up from school. Our PM tells us they are scheduled to start framing this morning. ACK!!!!! I don't know what I'll think when I actually start to see walls forming... Woot!!!
This includes, but is not limited to, the great Tom Colicchio.
As a Top Chef junkie, I find myself intrigued by making simple food from a few good, quality ingredients. Tom has a like mind, which he emphasized in my latest Amazon purchase:
I loved reading about Tom's early days in the kitchen, from helping the family as a young boy, to running restaurants throughout New Jersey and New York. His thoughts on cooking are simple and easily translate to the home cook. I look forward to trying out some of his recipes and techniques. He inspires me to want to take some cooking classes to hone my skills even further. I've always loved baking but now I'm feeling the itch to develop my cooking skills. I mean, there's only so much you can do with a can of cream of mushroom soup, right people? I've been amazed at the flavors that develop when you cook from scratch, too. I'm so addicted!
I would like to clarify, however, that I am NOT a fan of a certain Top Chef judge's unsightly unibrow...
Here's hoping "Hugh's $100,000 Eyebrow Challenge" is a success and they raise enough money to rid the world of The Hughnibrow's distracting mess! Haha!
Stopped by the house yesterday to see what's new. Was pleased to see they're getting things lined up for the concrete! Spoke to our PM and looks like they'll be rained out today but should be able to get 'er done on Friday, weather permitting. Once that slab is in, I'm telling you it's CRAZY how fast these houses go up! They've got this process down to a science, folks! Can't wait to see the transformation take place on our new home!
As long as I can remember, I've been a fan of using either Fab or Gain laundry detergent along with Downy fabric softener. It's just been the winning combination that has worked best for my family. Recently, however, I've considered the idea of making my own laundry soap! Gasp!! And yes, there's a good chance that Pinterest has been a very strong influence in said decision. Regardless, I found a super easy and very cheap "recipe" for laundry soap and decided to give it a go.
Oh my word! It was SO easy! And I was able to find all of the ingredients at Walmart... for a total of about $20 bucks.
Photo by beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com
Now I have this massive container of laundry soap that literally takes about 1 Tbsp. per load. I can see this soap lasting for a very long time! The blogger who posted this recipe said it took NINE (9) MONTHS to go through ONE BATCH of this stuff! You do the math! ;)
I've been pleasantly surprised by this soap. It cleans really well, both in warm and cold water. It has a very mild scent that combines nicely with my Downy fabric softener. And it really was so easy to make! Literally you just shred the Fels-Naptha soap (I used my food processor -- it was quick and easy, and cleaned right up!) and dump all the items into a large container. I gave it a bit of a stir and voilà! Fabulously awesome laundry soap that'll probably last me close to a year. How exciting! And thrifty!!
Let me know if you decide to give it a try. It's so economical and it's also nice to know that there aren't any weird additives or funky needless perfumes/dyes in my laundry soap. :)
The kids and I checked out the house last Friday. Seems they've got the plumbing in and just need to get it inspected so they can pour the concrete this week! How exciting! :)
Of course, before checking out the house, we had to hit the playground, which happens to be conveniently located across the street from our to-be-built home. Chase really loved the "big boy" swings!
Here's the lot with all of the plumbing in! We've also got a huge mound of rock/gravel where our driveway will be.
I swear the footprint of the house looks absolutely tiny right now! I can't imagine where they'll fit all 3,200+ sq. ft.!
And of course, I was both surprised and pleased to see they've already got our downstairs bathroom completed:
Last night at bedtime I decided to switch things up for LO a bit. Before reading her a book (technically, she's usually the one reading to me now), I told her we were going to enjoy a video book! She was super excited, as was I. Thanks to the power of YouTube, I busted out a blast from MY past...
She-Ra, Princess of Power
It's an audio book of "Glimmer of Hope" -- one of my favorite She-Ra books from my childhood. I was a serious She-Ra fan. I'd draw She-Ra and her rockin' white and gold mini-dress and gold ear-wings, I'd pretend the arm of the couch was Swift Wind and would hold my foil-covered cardboard sword aloft and say,
"For the honor of Grayskull, I am She-Ra!"
LO and I watched the short video together, and she even asked questions about Princess Adora and the Glitterbugs. It was so freakin' entertaining and hilarious and cool at the same time!
