Front seat, Car seat, No seat.

While Dave was putting Turner into the car today to take the boys to the local bounce house, Hayden climbed into the front passangers seat of the car and buckeld himself in as if he belonged there. Dave thought it was to cute and snapped a quick picture and then had to explain to him that he had to ride in his car seat.



I find this interesting and funny as not long ago I had a conversation with my parents about car seats and I asked what they used for my brother and I. My mom looked at me blankly and said, "nothing." She then reminded me of the story we had grown up hearing about my brother being face planted into the back of the front passager seat when he was a baby because my dad had to stop quickly. Needless to say Scott wasn't strapped in. And we survived that, amazing.

Finally it is done. The Shower that is!

We have been working on updating our bathrooms and our latest project has been the shower in the master bedroom. The old shower was okay, but it was a prefab that the last people just slapped up on the wall. There was about a foot of additional space which could be used, and the fixtures and door really needed to be updated.

We started way back about January or February of this year and had the plumber come out and measure for the new bigger drain pan. Once that came in he came back and ripped out the old shower and re-worked the plumbing to have the shower head come straight down from the ceiling with two body sprayers. He put up new wet/dry backer board also.

After he was done it was our turn to get in there. We had decided to tile the shower ourselves and picked out some beautiful buff colored tile from Lowes. The only problem was we couldn't find tile shelving to match. This was quite the dilemma until I saw a picture of a tiled shower with recessed shelves. We also decided we wanted to take the tile all the way to the ceiling. So sweet Dave, like he always does with my crazy idea's set to work implementing my idea and ripped out the rest of the old drywall and installed the wet/dry backer board all the way to the ceiling. He then proceeded to cut holes in the shower exactly where I specified to accommodate my recessed shelves. No small feat as the wet/dry backer board is very hard and he burned up the motor on the circular saw he bought for the job. Once he got the holes in the wall we discovered a problem, a major power line running through one of the holes which was supposed to be a recessed shelf. Not to be deterred we came up with a solution and set about implementing it.

Lucky for us though my parents came out for an extended visit in May and my sweet dad (who can't sit still for more than five minutes at a time) finished the rough in for the shelving and tiled the entire shower for us. That only left the grouting which Dave and I tag teamed on finishing and the sealing.

It was beautiful to say the least, but we still didn't have fixtures. So we called the plumber and after many, many phone calls back and forth and missed orders by the plumbing supply company we got our fixtures installed and new shower door up. So it only took about seven months from beginning to end, and it is only one part of the bathroom, but it is the biggest, hardest and most expensive part and most important it is the part which is done.



Yaaaahhhh! I can't wait to give it a go. Next we take out the vanity, paint the walls, install a new ventilation fan and tile the floor. Maybe by Christmas it will all be done. Good thing dad is coming out at Thanksgiving.

My Two Boys!

I was always under the impression that when I grew up (not that this has actually happened, but you know what I mean.) and had kids I would have a boy and a girl. In that order, just like it was in my family growing up. But the Lord had other ideas for me and I have two beautiful boys. People ask if I’m going to try for a girl now and I just shake my head. The Lord knew I was only going to have two kids and he deemed that they should both be boys. Who am I to thwart his decision?

I originally thought I would be disappointed if my second child was a boy. But lying at the doctors office with all that goop on my belly, surprisingly I wasn’t. I was more excited than anything. And the more I thought about it the more excited I got. In the short time since I have found numerous reasons why I am so grateful for my boys. The top four are listed here:

1. I don’t ever have to worry about taking a girl to the OB/GYN’s office for the first time.

2. Road trip are so much easier when you have a little one who can’t always hold it until the next rest stop. The side of the road makes a great place for the said little one to relieve himself. You couldn’t do this with a girl.

3. I’m not a girly girl and I really don’t like pink so I would have struggled with this.

4. Clothes for girls are too cute and I would go broke buying them. Clothes for boys are okay and some are cute, but I can restrain myself much more easily.

I do worry about how our relationship will be in the future when they get older and married. Like I look at my relationship with my mom and it is better now than it ever was when I was a kid. Yet my brother’s relationship with her tends to be more standoffish. So is Dave’s relationship with his mom. It seems to me that a man is never as close to his parents as a girl tends to be. This makes me sad as I would love to have the relationship with my sons when they are older that I have with my mom and even my dad. It is a long way off, but something I'm thinking a lot about right now.

Tulips and Daisies

Tulips and daisies are my favorite flowers. Roses are okay, and I won’t turn them away when Dave buys them for me, but tulips and daisies are where it is at for me. These are the two flowers I love looking at and the ones that make me smile the most. I love big bunches of them is vases, but mostly I love seeing them in my yard.

I don’t have any tulips planted, and each fall I think about planting them for the spring, but never quite get around to it.

As for daisies my favorite are the white ones. The other colors and varieties are nice and some of the other flowers I like are daisy-esque such as black-eyed susan’s, and Echinacea, but the white daisies are my all time favorite. When Dave and I got married almost twelve years ago I chose the white dasies as my wedding flower. I have a huge clump of daisies in my front yard next to the walk-way and they are currently in full bloom. Each year I wait anxiously for them to start blooming so I can sit on the porch and just look at them. Simple pleasures in life.

Hide & Seek

I had the distinct pleasure of playing Hide & Seek with my family last night after dinner. It is quite fun with a three and a half year old and a two month old. Let’s not forget the dog either.

Hayden’s latest thing is wanting to play Hide & Seek all the time. The only thing is he doesn’t quite get the concept of having to seek for the hidden person.

When it is his turn to hide he is talking so much and making so much noise there is no doubt about where he is hiding, which is usually some place in plain sight. If he is hiding with you forget about stealth as he will give you a blow by blow of anything and everything going on. If he is hiding in the closet he will open and close the door numerous times. The whole time he is carrying on a conversation with either the person he is hiding with or the person seeking him. To funny!

Then when it is his turn to count and seek, he will tell you exactly where to hide. I was told to hide in my closet. Then when I hid in the shower behind the curtain he repeatedly walked past the door yelling “Mom, where are you?” as if I’m supposed to answer him.

Turner does not like hiding in the bathroom behind the curtain in the dark. He started crying and if Hayden’s flipping the shower curtain around hadn’t already given us away to Dave who was the seeker, I’m sure Turner’s crying would have.

Additionally the dog has to get in on the whole scene and inevitably leads the seeker to the hider. Hayden and I were again hiding this time in the front room behind the couch. Hayden declared it a, “Great Hiding Spot.” And it was a great spot as we both fit comfortably and were completely concealed from the casual passerby. The only problem was Daphne wanted to play and decided to hide with us in our great spot, with her butt sticking out wagging her tail like a flag and licking our faces. Again not so stealth.

It was such a fun time and one I hope to repeat over and over again in my children’s lives. I know sometimes I can be such a stickler for getting things done and keeping the house clean and I forget that playing with Hayden is more important then all the rest. He is such an amazing little boy and he makes me laugh so much.

And so it begins . . .

So I have finally gotten around to starting this blog thing. I've been wanting to do it for a while, more to record my thoughts and crazy ideas than anything. I'm not sure if anyone will want to read it, but if they are bored enough they can come on by. If nothing else it will be for my posterity. And so it begins. . .