Just some thoughts

We are still waiting to close on our house. Its been a super stressful week for me, and yet I know that the Lord is watching out for me. I know this because both my husband and child are still with us, and I love them to pieces. But I feel like I haven't updated in a LONG time so here goes.

Brian's surgery was a success! YAY! We didn't waste money. He still claims that his nose gets clogged up, but he is sleeping so much better, I know because he usually wakes me up when he doesn't (or maybe I am just so tired that I am not waking up.) Its still tender and healing but we are well on the way to recovery. He got an amazing blessing from my brother in law Mike, and again I am so thankful to be close to family. Its just not the same without them:D

Leland is doing great. He is so so handsome and for the first time the other day I realized he got my eyes not his dads his eyes are clearly green in this pic... whereas we thought they were blue looks like the Hazel gene won! He has been freaking out at night. I am still up because of it. It freaks me out to wake up to him screaming. I usually go in and sit and sing when it happens (cause they all say to let him stay in bed) but lately he is so shaken up I pick him up and just rock him and tell him I am here. I think the stress is affecting him but I am not sure we have had some major behavioral issues lately as well. So I think that is the safest guess. That and things are slowly getting packed up and I think that kids can sense when things are going to change and since most kids need a routine it freaks them out. 2 things I want to make sure I note are how much he loves looking at lights. We drove around for family night last night and he will yell from the back seat MAMA and then his gibberish. Its pretty dang darling! and 2 is that he has learned that Hi is a great greeting... and that it is also a "good" way to get out of trouble. It started when he had stripped in his crib, jammies diaper everything came off I walked in to get him and he knew I was ticked when he saw my face so he tilted his head and said HI I am glad to report that I am getting better at NOT giving into his darling Hi but it will be a while before I can ignore it.

Me well I am surviving.... like I said the house hasn't closed yet, its not for lack of funding the money is sitting at the title company its the fact that the title company didn't send all the documents and the bank (its a foreclosure) won't sign the papers without having everything in front of them. Tonight ended their 72 hours..... so hopefully it will close out tomorrow and we can start painting and getting things taken care of. Its super stressful to me as its hard for me to motivate when there is a possibility that this house is going to take longer than I am prepared for. Luckily we have lots of helpers so hopefully we will be able to get it done and move and it will all go smoothly. The house is still a disaster but we will make it I think. I have lots of help coming soon so that is good. I keep telling myself that.

I am increasingly thankful for the tender reminders that my first priority is my family, and I am grateful to have them... we got lucky with Leland and our fertility saga continues. SO we will put it in the Lords hands and hope there is another one for us some time. Its been an interesting process... I have been tested that is for sure. I am sure it also doesn't help to be pumped full of hormones while we are trying to move... eh survival is the key! Keep us in your prayers!

Guilty as charged

I have been struggling to maintain my sanity these last few days. And with help from my wonderful in laws and my amazing sister I have managed to NOT lose it. However it still may happen and at which point I may not be able to recover;)

Brian had surgery this last Friday, and it was nerve racking for both of us, we teased back and forth about how smart it was of me to raise his life insurance this last month to 3 years worth of his salary. But when all was said and done, he is pretty priceless to me. They gave him a Valium once they called him back and he became super happy. Except when they did the IV she was an amazing stick, got it without having to try again and super quick! Brian begs to differ but I was watching so I know:D I sat out in the waiting room while he went under the knife and got to finish the last book of The Lord of the Rings series I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The Doc came out and told me he was glad we went ahead with the surgery as his septum was SERIOUSLY crooked, I wish I could show you all how big his eyes got when he said that, but I digress, apparently the bone spur was what was causing the nose bleeds and the closed off sinus' was what was causing the mucus build up. So to get all of that fixed Brian should see a vast improvement. I only really started to get nervous a hour after that, since the Doc had come out at 9 to tell me all went well and that I should get to see him in about 30 minutes which turned into almost 2 hours. So I was ready to see him when they finally called me back. They told me turn left and left, so what did I do... turn right and go the the nurses station.... yeah I don't like NOT knowing what I am doing, so one of the nurses pointed me in the right direction and just told me to go find him. So in I went to a room filled with curtained off recovery spaces to find Brian. I passed two or three "rooms" when I found one that was sort of open, so I looked and it was some SUPER HAPPY guy... he smiled at me and asked if I was lost... I was sort of but I knew Brian had to be in there somewhere, and this guy wasn't going to be able to help me he had just had his ACL fixed or something like that. So I smiled and said just trying to find my recovering guy who happened to be right next to him, but he had and ice pack on his eyes so all I could see was his goatee.... I am glad I found the right guy though. He seemed to know I was there the minute I walked in and held out his hand. I find that he is a LOT more lovey dovey (like serious lovey dovey not his normal mocking crap) when he is on pain killers..... but anyway that was when I noticed that his feet were crossed... you can't really tell but they are and it made me smile cause Leland if sitting down ALWAYS has his feet crossed. I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree.....