Here's the video for your viewing/flashbacking pleasure... :)
I'm tired of diapers. Especially the dirty, stinky ones. I'm tired of changing them, and I'm tired of paying for them. I'm longing for the day we get Chase out of diapers, and I recently started thinking we'd give it a try sooner than later. But my mommy instinct is telling me he's just not quite ready to tackle that yet.
((sigh))
I looked back to see when we potty trained LO, and remembered it wasn't until after we returned home following Chase's birth and Norwood when she was 2 1/2 years old. I documented her "training" in this post (also copied below for your reading pleasure) and I'm afraid she set the bar a bit too high. Seriously. It was like, 2 days of training and she was DONE. Trained. Fully trained both day and night. Zero accidents since. See what I mean? Set the bar too high. I'm scared thinking about what Chase has in store for us! Haha!
Of course, I also have the heart mom dilemma of potty training him before his Fontan. So if we wait until he's 2 1/2, that'll be in April. Chances are, with him being so chunktastic, that his Fontan could take place as early as this summer/fall ((shudder)). And let's remember he's a boy, and I think I've heard boys are harder than girls to potty train? So I just don't know what to do. I try to keep my parenting timeline with Chase as close to LO's as possible, because I want him to be treated the same and not feel different because of his special heart, and being consistent with the kids is one way I feel I can do this from an early age. But I also don't want to be spinning my wheels for nothing! Ugh. Anyone have any thoughts/comments to help a mama out??
For your reading pleasure, here's a post I wrote last January about LO's potty successes. Enjoy the video, too -- it's one of my faves of that little girl of mine!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Potty Time!
Guess who finally started potty training the day after she turned 2 1/2? Yep! That's right! Our sweet LO has officially begun the process of ditching the diapers (Amen!)! Yesterday was our first day. I'll be honest, I had NO IDEA where to start. I've read about so many different approaches to potty training, from putting her in pull-ups all day, to going straight to "big girl" panties, to letting her run around the house completely naked for three days to magically do the trick. After much thought, I decided it would be best for us to go straight to the big girl panties during the day, and pull-ups during nap time and nighttime. My assumption is that this would be the best way for her to know when she's had an accident, plus it would eliminate transitioning from pull-ups to panties.
I consider our first day to be a complete success, although we technically had a 50% success rate. Her first accident was on the bean bag we bought her for her first birthday. That was my fault -- I should've known better than to leave the bean bag in the room. Then she headed towards the carpet in her play area and I caught her in the act and put her on the potty. Then later in the day she went twice on her potty! Woot! I was so excited!!! She got a few mini M&M's and an Elmo sticker each time. At nap time she wore a pull-up and woke up poopy, which I sort of expected. Later in the afternoon she went on the carpet outside the bathroom (again, my bad -- I thought daddy was watching her at the time), but then last night she went in the potty again for the third time! I figure if she uses the potty 3 times on her first day, that's a pretty good first day!!! She woke up very wet this morning, which really didn't surprise me (I understand the nighttime training usually comes later after she masters the daytime). She had one accident this morning where she peed on the hardwood floor standing 2 feet from hubs -- I'm not sure why. But I figure we just stick with this and try to be consistent and hopefully she will figure this out soon. It's really hard to keep her off the couches and carpeted areas, so I hope it doesn't take forever! :)
Here she is announcing to the world what she did yesterday!
The guilt has overtaken me and I feel compelled to sum up 2011 with a blog post. I'll warn you: it's not the shortest post ever. But hopefully it'll be entertaining. :)
January 2011:
Do you see this sweet little BABY we started 2011 with? Ohmyheavens. I could just squeeze him! Note his unsteady, wobbly standing in this video:
He was having physical therapy once a week to help him get mobile. Later that same month... first steps!!!
And what about his big sister? She was as happy as ever!
February 2011:
It seems I spent a lot of time talking about LO's behavior issues. I vividly recall the attitude we were getting from her and how lost I felt. We tried some new techniques from a book and started to see some improvements.
