Today I am grateful for:
1. Having a job where I can still enjoy the magic of the First Day of School! I may not currently be using my degree, but I am doing a job that I love AND it gives me a chance to still have that First Day of School excitement because I get to hear about it from all the kids after school. I get to see a whole bunch of new kiddos moving up in the preschool world. I get to share in their excitement...and then I get to leave it and be home with my family....and my couch. That is the one thing I don't think I could do anymore when it comes to teaching: bring it home with me. I really enjoy my nights at home with Parker and Thane and Bernie. I barely have time (or energy) to clean my house at night, so I can't imagine having to grade papers or lesson plan. Kuddos to my friends who are doing it! I'm not that far removed that I don't remember how stressful and rewarding it is. You guys are amazing people and you are often not given enough credit for the things you do. I wish you all the best of luck tomorrow and the rest of the school year!
This is amazing.
2. On that note, I am grateful for my job. For obvious reasons, we have bills, but for much more than that. I'm grateful that KJ gave me the chance to see what office work has in store for me. They had enough faith in me to let me try something new..and I love it. I still don't have it down, and that bothers me...I don't like making mistakes. I learn something new every day...and something new stresses me out everyday...but I'm good with that!
3. My coworkers...who I consider to be my friends. I love you guys! Without them I couldn't get through the stressful days...and there seem to be quite a few of those lately. I can talk to them about anything going on...and often cry to them. We all share in each other's excitement about life..the downsides of life..and all the sides of life in between.
I tried to find a good Pinterest thing for coworkers...apparently everyone hates their coworkers. Guess I'm lucky!
Good luck at school tomorrow everyone...especially YOU Cassie!!!! Congrats on the new job. You're going to nail your first first day of school!
I was nominated by my lovely sister Kristy to do the gratitude challenge. I need to list three things I'm grateful for each day... And nominate two people per day for five days. This is supposed to be done on Facebook, but I thought that if I am putting some thought into this I may as well blog about it.
So here we go...( in no particular order)
1. I am thankful for my husband. We have been through a lot in the past 2 years and he has been my rock. The one person I can really just open up to and let it all out. He usually just nods and agrees with the words coming out of my mouth, because lets be real, half the stuff I'm complaining about or I'm upset about he is probably thinking "Thank God I'm not a woman." I'm glad he keeps that to himself. He may drive me nuts sometimes, I'm sure I have driven him crazy once or twice, but man do I love him. I know that with him by my side, I can accomplish anything.
2. My son. He continues to amaze me every day. If you see me in public with him right now, I may not look super happy...but I promise I am. He is so full of life, energy, and love...and every day is a new adventure. Hearing his vocabulary grow is amazing. Belly Button...that's his newest one. He makes my day brighter when its gray. Watching him grow and learn new things is so fun, and its amazing to think that we created him. What a crazy concept. I m trying to slow down, not care what others think, and be a better mom. Parker deserves all of me...and I am learning to slow down and enjoy every minute we have together.
3. My mom and dad. They are amazing people. They will do anything to help someone out and love to do it. I have no idea what Thane, I or Parker would do without them. I have had great role models for marriage from them and I thank them for that...as does Thane. I have a lot to learn from them yet, but if I can strive to be half as compassionate and helpful as they are then I think I'll be a pretty great person.
I learned this morning that a torrential rain downpour is a lot more badass at the Sutter Farm.
So here was the start to my day.
6:50- look out window and think, "Shit, it looks really bad out. I hope it holds off."
6:52- Walk past patio door on the way to get Parker, "Hmm...those clouds appear to be death like...maybe I should bring in some toys." I open the door and walk into eeriness. Yes, walked into it. It was crazy outside. SO windy, so sticky, wet but no rain, thunder and lightning in the clouds. Scary shit. Of course I grab my phone. If I had more time I would have grabbed my real camera. I currently have no idea where I put it though.
6:57- Thane texts me, "It looks pretty bad out, be careful."
