Settling in nicely

So a few weeks ago, or what seems like a week ago I posted about a shittaculer week that we had. I mean literally it was an assplosion of epic proportions. Since then we’ve rebounded quite nicely and have managed to get everyone else around us sick! Well, maybe they got themselves sick, but either way it seems that everyone is now falling victim to the dreaded mud butt.

Enough about that… This December has FLOWN by. But I reckon that’s the way time usually goes. When your in the weeds things may seem to drag on and weeks never end and you have “the longest day ever” syndrome, but when you look back there’s always the sense of “where has this month gone?!” That’s the case with the past few weeks around here. And now, its two days before Christmas and it seems like just yesterday was Thanksgiving. That doesn’t mean we’ve not enjoyed ourselves this holiday season. It really has been a great month and we’ve adjusted well to living in the new house. It just seems like things are more accessible. For example, I’ve had two work holiday parties in the past few weeks and had we still lived in Hampton I would have most likely bailed on both of those. Now it seems like work or downtown is a short drive from here and hanging with co-workers for the holiday parties is doable.

And its not just getting to/from downtown, its everything else as well. I mean if we need to go to the grocery store, Starbucks, Target or to do some shopping out and about, its accessible. Its just very easy living where we do now. We even managed to host a Christmas/holiday party and have people show up! City folk that would have otherwise never ventured to our home had we not lived within close proximity to civilization.

So thats that. Its been a swift month and looking back, a crazy year. 2012 is coming to a close and we’re already planning far into 2013.

Next level productivity

Whether it was the fact that we hadn’t done shit all week or it was some sort of voodoo magic in the air, but man we knocked it out today! This morning BLT was all trying to kick things off as if it were any other day by waking up at 5am. No one wants to be up at that hour on a Saturday. We quickly squashed that by taking him over to my mom’s house. She agreed to watch him for the morning so we could get some stuff done around the house for a change. The goal was lofty, but we were up for a challenge.

Ever since moving in we haven’t had the time or energy or care level to move the rest of the stuff from the basement/garage to the attic. After all, we now live in the equivalent of a three story house. Factor in the trip up the ladder in to the attic and that was not something we wanted to get all up on. Today, however was different and we got everything that was to be stored moved up and that was that. Granted it took a trip to Home Depot for some boards to put down for flooring, but that was a minor setback.

After all that was done, we proceeded to do some more organizing the basement in preparation for the gym equipment that was going in down there. Have I mentioned that we’re doing Tough Mudder in like 4 months?! Eek! We were all getting pretty hungry so we decided to go grab some food and pick up the youngin’ from Grammy’s.

Back at the house and Lane went to bed so we could start in on decorating the rest of the outside of the house. Nothing quite like having the family outside decorating and just having a grand time. Most of it we were able to get knocked out before BLT woke up, but the last piece was a huge ass wreath for the upper middle window on the house. Luckily it was a simple hang out the window two stories in the air and put a nail in the window frame kinda procedure.

Someone had to get out there and hang this wreath!

The day got a little crazy after that and JT kinda went rogue, but we found her.

Mom went crazy

The rest of the day was spent finishing up some other chores like installing the second IP Camera, a trip to Hobby Lobby for some supplies to make Chase’s school play outfit, dishes, etc. Basically, we got shit done.

Oh, and two other things. First off our gas oven can die for all I care at this point. I mean, I love cooking with a gas top range and all but that oven is bajank. Its too small and always burns shit. We’ve tried adjusting the temp and time and all manner of things but no matter what everything we cook is always either burned or not done at all. I miss my electric oven. Secondly, a carpenter I am not, and I am also not the handiest of mans on the planet. But despite that fact, I’ll give it my all. Those boards in the attic are most likely not up to any sort of code or whatnot, but hey, they’ll hold our stuff. And the ice maker line that I installed tonight, despite me doing it exactly correct the damn thing still leaks. Not from anywhere that I connected, but from the actual shut off valve bit. So I’m now going to have to call a plumber and get them to tell me its going to cost a bajillion dollars or tell me that I f’d up and did it wrong… which I’m fairly confident that I didn’t.

Ok, that’s all I had. I’ll most likely post something again tomorrow or at the very least in the next few days. For now I’m gonna go get in the bed with my beautiful and amazing wife. Bam!

The week that never ended

Well, I mean eventually it ended, but damn this week was a pain in the ass.

When I say “pain in the ass” I literally mean it when it comes to what we’ve had to deal with this past week. Lane, Chase, Jess, and I all have had the doom stomach sickness. It started with BLT puking in his bed last Thursday night and rolling around in it all night. He proceeded to throw up again all over himself and highchair Friday morning. Then Saturday, it hit me like a ton of bricks, or a ton of feathers, either way, I was down for the count. JT was a trooper and took care of Lane and I… that is until she got smacked with the black death around 3am on Sunday. Now we had a baby that was recovering from being sick, Jess feeling the effects, and me doing my best to hold it together. We thought our lil’ guy was on the mend, that was until he lost the contents of his stomach all over again.