Anyway I found out that Leland had a fever and I wasn't supposed to expose my husband to anyone with a fever and so I flipped out for a bit and called Amy who was happy to take him even though she would risk her 5 boys getting sick. But luckily my lovely in laws kept him, not only did they keep him for all of Friday but also all of Saturday and into Sunday morning so I could get rest when Brian rested. I think they may have been a little bit sad to see him go home with us tonight. I however was so GLAD to have my bebob back. He changed so much in just those few days I couldn't stop looking at him. He is however totally irritated that his dad can't pick him up, he is pretty fond of his Dad and loves to spend time chilling with him.

Anywho I am extremely grateful to know that I have such wonderful family so close to help and listen when I feel like I am losing it completely. This week is going to be a rough go. But hopefully we will close on our house Monday or Tuesday and move by this weekend. Course we may try to move the weekend before Christmas if I can't get it all together!

Bah humbug...

I am feeling a little bit like scrooge... although that could just be because I was told by my huz that it would be silly to decorate here since we are moving in a few weeks...... I may get some decorations out if I can get it clean tomorrow, but the lack of cheer in my home makes it hard to feel the season... dumb stress:D I am in desperate need of GOOD Christmas music.... wish I had the money to just down load it:D Hopefully soon we will be able to close and I will be able to decorate MY house, finally a house.... but its been extended again till the middle of next week... This is getting old... listen to me whine... at least we can afford a house and have that luxury so I guess I should just count my blessings! Well I also need some prayers folks Brian is going in for minor surgery on Friday, its outpatient so nothing huge... just getting his nose fixed up there are LOTS of things wrong poor guy. We think that might be why he is tired all the time, deviated septum bone spurs polyp's etc etc etc... it will be good to get it taken care of!

Quick story!

Yesterday my FIL had Leland all day. He put him down for nap about the time the Cowboys game came on (yes that cracked me up) and went to check on him at half time. He opened the door just a crack and was staring at the crib, he couldn't see anything but he could hear some movement. So he opened the door a little wider. He found Leland on the queen bed right next to his crib with a bike helmet on and playing with toys Mimi had bought for Christmas. He told him to get back in his bed and stay there, and so he did. But we are pretty sure he didn't get any sleep. I think by 2 1/2 it will be impossible to keep him in the crib, although if there is nothing close to it he may not try to escape. I can only hope... :D

My Bebob....

Ok so I know I am missing the post every day for something I am thankful for but today I am thankful for my little boy! He is amazing! His laugh can cure any bad days and I am just glad I have him to keep me company! Last night was a rough night, he was having a hard time breathing laying down (we were sharing a room at Amy's) and so I got him up and propped myself up with pillows so that if I held him he would be almost sitting up but still comfortable enough to sleep.... I was surprised by how much I didn't resent him for lost sleep (we all know how I NEED my sleep) instead I just cherished the fact that I had a baby that could sleep cuddled into my chest. Also last Sunday the youth choir preformed and he was sitting and playing and as soon as the boys joined in he turned around and grabbed the bench in front of him so he could listen to them. It tells much better in person... but yeah I am thankful for my bebob.

