Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Still here! So much!

Wow it's been over a month since I've posted!  YIKES!  I know I know, you didn't notice and that's okay! :)  We've been SUPER busy!  Let's see...

We had a realtor over to start the process of HOPEFULLY selling our house.  She's amazing and I love her and OMG WE HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!  We really want to try to list in in the next few months, but first we need to do a bunch of projects including:
  • Kitchen-remove wallpaper, repair (thanks CATS) and paint walls, paint cabinets, paint hinges, replace hardware, possibly re-line cabinet shelves
  • Downstairs bath-new flooring, do something about the walls (they are mis-matched paneling and I'm not sure they can all be painted), add drop ceiling, close in heater/water heater
  • Upstairs bath-new flooring, new tub surround, new vanity, replace light fixture, paint
  • Upstairs hall-remove carpet, put in laminate
  • Downstairs hall/family room-replace carpet
  • Outside-paint shutters, fix downspout, fix/replace outdoor carpeting on front and back stairs, minor landscaping
  • PAINT/WINDOW TREATMENTS-Living room, hall, Tyler's room (with border removal), Master bedroom, downstairs hall, touch up in AJ's room
See?  A lot.  I'm totally overwhelmed.  We tried to get a start on the kitchen, but the wallpaper was apparently put right on top of bare sheet rock--not good.  It's basically like removing two layers of wallpaper and it's impossible not to damage the walls (more than they already were (Thanks AGAIN Cats), so then we are having to go over everything with drywall mud to get it flat.  Adam ended up buying the wrong stuff to repair it too, so that wasted half a day and had to be redone. As it stands we have basically we have managed to get the paper off 1 1/2 walls and he's patched the upper half of one wall.  It's going to take awhile :(

Then I went to Birmingham, AL for work, which went really really well.  I'm helping to develop training for my position.  See, I do all the invoicing for my location and there are between 1 and 3 people at each location that do what I do.  So when a new person starts, we didn't really have a true planned training for them to undergo--they either worked with the others at that location or did some information training at another location.  Since I've been doing this for about 8 years now and I'm always looking for opportunities to do more and hopefully advance somehow one day (tough to do at my company and my location), I was asked to help.

I've been to Birmingham once before, with the whole group of invoicers, but this time was just me and one other girl coming into town.  We were both delayed getting in and slightly delayed leaving, but aside from that, the travel was fairly smooth, the event went well and Adam and my mom were able to manage the kids while I was out of town.

New 'do before the trip

It was cloudy and rainy on the way to Bham, this was my view the whole flight

There is a lake outside the corporate office, tons of turtles, ducks, etc

My seatmate on the flight home!  Olaf!

Sunset going home

Downtown Indy at night from the air
 The weekend I got back my mom and I took the boys to the zoo and had a close encounter with the flamingos!
The tubs had shrimp infested water in them

Tyler loved it!

AJ and Gaga ride the train!


Let's see, I was back at work for a week, catching up, and then we took "vacation" which included work on the kitchen and did responsible things like get our oil changed and get our fridge fixed.  And Easter funtimes.
AJ tries swinging

Found one!

AJ loved wandering around but wasn't that interested in the eggs

But he found some!

Tyler on the hunt!

Oh and we took Tyler to his new school for a meeting!  He did so well, even when we had to leave him in the classroom and go off to a presentation for a bit!  He was soooo cute with all the other kiddos, showing off little "cheers" they'd taught him (he was so not good at them, he is super smart but so not coordinated)!

Blurry picture, but he's in the middle--the shortest one!


Then last week was about catching up at work (AGAIN).  Shew.  Oh and I turned 32 years old HUZZAH!  lol Happy birthday to me and TWIN!
Flowers from my friend Nova for my bday!

And from Hubby and my babies!


Over the weekend Adam took me to the outlet mall in Edinberg and got me a new Coach purse for my bday and then I had lunch with my BFF from college (luv her!) and THEN Adam, the kids and I went to our friend's daughter's first birthday party!  It was gorgeous outside and Little Miss Harley was an absolute doll and everyone had a great time.  The boys were WORN OUT!


He really was having fun, I promise

Tyler and Logan!

The girls: Mandy, Pam with Harley, Gabby, Me

Sunday was about groceries and overdue lawn mowing.  We've been spending a lot of time outside now that the weather is finally nicer!

This house had been living in our garage, but the kids are loving having it on the patio!  The kitchen set on the far right was mine when I was little!  They are crazy about it!

BUBBLES--AJ's new obsession!

Get 'em!

Some help from big brother!

So fun!
Mommy gets in on the fun!

LOVE MY BOYS!



And that leads me to this week.  My mom's birthday is Thursday (we are totally in Birthday season at my house, three down, two to go before the end of the month, plus Mother's Day Sunday) and we're taking AJ to get his hearing checked.  He's still not a big talker, and while I'm not super worried about it, I thought it was time to just make sure he hears okay.  He may be suffering from SELECTIVE hearing lol. He really seems to totally ignore people sometimes, but other times he seems to hear quiet things just fine, so who knows?  Right now, he has a little cold, so I'm hoping that doesn't interfere with the test.  In fact, the poor baby--yesterday, he sneeze and his head went forward and hit a table, leaving him with a "third eye" according to my mom:

Poor buggy!


This weekend we are hoping to work on the kitchen some more and Sunday of course will be Mother's day.

WHEW see?  LOTS going on!  On the weight loss/fitness front, I've been bouncing around this 5 lbs zone, which for me is basically maintaining (my weight naturally fluxuates up and down) for the past few weeks.  I've been as low as nearly 45 lbs down and go as high as around 41 lbs down.  I just haven't been able to make it my main focus, and honestly, I'm not sure I will be able to right now, not with the house and the kids and all that.  I'm going to try my best though. I know I need to go back to tracking my calories.  And I need to workout more consistently.  Lately I've been down to 2-4 times per week (I was managing 5-6 until recently).  I have finally conquered AJ's bedtime, so that will help, allowing me to get him down early enough to still work out after he's in bed (and still be finished by 9pm) when I can't get it done before.  I know I just need to make another good long push to get where I want to be (which is to lose another 25-30 lbs).

So that's a somewhat condensed version of what's been happening! Next post--Considering baby #3 and my thoughts on THAT subject!

WHEW, now I'm tired too AJ!