It was also in February when Chase's cardiology appointment resulted in scheduling an unplanned heart cath. :( His echo showed some narrowing in his LPA and his cardiologist, as well as the team at MUSC, determined it would be necessary for him to have a cath to try to balloon the narrowing. This was NOT the news we wanted to hear. :(
February also brought the devastating loss of a sweet heart warrior, Travis DiCarlo. I vividly remember where I was and what I was doing when I read Nicole's updates following Travis' 4th surgery. I literally could barely get out of bed for 2 days as my heart was breaking for the DiCarlo family. Travis was just 3 days older than Chase and his loss really hit me hard. Please continue to keep Nicole & Roger in your thoughts and prayers as the first anniversary of their loss is approaching. God bless them and hold them and their family close during this time.
March 2011:
This month we took a trip to Cincinnati, Chase had an ER visit at Cincinnati Children's Hospital with what was diagnosed as RSV, and we headed to Charleston for his heart cath. The cath was successful in that they verified he IS a candidate for the Fontan (Praise the Lord!!), they ballooned his LPA, which didn't show any flow restriction (whew!), determined he COULD wait for the typical Fontan timeframe (age 3-4, approx. 30 lbs.) AND he was returned safely to us... looking pretty good, all things considered.
We also decided to start Chase in speech therapy, and I seemed to do a lot of sewing last March, too. See? And see? I also had my first ever blog giveaway!
April 2011:
I spent a LOT of time on my new hobby: sewing. I made this amazing (IMO) black & white quilt for Chase's physical therapist, who we had to say "see ya!" to in April because our little man was a walking pro! Daddy also wrote an informative post about living through an HLHS diagnosis as a father/husband, which was pretty awesome of him. In an effort of full disclosure and total honesty, hubs and I were in the midst of the hardest season of our marriage we had ever encountered. We had made it through Chase's diagnosis, two heart surgeries and two heart caths, and the emotions of it all were finally catching up to us. I hadn't prayed so hard for my husband or our marriage in my life!
May 2011:
This month brought Part II of hubs' perspective on being an HLHS father. We also had some fun at the park with the kids.
My birthday and Mother's Day were also "celebrated" during May (hubs should enjoy those quotes -- haha!). The kids and I enjoyed some fun in the sun playing in the backyard together, too!
Chase's speech therapist also recommended that we have Chase checked out by an ENT to see if he has any fluid in his ears, which could be contributing to his speech delay. We met with a local ENT and awaited the results... I also took a bit of a blogging break during the month of May last year.
June 2011:
Oh the joy of another procedure at MUSC! It was determined that Chase needed to have tubes put in. Imagine his excitement when we told him:
Haha! The poor kid! June 7th was his tube surgery at MUSC and not surprisingly, he did great! We had some issues with the right one after we got home, which would result in another trip to MUSC in the coming months. I didn't blog much in June, but I did enjoy spending time and making precious memories with these guys:
July 2011:
July was a big month for LO! From her first dentist appointment to her 4th birthday parties (Yes, plural. See here and here.), it was a lot of fun!
I'm sure we also spent lots of time playing outside, going to the pool and/or playground and just enjoying a fun summer together.
August 2011:
I played a little catch up on my blog since I hadn't been posting as often. We also took a little family vacay to Hilton Head, SC for a much-needed getaway.
It was while we were on vacation that I got "the call" with an offer for a part-time job I had applied for. Completely stoked!!! Woot!!!
Chase finally started talking a little bit more. See? August also brought a repeat trip to MUSC to replace Chase's right ear tube. Good times. But obviously the tubes have helped his speech, thank goodness!
September 2011:
September was very light in the blog posting department. With preschool being in full swing, then adding soccer to LO's schedule, and working part-time for the first time since becoming a SAHM, and planning Chase's 2nd birthday party, free time was VERY hard to come by, and what little I had obviously wasn't spent blogging. But we did have fun with a trip to see Sesame Street Live, which the kids really enjoyed.
October 2011: Chase's 2nd birthday was by far the biggest highlight of October! He had such a blast and it was so wonderful to celebrate two years of having God's blessing in our lives in the form our our little rock star! I made his birthday cake, which, I thought, turned out pretty decent and tasted amazing!
We had a great time celebrating our little guy, but we also learned through that party that it would probably be the last big birthday event we have at our house for either of our kids. We'll be keeping things low-key from now on.