We went into the weekend with such high hopes, even visited the local farmers market in search of fresh produce and such. But it quickly turned into a festering pool of dispair and unmentionables. Surely come Monday we could kick it into over drive and plow through the week.

Oh, my bad… I must have been thinking of some other week. Jess was still writing on Monday and had to stay out of work. Since she was mobile for the most part she stayed with BLT and Chase and trucked on through the day. Got the sheets clean and windows open. Things were looking up and by Tuesday we were all back to work/school!

BAM! In your face good mood! Tuesday afternoon turned out to be probably the worst, or at least second worst day of the week. For starters Lane is getting to the point where he just LOVES to hear him self babble and yell and blow raspberries and spit out his food and… well, here lemme show you.
Lane in the car:

Lane “eating” dinner:

This is what Jess has to put up with for upwards of 3 hours a day JUST in the car. She gets home before me and has to try and get him fed too. That’s just insane. Anyone else’s kid and they would be out back with the coyote. Yeah, we have those now apparently too. I mean bajeeze this kid is loud. Any way, she puts up with this and has a splitting headache on Tuesday only to find out that she does not have a key to get in the house. So now she’s suck outside of her safe haven with a fussy baby, a hungry 10 year old, and a migrane. Damn you Tuesday, you suck worse than the whole weekend combined.

So Wednesday rolls around and its rainy and we’re running late in the morning and this weeks in the shitter, but we’re gonna push on, right? Well Wednesday is my usual work from home day and I am usually able to get work done because the fam is off at school/work. Well Jess has asked me to keep Lane home with me. Admittedly I was somewhat of a turd and didn’t want to keep him. I wanted my peace. ME ME ME!! That’s totally not fair to her at all, do you remember the videos? So stomped my feet, pouted like a little girl, but kept BLT home with me. We made the best of it, I put on my big boy pants and I got the majority of the work I needed to do done. By the time Jess got home I was needing a break just as bad as she did on Monday.

Whew, time for a breather. We had dinner, watched Survivor, and did our best to just be calm for the remainder of the night Chase had to go to the bathroom a few times, but honestly that was nothing new since he really chew his food as much as he inhales it. What we didn’t realize was that it was the precursor to the mudbutt.

Thursday morning and we’re getting ready to head in as if it were any other day and SLAP! Reality hits us in the face. JT calls me to come to Chases room where we are greeted with a delightful crime scene art project. This kid has some how rolled over in the middle of the night, and blew chunks from the top bunk down to the white carpet below and went back to sleep. I mean, hot dog bits mixed with ketchup and vegetable soup. It was literally a 4 foot splatter radius. I don’t think he ever even knew he did it. Earlier when I said that Tuesday was the second worst day, it was second to this. There was simply no way that JT or I would be able to handle this day alone so we both elected to stay home. She watched BLT while I went to the store to rent a RugDoctor.

The rest of the day was spent tending to a sick Chase and a fussy Lane. Oh and working and cleaning the house and doing other chores and you know… living. The afternoon wasn’t that bad and we even managed to squeeze in a family walk, which is good considering we’re doing Tough Mudder in like 4 months.

So we made it to Friday and just as we’re on our way out the door Lane’s baby sitter texts and says that her grandson has the stomach bug. WTF?! Can we not escape this damn thing?! Now we have OTHER people’s kids preventing us from simply having a normal day. Well, we decided to take Lane to the sitter and she would just quarantine the sick child in another room. Whether or not that work remains to be seen and I’m sure if anything comes of it we’ll be cleaning it up in the morning.

At this point the house is pretty much sterile, the carpet is pearly white, the family is happy and resting and we have a game plan of attack on the leaves and duties of the house tomorrow. Grammy is gonna watch Lane while we move stuff to the attic and deal with the leaves outside and then its shopping and decorate-fest 2k12 all over again!

This week has been a bitch, but we pulled through so far. There’s still two days to go, but I feel like we can make it. It’s not the worst this family has ever been through and I’m sure we’ll deal with this sort of thing again. We’re better than little things like puke and yelling babies. We can pull through the strife. We’re the Snipers! Its what we do.

Oh, and in case you were curious how our Friday night went, this should give you a good indication.

11 months and counting

Eleven moths ago Jess was 20 months pregnant and most likely nauseous and miserable. Today, and this past weekend we were nearly in the same… except for the being pregnant part. Instead we were doing all we could to take care of our 11 month old. How in the world did we end up with baby nearly ONE YEAR OLD?! Didn’t Jess just have him like 2 weeks ago?

Nope, she had him WAY back in January. So much has happened since then. Trips to the beach, new cars due to car wrecks, Josh’s Speed Boats, new house, and on and on. We may not have done a great job of keeping up with all things going on but we have pics and we have the memories. And speaking of pics, here’s one of our little guy… and his little guy.

You are NOT going to post this!

One more month and we’ll be celebrating his one year birthday! Hard to believe, but such a wonderful year its been. Can’t wait for the years to come.