6:57:37- I am holding my sleeping angel, cause you can't throw a tantrum while sleeping..so he was being an angel, and I thought, "Sigh..who cares if I'm wasting valuable time against the storm. I'm pretty happy here."
7:07- I reluctantly wake P all the way up and start to get him dressed. We just may make it out the door before the rain.
7:16- T-Minus 4 minutes to leave......downpour. Hurricane style.
So here I am, with a toddler and an arm full of things to get in my car, and its a hurricane outside. I open the garage door and pray to God my father-in-law took his truck this morning. Open the door....empty spot!! Jackpot!!!
Open the garage door......truck. Shit.
So I decided if I could just get my car kinda close, that would be good enough...and do it fast enough that Parker wouldn't escape outside. I grabbed a towel, put Parker on his Lightning McQueen car, and ran out the door. Stepped into the rain...towel went flying off me and in 1 second I'm totally soaked. Make it to my car, jump in, turn on the wipers and still can't see.
I pulled up the car and jump out, towel still didn't work, just in time to see Parker throw open the door and look at me. He was about to come running out when the loudest crack of thunder I have ever heard hit. We both jumped but only one of us screamed. I won't say which one.
I scoop him up, look outside, and call work to say I'm going to be late. There is no way I'm taking my son out in that if I can help it. Not safe.
I then assess the car situation and decide I can squeeze it all the way in the garage. So I quickly shut P back inside and run back out into the raid. (This experience has made me really really happy we didn't buy the house with no garage.) Ok, now I get Parker in and we are off.
Driving in the country with this kind of storm..insane. So many divots in the road you didn't realize were there until they are full of water. So many gravel driveways washed out.
Fast-forward like 45 minutes into my normal 25 minute drive....we are at work and I find the most amazing parking spot ever. EVER. Now I needed to formulate a plan on how to get us inside without ending up like drowned rats.
I crawl in the backseat, get him unbuckled and standing next to me, turn and gather my bags and umbrella, turn back to grab P......aaaaaaaaaaaaand he is back in his carseat jumping around just loving life.
Start over. Put down the bags, get him out and standing next to me so I could scoop him up, gather bags, turn to scoop and he is back in his carseat.
ok.....round 3. repeat everything. Everything......back in his seat. I then calmly said "GET OUT OF YOUR CARSEAT!!!!!!" and scooped him with one arm.. and meltdown number one of the day ensued. He screamed like I just popped his balloon. (This kid loves balloons.)
Then I just laughed.
Really? What a great Monday.
So then, I kept my arm around him, grabbed all my crap, threw a blanket on him, opened the door, put up my totally broken umbrella and we walked in the rain.
He was so amazed by the water running off said broken umbrella I didn't even care I was getting wet, or that I stepped in a huge puddle with my flip flop and splashed so much water on my shorts that it appeared I peed myself.
Nope, my kid was laughing...I was fine.
The rest of my day? Well it sucked.
Did I mention I pretty much dressed my kid in a dress today? Ugh..sorry buddy. Don't worry, your shirt tomorrow has a shark on it. Sharks are really manly.
It's officially.
Parker is 1.
What a crazy year it has been.
I learned a few things today.
1.) I don't like having his party on his birthday.
I don't think I saw him more than 15 minutes today. Ok, thats a lie. We hung out while I opened his presents. But between people lovin on him, me doing stuff for the party, and mingling I pretty much caught glimpses of him. But...those glimpses showed me he was having an awesome time. He was laughing and playing the whole time. I call that a success.
I'm aware that this is mostly my fault. I let myself get caught up in hosting the party...but that is what I do. It's how I roll. Anyways, next time his birthday is on a Saturday...we are not having his party then. I'd like to spend some time with him.
2.) We need to deep clean our high chair more.
We took the padding off....ya. Eww. Don't act like you clean yours...but I suggest you do it tomorrow.
3.) My kid is amazing.
I already knew this, but today confirmed it. He didn't freak out once. He napped the perfect amount before the party. He needed his other nap after everything was done. and in between he was a ham. He's amazing.
4.) I have taught him to cheese it up to the camera.