Blessed

We are so blessed to have such great friends and our very supportive families close. I have two friends that are just wonderful and are always making sure I am taken care of when Brian is at school. Tonight I got the treat of being able to cook with them ( I LOVE to cook for groups.... I hate to cook for 2:D) and I feel a little bad cause I totally took over... but they let me be bossy and I came home (well they brought me home) feeling blessed that i have two adopted sisters down here in Dallas. I am also blessed to be so close to Amy who lets me crash her house when Brian needs to study(or any other time really:D)... She is the best ya'll Leland gets into everything and she just smiles and loves on him, it makes me feel so welcome and loved I just want her to know it. I adore her kids who always seem excited to see me, even if I am grumpy they are there with hugs... I hope they know how much I love them. Seriously some of the best kids around.

I am even more blessed because shortly I will be living so close to them I will be able to see them more, and hang out more, and get to be a part of their growing up. I am hoping I can be a good example to those kids and let them know I love them even when I am hard on them... Poor Zeke probably gets it the worst, but its just cause I love him too darn much... Talk about a ray of sunshine... Zeke is that!

I am also finding myself very grateful for my wonderful in laws, who love me regardless of how messy my house is or how whiny I am. They are great and I am thankful for all they do for us. They have been very supportive and helpful with this whole home buying business and I love that. I feel like I can call them up and ask questions and they will spend whatever time they have answering them.

So as Thanksgiving approaches I just wanted to be thankful a little in advance for the wonderful family that I have surrounding me. Even the ones that are far away and i miss daily... I love them all and am grateful for the support and love we get from them!

Our House!

Our House inspection went so WELL! We only have some minor things to fix and they are totally doable by ourselves! WHICH IS AWESOME... and by ourselves I do mean with the help of my Father in law:D But we are so excited there is a radiant barrier in our attic and while it is not a weight bearing attic (meaning we can maybe store one or two light things, we can't store much up there) that will significantly help in reducing the cooling bill or so we were told. Our garage also has some insulation on the actual garage door... but that is probably because there are windows into the garage. Almost every window has blinds already on it, except of course in the garage and in the kitchen, so we only need to buy a few of those which will be really nice! The Hamilton's gave us $100 dollar gift card to Home Depot for our anniversary, so we will be buying some of our stuff there! Thanks Mom and Dad Hamilton for the gift! Anyway we used an inspector named Ted Menelly, he was wonderfully helpful and took us through how to fix each thing that he found was wrong with the house. He let us ask him a million questions and was more than happy to to walk us through how to fix it more than once. He is on the cheaper end of the spectrum but in no way would you know it. He is helpful and very much a good sport. He finished telling us all about our homes issues then waited patiently while Brian went around and got all the pictures for ya'll. We had a nice conversation..... while we were waiting for him to finish up and I would highly recommend him if you need an inspection done any time soon!

Before you scroll through the pictures you should know we bought a foreclosure... which is why there is all sorts of random and its NOT clean....

This is our side yard

Me looking large in front of the garage


Front of our house

The lovely owner also installed the garage door opener wrong... and they tore it half way down when they left.... I suppose it could have been worse....
Our closet runs the whole back side of our room... ITS HUGE!

Our lamely stunted bathroom vanity, we will eventually put some new cabinets in and extend the vanity but for now its perfect.

Our tub... YAY

Master bedroom the door on the back wall is the closet, and the door on the side wall is the master bathroom

these are the lovely parting holes the last owners did. Should be easy to fix, I hear they have classes at Home Depot and Lowes for this sort of thing... Looks like I will be learning some new things!
Back side of the house

This is our backyard... from the patio (one of the problems is it is sloped towards the house so we will have to make a drainage way for it so we don't end up with all our soil washed up to the house)

My incredibly small pantry (but on the flip side I have more cabinets than I ever had before... so we can make it work!

This is our kitchen (to those I talked to and said it had a fridge I very much got the two houses we saw that day mixed up... we are getting a fridge from the Hamilton's... its a lovely :D I am just thankful we don't have to buy one! Mom H if this information comes as a shock to you talk to Brian he is the one that told me we were getting the fridge from your garage:D)

This is the closet of the bedroom Leland will be in,... Just have to get some new hinges...

Guest bathroom/ Leland's bathroom yes that is some random t shirt just hangin out there

This is the sink for the above bathroom, Brian must have found it amusing that they left the soap...

