8 second ride

Oh and you like how Marcus questioned if I was the one who told Ian to sit on the doggie as if it was my idea....


*I promise sometime soon so more interesting posts.  Nap times are currently being taken up by work, boo

BUBBLES!!!

Picture...er...watch the clip below from Finding Nemo


And now turn your head (sorry if your neck gets sore).  Also I apologize for the lack of lighting it gets dark around our parts kinda early.

September update

Another month has passed and it's that time to see what got crossed off and what is being moved to next month's list

August leftovers:

1. tuck both vehicles into garage at night. - this one was a close call in getting crossed off. but none theless it's off.  I'm loving it, new routine with entering and exiting from the garage but I'll adjust don't you worry!

2. get color painted on the walls- this is only temporarily being crossed off but this month we painted the kitchen and half bath.

 3. get pictures hung on the walls- not done but getting closer and by closer I mean, hubby has acknowledge that we have pictures to hang.  I'm okay with holding off as we have yet to tackle the paint color in the living room. We are doing one room at a time, right now it's the kitchen/dining area (they are connected) and half bath (it's little)

4. decorate guest bedroom- taking this off the list as we don't even have a bed for that room. And I'll just toss it on the house list which is coming.

Newbies:

1. refinish table and chairs- the table part is one coat away from being crossed off.  And the chairs well after looking this weekend we may be changing our mind on the style of chair we were orginally thinking. 

2. Clear out furniture from garage this will assist in accomplishing August list #1- it's gone and while they were here I also had them take our old kitchen table and chairs.


3. Kitchen upgrade- we aren't done which is why it's only partially crossed off, the kitchen got a mini upgrade. There are a few things we can't agree on and have yet to come to a compromise with.

4. locate new to us appliances (more on this a little later)- this is one of the items we haven't come to a final decision yet. Our oven needs to be replaced as much as I love the avocado green Universal Chef it is missing gaskets which means when I set the temp to be 350 then my kitchen basically doubles it's temperature we are wasting energy which means we are wasting money.

5. close pool for the season -after much debate we decided to hire this task out. I spoke to a lot of people who all said it's very easy you do this this and this.  Well, folks ours was different due to the type of cover we have we don't have to do steps x, y and z. I took notes, asked questions and so hopefully next year we can tackle the task ourselves. Glad we hired that out for the our 1st time and we also learned we don't need a new liner yet...YAY!!

7. order prints of latest professional pics taken by Knox Photography-well since the pictures we have currently haven't been hung, we have yet to order anymore.  We did purchase a frame and did a mini makeover on another. So we will be ready.


8. continue to work on printing off pics from snapfish- now that we are in a digital age I have made it my mission to print all pictures that have been taken since Ian's arrival and put them into a photo album. Why, so that we have them physically in our hands so that if someone (Ian) wants to look at pictures or work on identifying family who live out of state, etc he can do so without putting the laptop or ipad at  risk of being ruined.  Now, I only have about 400 more pictures to go and since I take at least 10 a day I'm only getting more and more beyond.  I also only print photos when I receive a specials via email so it will be a while.


9. run in a 5k race with Ian and finish so he his the 1st finisher in his age group, ambitious?? Maybe but still worth a shot. Oh and not to pee my pants while running said race. - I ran, Ian stayed home due to cold, damp, raining weather condtions. Yes we have rain cover for the jogger but he hates it so the run would have been stressful for me dealing with that and didn't want to run the risk of him getting a cold.  Good news he is still the youngest finisher, there was a little one there but she was 17mos and Ian was 8mos when we ran it last year.  For me it was a PR of 24min 44sec and I was the 2nd female finisher but 1st female finisher in my age group.

Additions:
Move bricks from front of garage to side of house- this was not a fun task at all. We had about half a pallet of bricks sitting in front of the garage and since we don't own a fork lift each one had to be moved by it's self to a new a pallet on the side of the house.

replace water supply line to toilet- this made the list as of today. I heard water spraying in the bathroom and made a quick discovery of ths source.  Turned off the water to toilet, got myself and Ian around and headed to the hardware store for a new one. Replaced it and had toilet back in working condition before hubby got home from work.

Start pottying training- wait what?? Seperate post to come

So overall not a bad month.  Looking forward to this month where a kitchen table will be in our kitchen and we won't be sitting on the floor to eat our meals.

mini upgrade

This month we did a little mini upgrade to the kitchen

I first removed the wallpaper that was not put up properly.  Then Marcus patched the walls where the wallpaper took wall down with it. And then he painted the ceiling and then the walls.  Marcus also got the bright idea to remove the backsplash since it came down so easily in one spot.  Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of this idea.  Rather I was fine with just painting it until we were ready to figure out our plan. But he insisted it would a) be easy b) be quick.  It was NEITHER and there area now needs drywall patches installed. He agrees not the right move.

This was a quick/easy way to open up the space between the kitchen and dining area.  Yes we lost some cabinet space but we weren't even using them to begin with and the openess we gained from them being gone with worth the loss of storage.

Still to come: paint cabinet, paint/replace where backsplash was, replace ceiling fan or install recessed lighting. Oh and Sept list update...