FINALLY!! So many times today he would be looking the other way and as soon as he saw the flash of my camera, he would whip his head around and give me a cheeseball smile.
It's about time kid.
The party was perfect. Everything went really well.
The past 3 weeks, I think its been 3 weeks, it has seemed like a year, have been miserable.
Although, I will say it right now, every time I thought I was just at the lowest of the low....I would hear from someone else about whats going on in their life. It really is true. Sadly, no matter how bad you think you life it...someone always has it worse. Just horrible things have been happening to people this month :(
But...for this blog post, I'm just going to pretend that my life was the worst. Why do I even want to document this? I feel like it was the closest I have ever been to being depressed. Well, what I imagine being depressed feels like. Because once again, I am lucky enough to have not ever really experienced that.
Apparently when you may be stuck with a house that you no longer want because it is a money pit....life really begins to suck.
Here we go. Inspection Day of the beautiful home we found. The week before it, I had a knot in my stomach. Its an old house, what if something was really wrong?? I had a habit of telling people that we had a house....contingent of home inspection. That is how worried I was. The day of...the knot went away. I had faith that our house would be just fine. We already knew the roof was shit, what else could be wrong?
I pull up to the house about 5 minutes late and Thane is walking to his van with a grimace on his face, shaking his head. Great. Just great. I get out ask ask him what's wrong and he simply says, "The driveway. It's washed out."
I'm sorry what?
So when we had visited the house both times, the basement was a little damp. We,and their Realtor, chalked it up to that its a limestone basement and it absorbs the water more than usual. Livable because it wasn't that much water, and we would just put our stuff on pallets.
Well, we went to the basement that Wednesday, and it was bad. SO much water. A steady stream from the wall where the driveway was to this drain area. Luckily, it had down poured on Tuesday for like 10 minutes...so we got to see the results. Bullshit to the homeowner that they didn't know why the basement was wet during their open house. Ugh. So Thane is like, well there is a drain here. Moves the weight that was on top of it, FULL of water. He looks confused and sticks his hand in...much to my dismay. Who knows what is clogging that drain!
Oh no..it was ok. It wasn't a drain? It was a hole that looked like a drain about wrist deep..and ended with a pile of dirt. Seriously?
So....the driveway being washed out? Ya. It was hollow under it. HOLLOW. Our inspector could stick his finger under the cement and feel..nothing. The dripping rain from the gutters that should have been replaced about 8 years ago, has slowly eroded the dirt under the driveway away. So when it rained the water would go right through the concrete and into the basement. The basement that had no drain. Well, it has a drain, it just on the other side of the room.
Ok so BIG flaw. Like $8,000 flaw I'm told. We would want the entire thing redone to make sure it was done right, and the problem would stop.
So moving on. Here we go. The furnace and AC? 25 years old. The stairs to the basement? "Death trap." The drainage thing on the furnace that is apparently a big deal? Not there. Need a new panel. Need a new water softener. Water leakage. That's just the basement.
We get upstairs. No insulation in the walls or attic. Perfect. The fan in the bathroom purrs like a baby kitten, aka barely works, which I'm sure with our luck meant that there was probably mold in the walls. Nob and tube wiring that Thane would have to fix, along with the roof being totally shot.
I was in tears. It is such a great house, with major flaws. We had to get out.
It may not sound like a lot of work, but with the things in our contract, it was a LOT of work and a lot of money. Too many unknowns for my taste.
So we told our Realtor to get us out.
and so begins the nightmare. Their Realtor wasn't letting us out. We had given them the right to cure....apparently a big mistake.
This home has been on the market forever. We had put in an accepted offer and now we wanted out....but they didn't want to let us out. I was terrified that we were going to get sued or worse, stuck with a house that would constantly need money...a lot of money. Which I goggled..it can happen.
I was so worried about this that I ate like non stop every day, yet somehow didn't gain 40 pounds. My stomach hurt constantly. I didn't want to be around people, but forced myself last Saturday which proved to be the best thing for me.
