For my 30-something-year-old friends, there's nothing wrong with being in your 30's. I just personally am not ready for it! I'm also having a hard time believing that at 26, I'm now older than a lot of the people in positions I've admired for most of my life, like college-age and Olympic athletes and break-out musicians and actresses. Most musicians in the current music scene are early-20's, and on more than one occasion I've seen the Backstreet Boys referenced as "old school" -- I wanted to scream "NO!! They are not OLD; they were popular when I was younger!!" Then I remember... that wasn't just a few years ago anymore. That was 14 years ago. Yikes!
To celebrate my
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| Daddy and his boy! |
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| A little pre-breakfast playtime! |
After breakfast we made a family trip to Lowe's to pick out light fixtures for the new house. Two toddlers and a 6-week-old in Lowe's on a Sunday morning (when they are surprisingly busy!) was a fun adventure. Jordyn was furious with us that we put her in the shopping cart while Jailyn got to walk "like a big girl"... When the cart filled up and we were forced to let Jordyn walk, she took three steps on the polished cement floor and wiped out. Multiple times. No tear-worthy spills, but it definitely slowed down our progression towards the check-out counter. As we waited for the cashier to ring us up, Jailyn reached into Jackson's carseat to "see what he was doing" and poked him in the eye, setting off the alarm of baby wails that echoed through the store. Oy.
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| My shopping buddy, pre-eye-poking. |
Glad to be out of there, we loaded up our goods and hauled them over to the new house, where the girls ran around with the dog while we walked around admiring Jaret's progress on the house. It is so close to being move-in ready, its crazy!
Let me interject on the birthday-happenings to tell you a bit of the story about our house:
We set out on our house hunt with a very specific budget in mind, and quickly figured out that the only thing we were going to be able to afford in town/in budget/in our desired size was a fixer-upper, so that is what we got. About halfway into the demo, we realized that updating the kitchen and painting some walls weren't going to cut it with this house-- we had water leaks, mold issues, tile on top of linoleum, busted door frames, shotty electrical wiring... So many more issues than we initially expected. So what was just going to be a few weeks worth of work has turned into going on 5 months. BUT in that five months, and only working a limited amount of time per day (3-4 hours in the evenings, during the days on weekends) Jaret has accomplished so much! Unfortunately most of it is work that you can't immediately SEE. When you walk into the house now, you see pretty newly-painted walls and trim... What you can't see is the new insulation, new wiring, new plumbing, new wall studs and hours of man-power that went into those walls, before the sheetrock even went up. THEN there was mudding, caulking, texturing, priming, and painting; all new trim and casing cut, installed, primed and painted; old (hideous!) tile chipped up BY HAND, all the glue and remnants sanded and buffed away, and new tile laid and grouted; a new kitchen custom-designed, cabinets ordered and installed, then primed and painted; and several large alterations such as removing a crappy DIY kitchen pantry, compliments of the former owners, and expanding the closets between the kids' rooms to make one gigantic closet. And don't forget the 6-7 full truck-loads of trash that was loaded up and hauled off to the dump during this process! I'm sure you can understand now how ALL OF THIS being completed in only a few hours each night and on the weekends, can take longer than we would have originally preferred. If one more person asks me "When will you be in the house? What's taking so long?" I might judo-chop them. Seriously.
~~Rant over.~~
Here's some cuteness.
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| Naptime :) Love those lips! |
I took the kids back to my mom's house and got them settled down for naps, then went back to our house to see what I could do to help Jaret. I got the happy task of installing new switch plates and outlet covers. Let me tell you what-- they're the best looking outlet covers this side of the Mississippi. My screwdriver and I were working in perfect harmony. (Jaret hasn't let me do much concerning the remodel, so anything I have been able to do, I take great pride in! Even if its something that Jailyn probably could've done, and probably in a shorter amount of time.)
We reached a stopping point, went back to my parents' house to get cleaned up, and then enjoyed a nice dinner out with the kids, my parents, and my brother. The girls were very confused as to why I didn't have a "birthday party" or presents to open... I had to explain to them that birthdays are different for mommies and daddies, that sometimes our presents can't be wrapped. On Friday, I picked out and purchased new bedding and luxurious sheets for our new master bedroom... saving Jaret the trouble of having to shop for a birthday present for me. :) On Saturday my mother took me shopping for a kitchen staple for the house: a new microwave. Trust me when I say: I'm very very excited about it! I never thought I'd see the day where small appliances, light fixtures or wall color swatches would bring me such joy. This adult stuff is weird, I tell you.
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| Jailyn finished my birthday dessert for me. The girl is not shy around chocolate cake! Makes me proud :) |
We spent the rest of our evening playing with the kids until bedtime. It was the perfect birthday. I have everything I could have ever asked for, and more!
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| Jordykins is always the life of the party! |
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| Jack and his favorite lady. |
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| "I don't always pose for pictures... But when I do, I give 'em the stone face." |
I'd better start planning a certain almost-4-year-old's birthday party, since her birthday is rapidly approaching! This past 6 weeks of my maternity leave has flown by, so I'm sure the four weeks between now and Jaibug's birthday will be gone before I know it, as well.
Until next time!
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