This is our living room going into the kitchen

the walk way me and our inspector are standing by leads into the master bedroom

This is supposed to be a formal dinning room, but Brian and I are going to use it as a computer space.... and if we keep our fish tank it will go in here probably.

The two doors that are straight to the back are the two bedrooms, the door off to the left is the laundry room which leads off to the garage and the door on the right is the bathroom....
Laundry room

Spare bedroom....

Spare bedroom closet... if we can ever afford "dish network" we have a box for it...

Let me know what ya think.... We are super excited about it, and we are less the 10 minutes from my sister Amy, and with that said we will be in her ward for a little while as I suspect they will be splitting her ward sooner rather than later! I am SO SO thankful for your prayers and thoughts cause we got an amazing deal. This house new sells for 146,000 and we got ours for 120,000 and with minimal problems to fix that is a HUGE blessing!

Fun Frames!

My friend Kamille, who I went and visited this weekend makes these fabulous frames.... I got this one when Leland was born, and I have to admit she knows me well! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Green! It is just so fun to have on our wall... The other nice thing is it fits both a 5x7 and 4x6, and it looks fabulous either way! You can check our her Etsy shop House to Home Frames. She will do custom orders as well! Check it out... you may just find something you love to pieces!

Sailing

Brian Jr. and Brian Sr. went out sailing a few weekends ago, Leland was a natural on the boat and got his sea legs after a few minutes. I hear it was a great time had by all! I am glad Poppy is so willing to share the boat with us! It is a fabulous time!

I have a BLOG?

I haven't blogged in forever and I admit I feel guilty about it... wanna know what else I feel guilty about? I haven't decorated for Halloween, and I won't either... cause yeah... I am lame I suppose but really its just more stuff to store and our storage closet is overflowing! I figure the easiest way to do this is to # them... so here goes...in no particular order!

1. The parents came at the beginning of October, this is also Amy's birthday we went to Texas Road House for her birthday dinner and she was a great sport and rode the fake horse:D But I think the best part was when her oldest boys asked her to PLEASE make sure she read the cards... don't forget the cards mom! And when she did the first one said, "I hope you like the shirts and the chocolate" Ame and the rest of us got a good laugh, and had fun explaining to them that a card should NOT tell the person what is in the bag...

We played lots of Mario Kart... by we I do mean pops and the kiddos, Amy is a pro so she enjoyed playing as well, i like to watch as I normally make noises that are not kosher with sleeping children... Although I do make it more fun:D Leland was itchin to get his little hands on one so Pops took him on and played a few races "with his help" you can tell he is pretty focused...

and then you can see that sliver of his dad he inherited... wait... what squirrel?

Amy and my mom discovered this great sale at JC Penny's when they went out to the mall and I stayed home with most of the kids, I had Brian and my dad to help, both of whom were hard to find but I digress... Amy came back with this cute little outfit for Leland since I stayed home with the kiddos.

As always when Gram and Gramps come there was a lot of laughter and fun to be had. Brian and I shared the joys of spinner with my parents and I think it is safe to say they enjoyed it. Well at least I hope they did as they kept asking to play it! Amy seemed to enjoy it as well, except for when she was sitting between Brian and Dad. I am always glad when they come to visit as it is always fun and shakes up the day to day around here.

Ps I have NO IDEA why it is all the sudden blue and underlined... not a single clue! Jen if you are reading this and can fix it you would be my hero!

2. My TMI... so skip this one if you don't want to know.... I started my own period this time around. I was late 8 days and got the joys of getting tested twice for pregnancy both were negative and I think you have to be female to understand what that means happened to my emotions. Even if you don't want to be pregnant there is always a little disappointment when you aren't or at least there is for me and some of my friends/sisters. There is always a let down for me, so even though I was sure I wasn't pregnant is was still super hard to see the negatives. Poor Brian we bought our tests at Costco (since my doc said we could test at home to save some money) and another sup was checking us out and he kept saying you don't need these, and see I told you you would have another one... although Broc has five so that may be why he enjoys teasing other people so much. Anyway I go in tomorrow for a test, I am not sure what the test is called only I know that it will be for determining how much of a certain hormone I will be getting as the last dose didn't have any effect. We are moving forward and I am still amazed by my sisters strength as she has dealt with it for MUCH MUCH longer than I have, it is so nice to have someone to call when the questions seem dumb or if I have asked them and still need clarification. So that is that in that department....

