Two years!

It's been two years since we moved to Kansas.... I can't really say that time flies, because we've done so much in those two years that it seems like we've been here forever.
The time we spent in California seems so long ago, an entire kid ago, if you will!

Since we've been in this house we've upgraded it in small ways; mostly the exterior color (hooray for gray!) and some inside fixing-up and paint. It feels enough like a home, but it's not our forever home. So we've got that itching to move lately. We really want a bit of land with a kind of homestead...but it's out of our financial reach in the area we live, so we have talked about moving and can't reach anything conclusive. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

It's so strange to have been here this long. We haven't lived anywhere this long in the 6 years we've been married. No wonder my husband says he feels 'claustrophobic.' I wouldn't describe my feeling like that, but it's something for sure. I want to live in this area forever, but not knowing if we will or not causes me some stress.

I love the friends I've made here, and the family that isn't too far away, and my BFF that's less than 45 minutes away....and the kids are settled in with our favorite places and people and routines.

So I guess what I'm getting at is that we are at a tipping point. I told my husband the other day, we either agree to stay in this area for the foreseeable future, or we start planning to move and actually do it. Because I don't want to get any deeper than I already am, or it will hurt too bad when we leave. And I think we agreed that no area is better than the metro, so we'll just have to move outside the expensive land area if we want to get our 'homestead.' Good thing I'm planning to homeschool for a while because those school districts that we can afford aren't really great.




and while I have you, just a quick family update.

no races in our future, which is taking a toll on the waist lines LOL (but not too bad, thanks to still mostly clean eating)
I've been making all kinds of fun recipes, and I really should be better at blogging them... speaking of, I've been thinking of buying a new domain and letting this one revert...something to the affect of life with momma, or something like that... I thought maybe in the kitchen with momma, IDK
J is fully potty trained and it's awesome. He is such a big boy now, except for his lack of talking. We're working on that with speech therapy though. He is amazing at pretend play, and the therapist said she often forgets he's not 2.5 because of how advanced in all other areas he is. I think he's an albert eistein type for sure.
G is a real blessing (except for when her head is spinning around, KWIM?). She's so sweet, loving, and compassionate. She loves red still, and daniel tiger. She also is currently fascinated with learning the planets.(I think last time I really wrote, she was into the moon) Science FTW!
They both love helping me do just about anything, and doing projects keeps us busy.
Being outside was so awesome this fall and winter...hence why I didn't really blog! We were living the life man!
Fishing and park picnicking were our favorite past times--plus visiting family and taking our two trips.
And.... I'm still in physical therapy for my diastsis recti, and it's super sucky. Basically I need to have surgery but that sounds about like the worst thing ever to me.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Lessons of a first time home buyer

This is not the tutorial type post it probably should be. I am stressed and annoyed. Irritated and mad. I'm really at my wits end. I'll start by saying, it was the only house in our budget that fit our needs at the time, so we had to take it because of our confined time.

If we had more time, this wouldn't have been our house. We would have kept looking.

That is lesson number one.
Take your time.

If you've read some previous house posts, you know about our plumbing issues- faucets, dishwasher, toilet. Not to mention the whole house filter doesn't work and the main shut off is shady. Then there's the water heater. At least that was paid for. Then the driveway meeds mud jacked. That's next week.

The basement bathroom needs help. There're several cracks and nails popping.

There's countless little things my sweet husband has fixed and continues to improve on. Painting, switches, caulking, ect...

But now we are facing a lot of wood rot damage that needs fixing. Our home inspection didn't not tell us how bad it was. It briefly mentioned a few places and said it wasn't bad. LIES. All of it.
The sad thing is the inspector offered to give us our money back after the plumbing issues and I took HER up on it. Sadly, there's not much we can go after her now...

Lesson number two. Get a good inspection. We "trusted" our agent when he told us his inspector was great. Ya I bet great for helping him sell houses. She screwed us over so bad. If we had know half this stuff was bad, we would have requested it be fixed or requested more money off the purchase price.

Lesson three. Don't be afraid to ask for money to cover repairs or for them to be done.

I think that's what I'm most mad about. We were advised by our realtor not to ask for much....lame! Should have trusted my gut. I wanted to request more, but didn't stand up for myself when other people told me to skate by on little requests.