BFF's

They have nightly/daily sleepovers, doggie has gone to the outlets, grocery store, accompany us to drop off/pick up from the sitters, gone on runs, to the playground, pretty much whenever Ian goes doggie must come along.  He is pretty good at carrying him on his own, only occassionaly have I been left to doggie duty.

*doggie's history: originally belonged to my sister (it's the closest she has ever been to being a dog owner) Ian came across him at my parents. And has since become the foster doggie owner, since doggie was abandoned at my parents house when my sister moved to Florida (bad stuffed dog owner).

Z House Funnies

I'm sure only my family will find the following funny and who knows maybe they won't but I do.

A couple weeks ago while I jumped in the shower for a quick de-stinking after running and playground fun I kept the door opened and I could hear Ian was in and out of the bathroom and I could hear trucks sounds being made and what not.  Well, when I finished my shower, grabbed my towel and opened up the shower curtain I was greeted by Ian sitting in his Wal-Mart version adirondack chair, with a book in one hand and a calculator that he was pretending to be a cell phone up to his ear chatting away.
While carrying Ian out of the mall he started saying momma and pointing. I turn around (since I was carrying him meaning he was looking at what was behind us) and I saw this:

Last week I offered to mow the lawn as Marcus was working on half bath mini upgrade. And either he didn't like the figure 8 design I made in the front yard or he didn't like that I bent the tire rod thingy while making my fabulous design resulting in the front tires pointing in 2 opposite directions when the steering wheel is center.



Same day as the figure 8 Lawn design I also mowed over a landscaping circle filled with some type of flowering plant (on purpose) and then dug up the roots of said plant to relocate to an unknown destination. While digging I was whistled at I must admit after you've had a child being whistled at is kinda a self esteem booster. But then I quickly remembered that our neighbor has a macaw bird (the kind that talk, so maybe I have the name wrong) but nonetheless it talks and conveniently enough he also whistle...bubble burster



Last night as Ian and I got home, 3 little neighbor girls came running over.  They all introduced themselves by name, age and house location.  I got Ian out and they all ooo...and aahh.. and all Ian did in return was put his foot out, lift up his pant leg to show off his new shoes.  I told the girls he got new shoes, they said "they are nice" and he said "yeah".

Bring it out and step on up

My soap box that is.  I only have 2 issues I'm getting it out for today.

Issue 1: Our new house is a mere 1/2 mile (that is over estimating) from the elementary school the boy will be attending.  I being an active person was very excited about this so I started envisioning The Boy's school career of walking with him to school and from there go on a run vice versa go on a run and "pick" him up at the end of the school day or BOTH. Sounds like a fantastic plan to me that on the 1st day of school got slashed in front of my very eyes. As I backed out of our driveway I witnessed parents standing at the end of their driveways with their elementary aged children.  And a big yellow bus coming down the road....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! The school is a stones throw away from my front door and there is a bus to transport the children to said school.  SHOCKING, I took my shocking discovery to my husband who grew up in this neighborhood, he was not surprised and said well not all parents can walk their child to school due to having a career, etc. My argument they have time to stand outside in the driveway and wait 10min for the bus when they could have walked to school and been home in that 10min (counting on the fact that your child is not a lolly-gagger).  His argument ok that is fine now but in the winter some days it's too cold.  My argument get in the car and drop the child/children off. Again that would take 5min to do but instead the parent is standing outside for 10min (I'm sure longer in the winter due to road conditions) waiting for the bus.  I'm obviously still upset about this as school has been in session for almost a month now. I have on the upside seen some children who reside on the same road as my in-laws who ride their bike's to school which makes me feel better. There is a school corporation in our area that does not offer bus service and somehow those students/parents find a way to get to school in the rain, heat, and snow without a problem.  I truly don't understand why bus service is offered to our neighborhood to transport child to the elementary school.  To me it is a WASTE of money and time for the corporation. I say all that to say Ian will be walking to elementary school or if weather is bad we or I will transport him ourselves and that is after we feed him breakfast.  That is a soap box topic for another day though.


Issue 2: **Disclaimer I know there are many corporations out there that have the same policy.  Also I am by no means making any subtle annoucement of a 2nd baby Z.  It's just an issue I have with business America. Okay now with that little editors note out of the way I will begin.My husband works for a large bank in our area that is local to our area as well some surrounding cities/counties.  They value their customers and employees and will go out of their way to serve.  When our son was born on Dec 31st 2009 he was early, he was in the NICU and it was a life changing event in our families lives.  My husband had to use vacation time to celebrate/adjust to this life changing event so that we would still receive a regular paycheck.  However if there were to be a death in our immediate family he would be given days of grievance. To help cope/adjust to the life change without losing any pay.  Same goes for if an employee were to get married that would receive 2 days off paid as a way to say congratulations and allow time to adjust to this life changing event.  Do you see my issue here, when a child is born which is a joyous, life changing, emotional life event you get nothing.  I'm not saying a death or marriage should not receive any days I'm saying a birth should be given days as well.  It is just as life changing as death and marriage.

Ok,  feel better with those 2 issues off my chest.  Thoughts, agree/disagree?  Oh and I promise next post will be much more light hearted.