3. Some fun pictures

I don't know if you can see it but the helmet says age 14+ and it fits him perfectly, it makes me laugh every time I see it! Sorry about the chocolate on the chin... but I don't have photo shop so it gets to say in the picture!

He has taken to "sucking" on two binkies at once, which I find adorable... However it may be all the more shock when they have to be thrown away and I am not buying anymore cause he bite though the silicone and that is just a waste of money!

He also likes to wear my fuzzy socks... its pretty awesome....

4. Leland is in his terrible 2's no doubt about it. In the last few weeks I have had some seriously bad days... the first day starts out with his shower, I left him to go get a towel and he climbed out and shut the door which then magically locked itself, with him in the bathroom and me in the hallway. While I was frantically looking for a bobby pin or a hair clip to be my key into him, I can hear water hitting the floor and my toes are getting wet... once in the bathroom I realize he has stepped in his diaper that I had taken off earlier and smeared pooh all over my flooded bathroom, so I put him back in the tub, clean his feet and hands, and go to clean the mess up so germs are carried everywhere in the house. This time I have given him the shower head ( I know could I have done anything more stupid, but it was the only way to keep him in the tub... and I told him he would get a swat if he pointed it out of the tub...) and run to start the laundry real quick cause I don't know many people who want to put poopy towels into their laundry basket. And I come back to... you guessed it another flooded bath tub, SO I pulled him out and he got his promised swat... I brought him out screaming and I diapered him, and went to clean the mess up AGAIN (although this time sans pooh) and I came back to follow the pooh balls to him in my LAUNDRY CLOSET, which i had shut and it has one of those cursed baby proof doorknobs on it, and he has it OPEN and is pouring out my laundry detergent onto the carpet... man I wish I used powder but no its the liquid kind... so I am torn clean up the pooh or clean up the laundry detergent which he is now sitting in squeezing though his fingers... the pooh won out and it was a quick clean ( I LOVE SPOT SHOT) and the laundry mess was horrible to clean up. I must have used 4 or 5 big towels to try and get it all up, and man our carpet is super soft over there! The other day follows more of the same line, only with cereal dumping and milk spitting instead of the water, pooh and detergent... so really we have some LONG LONG days here in the Hamilton household......

5. Amy's darling kids.... Amy's kids are DARLING! Little Eli had the flu this last week, and is still trying to recover, and on the day he had his fever and was diagnosed he was sure he would feel better at my house, and I would have loved to have him, except he had the flu... poor baby! He is sure sweet... and Zeke with his Comber story... its a good one... I will write it another day, or you can call and ask me about it.... They continually make me grateful I live so close to them. And of course there is Amy, she is amazing all by herself!

6. House Hunting.... Yes we started looking for houses, it has been interesting to say the least and there has been a LOT of stress for me. We would ideally like to find the perfect house and close before the end of November so we could get the tax credit since Texas really doesn't have perks for first time home buyers but I don't know if we will be able to. I will keep ya'll posted though. we look at one more house tomorrow. Should be fun!

7. WoW... World of Warcraft... I am giving it up... the definite end date...April 2010... thats really just because we have paid in advance for our accounts. It is interfering with my daily life, and it is just no good... I think its better this way. I seem to have an addictive personality... and no I am afraid that I won't be giving up caffeine any time soon... but perhaps I will get the hang of this giving up thing and we will see a uncaffeinated me sooner rather than later....

8. Our anniversary is coming up, I wanted to do something really fun and special but if we are buying a house... we will probably just save our monies... eh happy 3rd babe...

New Jammies....

Well to us at least, these awesome Jammies came from Amy's and she thinks they may have just made their way through all of her kids well at least though Caleb... I think they are darling!

This is cute....

My mom thinks this ad is cute because the end face is just like my kids... it cracks me up...and truthfully I cannot figure out how to make this work... so here is the link....

Ally Bank Ad

TMI warning....