Lesson four. Being a homeowner is nice and all but it sucks not having the five grand necessary to fix your house...for now. Who knows how much it'll be next time.

To recap; we bought a lemon.

Let's play catch up

First, yes, I am still alive. Second, no, you probably won't ever get a final moving journal...instead I'll just do a bit of catching up in this blog--encompassing all things.

We moved into our new house, a little over a week after closing (due to work and belongings' travel). Things went wrong immediately. My poor husband made it back on Sunday, but locked his keys in the car, with his things in the car too. It was quite the disaster. He didn't call anyone to get them out, and since I was 6 hours away...he just waited it out. He also had to stay in a hotel that evening because our water heater was broken, despite it being functioning at the inspection. To make a long story short, he had a horrible day, and I wasn't around to help or take on some of the stress burden.

G and I had a miserable first part of the drive (it's 6 hours) up to our new house from my parents, but after a nice Panera lunch and smoothie, she slept a decent part of the rest of the way. We arrived to a still stressed-out hubby/daddy and tried to help as best we could. Everyone was pooped and ready to be settled in. The house problems inhibited us from relaxing at all.

The main issues are/were plumbing related, but are on the mends now. Our home warranty has paid for the new water heater and we did get some of our inspection cost refunded since we were fairly dissatisfied with how that all went down. So, to make a long story short, the house is becoming a home, but at a cost.

I think my husband still has a good deal of anxiety about all the things that need fixing (mostly little things, like closet doors, mismatching things, and squeaking), but I've kind of let it fall on the bottom of my worry list--because we are super close to the baby coming. I think the thing that annoys me most about the house is the amount of dust that is just circulating. I had the house professionally cleaned, and I am a super-clean-freak...but the air ducts must just be horrible or something because it is so dusty in this house (as in, I dust and then later that night there's evidence of dust back on the items).

Almost all of the walls are the color I want them, and almost everything is hung. They baby's room is ready to go and my mom and sister got me a glider--so excited for that! I've settled into the kitchen, and nearly everything has a place throughout the house.

I got my husband an awesome anniversary/birthday/Christmas present, in the form of a family room set up in the basement, complete with big TV and loveseat/couch combo. We added the yard sale coffee/end tables that we sanded and refinished...it looks so great down there now! I was so excited to surprise him with it, and though he was a bit "mad" that I spent money without talking to him about it...he deserved it! He got a moving bonus, and money for driving cross country...so while we could have used those bonuses to pay off more student loans... One has to live a little bit, because you never know when your time is up. Plus it makes it so much easier to relax at night, rather than the main level living room that echos right into G's room (thus, tv and conversation have to be quieter than down in the basement).

I've posted a good amount about my stress with the pregnancy, so if you haven't caught those posts...be sure to check those out for the baby's updates. I hope he comes soon. I'm so uncomfortable! Tonight I take a new mom from church a meal, and that was my last responsibility before the due date...so therefore, I'm pretty sure my water will break right as I'm pulling out of her drive way :-) They always say, right when you get the last thing checked off your to-do list, the baby will come.... I certainly hope so! (ps. we will get 5-6 meals of our own in January--love our church's mom's group!)

Speaking of the new church--it's very nice. A lot of young families go there, and I've already gotten in with a play group. All the moms are wonderful and the kiddos are so fun for G to interact with. She's pretty much the youngest, but it's good for her to see the older kids and learn from them. She loves friends and knows what going to see friends means :-)

She is also very intune with the new baby. She has seem him on the ultrasound monitor several times now and totally makes the connection that that is who is in my belly. She gives him kisses and hugs and love pats. She knows where his room and bed and car seat are. She promises she will be a good big sister and help momma with the new baby--so we'll see how that all plays out. I have a plan to make sure she gets alone time with us too, and to also include her in as many of the baby's routines as possible. That's really the only time she gets crabby...is if she can't help with something. She loves to help and be involved, so that's always fun when I am doing chores or cooking :-)

She's also great at playing music (for a nearly 2 year old, she's got serious rhythm) and dancing, coloring, and building. She loves "doing tools" and following Daddy around when he's doing "his" house-work-things.

Her words have increased exponentially since the last time I wrote about her. I don't think I could list them all, but it's much easier to communicate these days. I, obviously, understand her better than anyone because I'm with her all the time, but she's getting better.