We got the "list of crap to fix" list back from them and they didn't want to do anything we wanted done for the driveway. Thank god...a way out. We rejected it..and then they sent back an even worse one. WHAT?! Ugh. Finally our Realtor sent them the notice that everyone signs to be released from the house...and 2 days later at 9 they finally signed it AND we got our earnest money back.
To add to my ulcer that I'm sure was forming. I got some absolutely terrible news on Thursday about a friend I love dearly. Talk about walking around in a haze on Friday while waiting to hear news.
BUT! Friday night. Ohhh Friday night. I was told my friend would be fine. Well not fine, we still didn't know, but it wasn't as bad as thought to be. Then about 30 minutes later we got the call about being freed from the house. I call that a pretty fantastic win.
In case you're wondering, "Pam, the house thing doesn't sound that bad." Our Realtor told us that in the past 17 years she has never seen anything like what we were going through. If all house transaction were like the one we went through..no one would ever buy a house.
So to my loves that the Universe is currently kicking and/or punching in the face. It WILL work out.
It has to.
If it's not perfect yet...it's not the end.
are ridiculous.
What happened to my sweet little boy? He has been replaced with a ticking time bomb.
Thane brought him in our room yesterday after his marathon nap and he had the biggest smile on his face. The first 10 minutes after his naps or sleeping are my favorite. He is my sweet baby again. Full of smiles and giggles.
Then after 10 minutes....game on.
The Terrible Twos have hit the Sutter Household. How nice that my in-laws get to experience it with us. (Sorry guys)
My favorite examples:
Sigh,"Thane...what was that one about?"
T- "He was mad that there wasn't any more dreamsicle left...because he ate it all."
Or, he was walking upstairs and passed a gigantic flower vase full of fake flowers that he never pays attention to. Well, this day he decided he wanted to swat at it, because hey...it looks like fun. Well, it fell over and then so did Parker. Screaming, kicking, crying.
We were at a friend's birthday party yesterday, and their son got the coolest Planes riding car. It has lights that go on the propellers and everything. P loved it so much he was pushing it around the room and sitting on top of the box so he could pretend he was riding it. I was dreading cake. I would have to take P off the plane in front of 20 people I didn't know and then deal with the screaming that ensued.
I prepped him. "Ok Parker, we have to go upstairs for cupcakes soon." "Ok P, we have to go upstairs to eat a CUPCAKE! You love cupcakes!" Then it was D Day....time for cake. I picked him up....and shit hit the fan. Screaming, thrashing his body around in my arms, kicking his feet (I put a stop to that one right away). Then we got to the stairs and his body went limp, I guess he thought I'd put him down then? I don't know. so now I have a noodle for a kid, a screaming noodle. Luckily, only the people downstairs got to witness my child at his finest, upstairs I got him to calm down and sing to his friend.
We had another birthday party last night. I give him one of those Gerber pouches to hold him over for a few minutes before we get food. Well, apparently he forgot how to use it and he just walked around with it open. which means that any second he would squirt it on someone. So I took it from him and tried to show him how to eat it. Whats he do?
Does a lap around the room giving me the stink eye. No joke.
This kid came back up to me with the the best grumpy cat face I have ever seen him do. Then what? Lays on the ground to throw a silent temper tantrum. (at least it was silent?)
The couple we were talking to don't have kids...so I was mortified. Luckily she was like, "Well hey! At least he isn't screaming!"
Now that I am thinking about it, this whole throw myself on the floor....but gently lay my head down.....such an act. Well, the silent ones I mean. The ones where he screams? That shit is real. He probably things to himself. "Hmm...I am actually really tired, but I really want to keep playing. What if I pretend to throw a tantrum, I bet I will get my way then. They will totally let me never go to bed." or "hmm...I bet that my friend at school would get upset about this. I think I'll gently lay myself down and kick my feet and see what happens." Those are the best, because he looks at you to see your reaction...and then usually ends up laughing when we tickle him.