It was crazy to stop and think back to where we were 2 years prior during October. Packed up a U-Haul and headed to Charleston for Chase's birth and first surgery. With a 2 year old in tow. And no clue what the future held. By far it was the scariest time in my life, and I wish so much that the current me could've told myself then that Chase would be a thriving, crazy, 2-year-old toddler! Oh, the fears and uncertainty that would've relinquished! But I'm so very grateful for the journey we've been on with Chase. We've learned so much about ourselves, our family and those who would be there to support us along the way. We are so grateful!!!
October was also the month that we started on our journey of building a new home! I never took it seriously in the beginning because it seemed to good to happen to US, so I just went along with it -- not getting too emotionally involved -- until I could see that hubs was absolutely serious! Yippee!!
November 2011:
Our big boy moved into his big boy bed!!!
Still can't believe how huge this kid is. Seriously. We also had our 6-month check-up with cardiology, and were so very happy and blessed to hear that everything looked great! We were still on schedule for a 3- to 4-year-old Fontan, depending on Mr. Hefty's weight gain over the coming year or so. He's already up to a chunk o' monkey 28 lbs., and considering his surgeon wants him to be between 30-32 lbs., I'd say it's quite likely our little rock star will be rocking the Fontan in 2012. I don't want to even start thinking or talking about it until it's a sure thing, so, moving on...
Chase had his 2-year check-up with his pediatrician as well, and all was well. Not much more to report during November, except...
Oh, that's right!!! We bought a house!!!!! Officially signed the papers on Wednesday, November 30, 2011. Woot!!! :)
December 2011:
During December, I had a bit of a debacle with how LO was being punished at school. I was glad to see my blogging community agreed with me. Seriously. Making a 4-year-old run laps?? Ugh.
Chase got his second round of Synagis for this season, I had to work on Christmas Eve, and we had The. Most. Hectic. And. Least. Enjoyable. Christmas. Holiday. EVER. Between working part-time, being overextended with volunteer/ministry commitments, family gatherings and several meetings concerning our new home, time was something I just did NOT have enough of. That resulted in the Christmas holiday being one great, big "TO DO LIST" with things getting checked off as they were done. Work Christmas Eve? Check. Christmas Eve service at church? Check. Christmas Eve gathering at my mom's house? Check. Christmas morning service at church? Check. Opening presents with kids in 10 minutes or less after church? Check. Driving out to hubs' side of the family for Christmas dinner? Check. It literally wasn't until Monday morning, Dec. 26th, that I could finally breathe and relax. I HATED the way my family's Christmas holiday unfolded this year. I do NOT like to rush around. I like to ENJOY the holiday and STOP to be THANKFUL for what it really means. I'm already thinking through how we'll make next year a complete opposite from this year. Christmas is too important to me to treat it like a "To Do List." New Year's Eve (after I got home from work) was nice and quiet. It was a wonderful way to start the new year. Hubs and I were in bed at 11:30PM. Ahhhhh...
So there you have it! A super crazy-long post to recap 2011! Whew! And in case you missed it, take a look at this...
Okay, so it's 10:29 PM on Sunday, January 1, 2012, and I just started feeling guilty about not having a fresh, new post ready to hit the blog Monday morning. So I thought I'd share a cool YouTube video with you guys. Only I logged into my YouTube account, and it doesn't seem I've uploaded anything exciting recently. And no new video gems on my iPhone, either.
Poo.
Then I thought I should maybe do a fantastic recap post of 2011, sharing about what we experienced over the past 12 months. But did I mention it's 10:29 PM already? And I'm tired. So apparently no really awesome 2011 recap post will be happening after all.
Poo.
Oooh! Then I figured I'd just post some amazing new pictures of my kids! Everyone loves pictures of my kids, right? Haha! Only, too bad. I don't have any awesome new pictures to share, either.
Poo.
I guess I'll just wish everyone a Happy 2012 and raise my imaginary glass of sparkling white grape juice to both of my blog readers and wish you all a happy, healthy and love-filled year! Thanks for sticking with me and for joining us on our journey. You guys rock.
Oh, and P.S. My resolution (along with 80 million other people) is to lose weight this year. Ya'll will help me with that, right???