Another one of my favorite things is getting snuggles and hugs from her. She's a real sweet heart. Just this morning she was snuggling up to my shoulder and I was just overwhelmed with this amazing mom-love. It's great to be her mom, and I can't wait to share that love with her baby brother as soon as he's ready.

Some of G's favorite things lately (21 months) are; 

playing Nativity Scene with the little people set that my friend Rachel got her
eating Teddy Grahams and drinking juice boxes....try to limit those!
watching Caillou ... which is what her next birthday will be, she LOVES him
going for walks, playing with the soccer ball, and playing chase :-)
playing "get you/me" aka tickle monster
setting the table (forks/spoons only at this point)
turning on the Christmas lights and tree
helping put away groceries
reading Little Bear's Little Boat
singing nursery rhymes
making "number" soup
anything "kah-chat" (chocolate)
doing anything that makes her look like a big girl ... she's like a 8 year old trapped in a tiny body


In other news, our marriage is doing great and we celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thanksgiving. My husband is seriously so amazing and I thank God for him constantly. He is so helpful, patient, caring, and compassionate. He doesn't complain, isn't greedy or selfish, and is such a good dad.

I hit the jackpot there.

Don't worry, I try my hardest to reciprocate.

My birthday was last weekend and he surprised me with pearl earrings, and also went all out on a fancy homemade dinner and semi-homemade (re:box) cake. Surprised was italicized because he can rarely pull that off.

My sister has been spending a good amount of time here, which has been really nice--especially seeing her and G interact. They've got a great relationship already :-)

Christmas is planned to be at our house this year, due to the baby's impending arrival, and I can't wait to play hostess...though depending on his age at the time, I may be more of a delegating host than a true hostess.

Love to all.

Moving Journal Part 4 {week at my parents}

Catch up on parts 1,2,3 Yes, I realize I'm far behind! We've been super busy settling into our new house, with plenty of stories of home ownership to come.

Monday, 10/22

This morning we woke up and G helped her grandma make breakfast--pancakes :-) She loves helping in the kitchen, and Grandma has a step stool perfect for her to stand on. While the breakfast cooked, G played with her aunt's old doll house and watched some TV with Grandpa. After breakfast she went outside for a little bit with her grandparents and I laid down since I was (am) really worn out. Then they came back inside and we all played some. Grandma made us an awesome shrimp pasta lunch and I got things packed up. G was getting really tired, and I wanted to utilize nap time while driving, so that I could have some peace and quiet; so our plan was to leave just before nap time. It worked out pretty well. She slept for nearly two hours and we made good time.We had a brief diaper change/snack stop and continued on our way. She whined/cried the rest of the trip, but we arrived at my parents in one piece, and I can't complain (looking back).

Moving Journal, part 3

part 1 and part 2 are also available for your reading pleasure

Friday, October 19 -- the day we bought a house!

So we woke up, feeling much more refreshed after the previous day's craziness. The hotel had a decent hot breakfast buffet, and we headed out on some errands after that. We went to our bank to get a cashier's check for nearly $9000. That's always fun, no? We got some cash and a roll of quarters (to do laundry at the hotel), too. Then we went to the paint store to get paint for our new house (yay!). After that, we went to our title company's office to CLOSE ON OUR HOUSE. They were really nice there, and even had an area for kids to color and play with toys--thank goodness because G need some distracting. After some painless signatures (it really isn't as bad as some make it sound), we got the keys to our new house!

G is holding our new house key!

The day really had just begun, though, because we had a full afternoon too! We grabbed some rare-for-us fast food, Taco Bell, and headed to our new house. The paint guy was already there. Yes, my husband agreed to pay (thanks to a living social deal) someone to paint the hideously red-orange kitchen into a nice shade of perfect green. It's technically called Garden Sage, and we chose it from 20 or so swatches, without fully knowing how it'd turn out. When I envisioned the green kitchen I wanted...this shade is absolutely it, I couldn't be more pleased!