I started my hormones the other night... So I have only been on them for 2 days... and I hate it. My head aches and my chest is killing me... its the not so dull ache you get when you get engorged. People I am not doing well with this. Thankfully I have only dry heaved once.... I will make it though 5 days of hormones.... I think I can I think I can.... With that said I don't know if I will last I have been an emotional mess for the last few days.... again I think I can I think I can. I think I really need to go clean.... But folks I thought I would let you know that we are moving ahead.... and we can all hope there will be an addition in our family soonish... cause you know they take 9 months to make:D

Cousin Jared....

So my cousin Jared is in a band called South for the summer... and apparently it is important that they get some listens on this website I think I linked it directly to the weekly charts... so you just click to play his bands music... Its pretty fabulous, well I enjoy it, and I have an eclectic taste in music, I like a little bit of everything... Although I also liked/loved his band from high school called Training for Yesterday... I loved the name, and I loved the music... Anywho his dad my Uncle Jeff was a fabulous musician and all his kids have some skills in that area... if you are interested check it out....

Party #2

We went up to the Green's tonight for party number 2. It was so much fun, and I must say Mom Green is much more organized about parties than I think I will ever be! She always has balloons, and table cloths and matching plates and napkins and party blowers and yummy snacks around. So we hung out and Leland got to run away from Dottie most of the night, but I remember when they first got Dottie and she dwarfed my baby, now he is bigger than her. Its amazing how big he has gotten.

We played Risk with Brian which is never fun, its endless chit chat about logically I would do this and logically that was the dumbest move you could have made etc etc etc. Well Jason ( I know it was super nice to see him as sometimes I think he forgets we exist) managed to take Brian out pretty early in the game, which was nice, but then Brian had plenty of time to help everyone, and when I took some more of his pieces off the board he told me I was dumb for doing that, I should have weakened Jason, which I would have done had Brian said I would never win against him... No I am not competitive I don't know what you mean:D Anyway he eventually rubbed Jason so much the wrong way that Jason just quit, probably because Mom was going to wipe him out with her next turn but whatever. She won the game, so that was fun. The girls came too so that was nice, we got to see Emily and Caitlin and we really never get to see them so it was nice to get to catch up. Caitlin is pretty amazing at track and field, high jump is her speciality. She won at nationals and she is going to train for the Olympics at least that is her goal. She is pretty amazing at it, and we are proud of her, but she and Emily play sports year round, right now they are in Volleyball and Caitlin a few weeks back dislocated her thumb so we talked about that a little tonight.

Anywho Leland is one spoiled kid, he got a new fire truck that makes noise (yay.....) and a really cool wooden puzzle that doubles as a book, and my personal fave is the growth chart which is Dr. Seuss I love it! And he got some clothes and there was something else but I just can't think of it tonight. Sadly I forgot our camera at home, so I will have to get them from Libby, she took lots of pictures, so I will post some later.

We sure are blessed to have such loving families, it has been a super fun weekend.

Party #1

We had a great tiny gathering on Sat with lots of fun and real excitement.

Leland got a bike from Mimi and Poppy...

Hats from Rachael...

And got a pull string pinata from Mom and Dad, that he couldn't understand why we wouldn't let him pull ALL of the strings at once.

Hopie got him bath crayons and bath finger paint. Amy and family got him a view finder and refills, as well as a target gift card. The Shondells got him a Thomas the tank engine movie, as well as a Jetsons movie, their mom Leland's adopted grandma made this fabulous cake!

and mom and dad got him an easel and chalk from Ikea. Sadly we missed taking pictures during opening the presents, however Leland was more excited about his bike than anything and couldn't be pulled away. His cousins taught him how to honk the horn and everything... thanks Amy I am sure I will find a way to repay that kindness! I kid I kid......

He also got to try and blow out the candles I think his dad may have helped... bum....

Happy Birthday Bebob!

My kiddo turns 2 today.... Its been a wonderful 2 years full of struggles....I mean happiness and joy:D This little guy is turning into quite the character and we are so lucky that we get to have him here with us and for eternity. Brian and I marvel at how fast he has grown up and how much spunk the kid has. Brian likes to remind me that he is JUST like his mom. We are truly blessed to have such a fun kid and I look forward to many years more with my little man. I sure love him with all my heart. Even when he disappears with a pack of gum....:D