I posted about the terrible twos on Facebook and this is my favorite response, "And the 4's-5's, when their strong enough to stand screaming in front of the shopping cart at walmart because you won't buy them everything they want and you can't just run them over, because they're your beloved offspring forcing you to abandon your cart, toss said offspring over your shoulder and carry that kicking and screaming offspring through the store. Ahhhh yes. Good news is, if you don't give in, and they don't get their way, or the attention they're looking for the tantrums will be few and far between. Hang in there mama." - Craig
I underlined my favorite part. I'm sure that runs through every parent's head. "What if..."
and then these two, "They stop? News to me" and "Not sure if my kids are out of their terrible twos." Sigh.....
and for the record. We will not be giving in when his tantrums are about real things. I once saw a women at Walgreens who had a cart FULL. Overflowing even. Her 2 kids were with her and one was just losing it. The mom calmly asked them to stop a few times, while still shopping. Finally, she took her child's hand and the other one followed and they left the store. I heard her say she would come back later to shop, they had to go home if she was going to act like that. I wanted to clap. I mean, sucks for the Walgreens people, but what a parenting win.
I am going to start writing down all his temper tantrums...I think it would make a great blog. Stay tuned for that one.
This shirt is amazing.
All our options in town and in Barneveld in our budget are gone. Creepy. or too small. or no closets. or squatters live in the basement. or it will forever smell like weed.
Time to expand our search to Black Earth.
We found 2 or 3 in Black Earth that we were really interested in. Asked Beth to set up a showing...and yup.
"accepted offer" "closing this week."
Sigh.
There was 1 I kept going to on accident and every time I opened it I would get annoyed. I think on one website I even hid it from my search. The kitchen was horrible, straight from the 70s with bad tile. The walls in the living room were stripes. I didn't know if it was paint or wallpaper, but either way it looked like a lot of work to fix. No thank you.
I showed Thane a few choices in New Glarus and the bad kitchen one and he shrugged and say, "Mehh..may as well go see them!" Just so happens the bad kitchen had an open house on Sunday and so did a good one in New Glarus.
Even better, we had to go get Parker from Spring Green, so we could swing into the Open House in Black Earth on the way back, and then hit up New Glarus after.
I didn't expect a lot. House Hunting is so hard. You are spending a LOT of money of it...and you have to put all your crap in it for years! It could be the perfect house and then boom....something little pops up that totally sucks. Its a big deal people, and so far our price range has blown.
So we walk in to the stripes/bad kitchen house....and I'm blown away.
The dining room is amazing. The woodwork is beautiful. The kitchen looks WAY better in person than it does online. The stripes in the living room are just paint, not wallpaper like I was dreading. The staircase? My god....beautiful.
Bonus...it already has a Pinterest coat area. You know..the lockers? Ya, it kind of has that but an old school version.
Another bonus? It has a shed out back from the 1800s...that isn't gross. At the open house Thane said it could be my scrapbook shed to quote "get all my crap out of the house." Done. I'll take it!
The backyard is all fenced in. Perfect for a toddler and a teenage dog.
It's a block away from a great friend...and Parker's cousin. ;)
It literally is our perfect home.
4 bedrooms. We could be there a while. Not that we are going to fill all these rooms. Cause we aren't.
We wanted it.
Now talk about a stressful, anxiety ridden, ulcer inducing ride. He told us that we were the 3rd group through. One other group was looking for a ranch, but he didn't say anything about the other group. What if they wanted it? What if they got to it first?!?? We HAD to place an offer...stat!!
We put in an offer and over the course of the busiest and best weekend of the summer we managed to get an accepted offer!!!
I will be a lot happier on Wednesday after inspection. I'll be able to breathe. Its a really old house, who knows what could be wrong with it. Good thing I already have every aspect of this house planned out. I am not going to be very happy if things don't go well.
Yesterday during my daily nap at work (don't judge....I'm not used to being up this much with P at night.) I dreamed that I was awake planing out the paint in the house. That's when you know your obsessed.
Going to that Open House was fate. I don't know what finally made me show it to Thane, but I did...2 days before their open house. If he had said, "pass" we never would have gone. Good work babe.
So that's that....now cross your fingers that Wednesday goes well!!