Moving Journal part 2 {Thursday Chaos}

Thursday, 10/18

G didn't sleep well overnight, either, waking several times, crying from 3-3:30 am, and getting us all up 30 minutes earlier than necessary at 6:50 am. We ate breakfast at the hotel (not free, unfortunately), and packed up again. We had planned the easiest way to get the car, car seat, 6 bags plus a diaper bag and backpack, toddler, and pregnant woman (plus husband) to the airport. We decided that my husband would take the car with two bags and backpack (and car seat) to the economy parking lot (so that it'd be there upon his return). I took G and diaper bag with me on the hotel shuttle bus, since the driver would help me load the other 4 bags. This was great to begin with. My husband didn't have any trouble getting his light load to the airport, and G and I did fine on the way there. The driver unloaded our bags, but the trouble began with trying to get us across the 6 lane road separating us from the drop off point and the door. Eventually, my husband ended up running away from his bags sitting outside the airport door (I know this is a TSA violation to leave bags unattended, but they were always in our sight, so don't tell on us). He met us at the cross walk, grabbed G and two bags, while I ran/rolled the other two toward the doors.

Getting from the doors to the counter was the biggest circus. No one offered to help, so that's nice. We eventually made our way (remember, 6 bags, a car seat, a diaper bag, a back pack, & a toddler) to the counter, where there was PRAISE GOD no line. 

Moving Journal part one

In order to preserve some memories of this eventful move, I'll be posting a kind of diary so you can all follow along.

Monday, 10/15

I kind of panic that there's too much to do and things are going to be too stressful....what else would I do but bake? G and I decorate the cupcakes together, we take some to our neighbor and her kids, and the rest to the gym play-center ladies. Everyone appreciates the gesture and delicious butter cream icing, colored purple and orange for Halloween. My husband gets a haircut and I entertain G alone since he doesn't get home until nearly 8. We eat up leftovers and pack more. We try to relax before the chaos starts.

Tuesday, 10/16

The packing crew arrives. I'm still in my pajamas and don't care. I show them around and request they do the kitchen last, so G and I can have breakfast. I also run the dishwasher one last time, and work on packing our separate things more.

G and I take the CRV recyclables to the place where we get money back. (If you aren't familiar with CRV, look at your bottles and cans, many say "CA cash refund" or something to that effect. California charges you a 10¢ 'deposit' when you buy items that are labeled as CRV...and while it's great if you toss them in your weekly recycling collection, you don't ever get that money back. Thus, for the seven months we lived in CA, we watched our stash of CRV items pile up in a big box in our garage. On our final day in California, we turned them in for a 'refund' of about $18.)

We return to an increasingly barren house, as our belongings get packed away. The crew finishes around 1 pm, so I am able to put G down for a nap around 1:45. After nap time, we go to the shoe store. She tries on some ridiculously cute winter boots, that I can't bare to pay $35 for. She also falls in love with a pair of rainbow slip on shoes that don't come in her size...poor thing has tiny wide feet. I buy myself a pair of boots (brown leather, very nice) for the first time in years. We also go to Kohls to buy another suitcase because I need more room to pack...but they are too expensive there, so we head to Target. G picks our her first suitcase, a pretty blue roller one with front and back wheels.

Busy, Tired, Pregnant.

Those are my excuses for lack of blogging lately.

I am busy --- we are in the middle of a contract on a house in Kansas. If you have bought a house before, you know there's a lot that goes into it. I knew that going in, so I was prepared, but it doesn't change the fact that there's a lot to stay on top of. Electronic paperwork certainly helps though! I also think we've got a good real estate agent, lender, and realtor mother-in-law looking out for us (don't worry, they are 3 separate people). We've got the contract down, the inspection done, and are waiting on the appraisal.

Our House Hunting Labor Day

We are currently under contract for a house back in Kansas! It's a four bedroom, 3.5 bathroom, two story home. It's a bit higher than we had wanted to go, but the sellers are paying nearly all of the closing costs, so that helps. We feel very fortunate to have the ability to buy a home, especially one with room to "grow" into. I love that it is a two story, and look forward to Christmas morning when the kids run downstairs to see the tree, presents, and snow falling out the window. There's a lot I want to do with the house, but it's nearly impossible to do it all now and for a planner/impatient person such as myself, it's definitely hard to wait. I've actually got my notebook next to me with sketches of the room sizes and plans for how things will go into each room (plus what we "need/want" to fill them with). I have to do lists, eventually to do lists, to buy lists, to buy eventually lists....buying a home is exciting!

Seven Quick Takes Friday ...err Saturday

Better late than never???

1) G started saying 'no-no' yesterday. Geeerreat! I honestly hoped/planned to make it to kindergarten before she learned the word. She knows what 'no' means, and generally respects it....but apparently she gets to use it herself now! Prior to today, she would simply shake her head to indicate she didn't like or want to do something. I could handle that, it was silent :-)
I LOL'd the first time she said it because it was so darn cute--momma mistake, I know, because know she loves saying it!

2) We made a super cool ramp for the few cars and trucks G has. It was so fun and she squealed the first time we put the vehicles down it--I'm proud of myself for coming up with a great idea to recycle the big box her Mega Bloks learning table came in (post to come about all the awesome stuff the sent us). It's the simple things in life :-)

3) This week was not so kind to a pregnant momma. First, there are two private stressors I've been dealing with. Then G slept miserably one night (as in, took two hours of screaming and then me holding her hand through the crib rails and 'shushing' her for 30 minutes + woke up from 3 -5 am to repeat the same process). I guess it was related to the runny nose she had for two days--I imagine she might have had a sore throat prior to it appearing, as adults get too. She's working on canines, so that's fun. Then yesterday I woke up to a seriously, I'll spare you the details I shared on my facebook, gross vomit attack in her crib. Suffice it to say it was everywhere and she went straight to the bath tub. I guess I'm thankful for my strong stomach. Then I'm feeling all down today...It's a sunny Saturday, but I can't shake the mood. Thankfully I'm attempting a choco-pick-me-up. Prayers appreciated.

4) Big Announcement....We are moving back to Kansas-----PRAISE GOD. Not that I hate it here or anything, in fact; the Bay Area is quite lovely (albeit expensive), but I certainly can't wait:

• to get back closer to family + friends
• snow in the winter (I really would have missed that)
• my comfort zone with most things
• cheaper prices
• have my husband around more
• oh, and Hy-Vee + Aldi

What's the number one thing I'll miss about CA?? Our gym. Hilarious, right? That play center is to.die.for. G absolutely loves it, the girls there love her, I love them, she has a ball, ugh...sad day. I'm going to miss letting her play there for an hour a day, 5 days a week. She's going to miss it.
I won't miss much else. I feel like we have been-there-done-that, with the big things in the Bay Area, especially after our mini-vacation to Lake Tahoe next week. Oh, I did miss out on Wine Country...but can't help that, I'm pregnant.

5) That should explain my extreme absence this week, minus the sponsored post for Famous Footwear's B2S sale. We've been house hunting online & trying to get ducks in a row for buying our first home. WHAT? So exciting, I KNOW! Realtor, check. Lender, check. Favorites list, check. Flights/car/sleeping arrangements for our house hunting weekend over Labor Day, check. For all the negative things this week, one major positive. Rejoice!

6) My sister sent baby boy + G some awesome Carter's clothes this week. It was a TOTAL surprise, and I'm really shocked she could keep it that way for so long! She said she ordered them on August 8...so I'm really impressed with her secrecy! It was so fun to open packages of adorable little boy clothes--plus two shirts for G. I kept saying 'oh my goodness!' like I was on Ellen or something, lol... Thank you boo!!!!!

7) This morning on our way back from the grocery store, G briefly closed her eyes while at a stop light, all sprawled out.... exhibit a)

To see more quick takes, head over to ConversionDiary.com

Moving across the country: diaper edition

When we found out we would be moving from Kansas to California, we had about two weeks notice. There were a lot of things running around my head; moving check lists, address changes, settling our lease terms, finding a new place to live, how to physically get to California with a baby... but I never even blinked when it came to diapering. We'd obviously continue our cloth diapering.

A year ago, I would have been scared to even think about moving with cloth diapers; but our experiences in cloth have brought us to a point where we trust them and prefer them over disposables. (I do hate to say that I did briefly blame cloth diapers for G's night-wakings about 2 weeks ago). I used to fear traveling with cloth because of the smell and hassle of changing--not to mention trying to find a place to wash them. Thankfully both of G's grandparents used cloth and are okay with me doing laundry at their houses. We've never stayed in a hotel longer than 2 days, so we've been able to skate by on our good size stash. The smell is contained in our awesome travel wet bags (one planet wise and one itti bitti). The 'hassle' of changing a cloth diaper versus a disposable is just something I've gotten used to, and pocket diapers that are pre-stuffed make changing G pretty comparable to using a 'sposie.

I wanted to share how moving across the country in cloth worked for us, incase you ever find yourself in a similar predicament.

Kid's table at Grandma's #WW #linky

We spent several days at my in-laws prior to our move. They don't have a high chair for baby G and we couldn't bring ours due to it being shipped to CA, so this is where G ate most of her meals :-)

Link up!

New grocery shopping experiences and Menu Plan Monday

After a few weeks absence due to moving, I present to you... our meal plan for the week. I am actually looking forward to getting back into a routine. I think it will make the stress of being in a new part of the country seem less noticeable. I wonder if I am the only one that loves having a grocery shopping routine. I truly enjoyed the stores in our old town and I miss the routine I had down. It's odd being in a new place with NONE of the stores I used to love shopping at (except Target, thankfully).

Moving Pains

I don't have too much time for an in depth blog analysis of our move, so this one will be quick & easy to read.

I love the fact that we have a house. I don't particularly love our house...but it is nice.
I like the layout, for what it is. I do not like that there is no carpet; I really like carpeted bedrooms. I like the kitchen enough, but the drawers are really shotty (they squeak and get off the track really bad).
I love that there is grass for G to play on/in, but don't like that it's only half of the yard (the other half is dirt). I love that we have a garage.
I don't particularly care for the neighborhood. It's the best we could afford, and that's depressing. I am proud of my husband and he is doing so great, so it sucks that we aren't in an area like we were in Kansas. Don't get me wrong, we aren't in a bad area...but coming from where we were before in the suburbs of KC, this is definitely a step down in that regards. I don't fear for my life or anything, about a mile away I would be a little scared, though. Not sugar coating it; I'm pretty sure California has the most homeless and un/under-employed people, which leads to a lot of crime...

Seven Quick Takes 15

--- 1 ---

We move into our new home tomorrow. Our flight is at 7 am local time and we get to SFO at 9 Pacific time (I've never lived outside of central time, so this will be weird!). I'm very excited but also nervous / sad to leave the Midwestern life I've always known. This week has been really chaotic, but I've really surprised myself (and husband) by being patient & calm about the whole thing.

--- 2 ---

Example one of how this week is crazy:
The moving company sent ONE guy to pack and move our apartment. I guess when they heard 2 bedroom apartment, they didn't think it'd have that much stuff. HA. The guy is great and a really hard worker, but even he admitted we "filled it well" and that it was way underestimated. He had hoped to be done by 4 pm, and then 6 pm, but ended up needing until 10 PM to get everything packed and loaded. We didn't stay that late, because we had a 3.5 hour drive to get to my in-laws (our in-between location). That's a lot of trust to put in someone else...nearly everything we own is not in our possession. For a control freak like myself, it's totally a God thing that I'm not having a panic attack right now.

First kids meal: Wordless Wednesday

Due to all the moving adventures, baby G got her first restaurant kid's meal yesterday. She's a ballin' kiddo & had a fancy Hereford House (voted best steakhouse in KC) li'l wrangler meal.

For $5, we got an all natural beef hot dog on toasted bun, steamed veggies (broccoli, carrots, green beans, red bell peppers, squash, zucchini), fruit cup (pineapple, melon, strawberries), and it was supposed to come with a drink & ice cream sundae (but she didn't need those). I thought that was a super deal!

Link up!

Moving day

When I woke up this morning, I did not realize it would be our last day here... Turns out the movers are coming tomorrow!
Here are a few notes to catch you up to speed:
-Shipping our cars & things, flying into SFO on Saturday
-Visiting family until then
-baby G is getting better & better at walking & "talking"
-She loves Elmo & her new cabbage patch doll. She has a touch of a cold & I hate hearing her cough at night.
-G is teething on 6 & 7, and not sleeping great...perfect timing ;)
-her birthday party was AWESOME & my pooh cake turned out great
-I'm pretty sad about living where she was born & all the other things Iove about our current home
-I do look forward to all the exciting bay area things we will explore
-I am not looking forward to the "settling in" process...wish we could skip to the "know your way around" feeling

I'm sorry my blogging is on a back burner now but there is a new giveaway up soon :)