Right now we are in the throws of rearranging rooms to create a nursery and starting to get ready to stage our home. At first the momentum I had was going strong! I made small goals for myself each day and worked really hard to meet each one. Then came time to move . . . . . . THE DESK! I'm not going to lie. This thing is a beast and honestly is way too big for our home, but to buy something that meets our needs currently is just not financially possible right now and wouldn't be the best idea since we are hoping to move. Yet, we still needed to move this monstrosity to clear out what used to be the office. Which meant I needed to move things around in the now former craft room to make room for the desk. In doing so, I moved my sewing table and promptly popped one of the legs off, and almost another. (Pretty impressive since it is a solid pine.) This has slowed things way down since I am not able to fix it myself because I am not quite sure where all the tools are. Now we are in a sort of Catch 22, because 1. We don't know how long we will be here, which puts us in a total quandary as to what we should keep or get rid of since we are hoping to get a house that better fits our needs and I don't want to get rid of stuff to just later re-buy it if we are able to get the house we are hoping for. 2. I am not really keen on getting a storage until we are really serious about staging and putting the house on the market. Our budget is shrinking rapidly due to higher prices on everything, a new baby, a growing boy, and having to fill up hubby's car at least twice a week thanks to the "lovely" working location he now has and we are stuck funding the gas on our own. Consequently, I don't want to add another monthly expense until we really, really have to.
The good thing that has occurred is that there has been a lot of clutter and junk that has been leaving our home. I won't tell just how much since we are still not done and it is embarrassing, but let's just say that when we were married five years ago and combined two full households and never consolidated or dejunked prior to moving in: there is a lot that has needed to go bye-bye. The other good thing is that I am finding places for things and may now actually be able to find them when I need them. Plus literally hundreds of pages of notes, copies of lectures, printed articles from hubby's schooling has all gone away! That alone has freed up a lot of space in the desk and bookcase. YEAH!
Between all of this and not knowing if we are truly moving and if we are then where to, that status of my husband's job and all of that stuff that is going on, not to mention I am rapidly reaching that point of pregnancy uncomfortableness, I am really starting to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, discouraged, anxious, etc. This is not where my strength lies . . . dealing with the unknowns. In fact, I hate it. It is very unsettling and makes me very anxious, especially when I am so strongly indirectly impacted by another person's decisions that truly are life changing. So for now I will head to bed and try to lay my worries aside until tomorrow. Until then a lot of prayers will once again be floated upwards and hopefully answers and resolutions will be found soon.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The Year In Review
I know. I know. I need to post pictures, and trust me I have some. However, right now I don't know where the cord is for the camera since we are in the process of moving things all around the house in hopes to eventually create the nursery. (Boy, this has become such a much bigger project than anticipated!) However, in the meantime as the old year leaves us and a new year begins I can't help but think back on this past year.
"We make plans and God laughs."
I know I have used that phrase a lot, but honestly that is truly how this past year has gone. At the beginning of the year, we had a lot of plans. We knew there were a lot of endings coming in the year which would also lead to a lot of new beginnings. We just did not realize just what type of results each one would truly bring nor had any way of anticipating what they would bring.
2011:
1. Child support FINALLY ended! Unfortunately, it did not end as smoothly as we had hoped. Instead, it ended as we had feared. Jim's daughter legally changed her last name on her 18th birthday without telling us and his ex-wife attempted to have child support reinstated after his daughter had graduated from high school and the child support had ended. Consequently, a lot of bad feelings have intensified not only with his daughter and ex-wife, but my husband's family as well. This has led to several relationships being severed that I do not know will ever be repaired. I hope with time that they can. However, it is truly nice not having a court order hanging over us and making all of us have contact with one another when that is not in the best interest of anyone at this time with emotions running so high.
2. A new contractor was named on the project that Jim works on. Out of the three contractors that were in the final decision, this was the one company we hoped would not get the contract because we knew what it would mean for the employees and the community. While we did survive a pretty hefty layoff that occurred, my husband now has to commute out to the actual nuclear site which has resulted in a hour to hour and a half drive each way. He is unable to ride on the site buses because he is a subcontractor and is also unable to ride in the van provided by his actual company he is an employee for due to his work schedule that he is required to work by the contractor management. Instead he gets $7.50/day in gas reimbursement and that is it. Since I am unable to divulge a lot of details for various reasons, the work conditions have also been compromised so we are currently trying to decide what is best for our family at this time.
3. After several failed infertility treatments, being told there is nothing more that medically could be done, and suffering a miscarriage, we discovered that I actually was pregnant in August of 2011. So far the pregnancy has been "normal" including horrible "morning" sickness that has decided to once again to rear its ugly head. The plus side: we know the baby is alive and kicking. Also, we just had the "big" ultrasound and everything is looking completely normal. Truly a blessing!
4. Jim graduated from with his master's degree in December and even with a 4.0 gpa! How is that possible when he previously had two Bs? They were from ISU and transferred to U of I as just passing with not impact on his overall gpa. He has taken the PhD entrance exam and we are still waiting to hear the results of that, but regardless he is taking the spring semester off! This is not only due to the extra help I need with Tre as the pregnancy progesses and after the baby is born, but his present work situation does not allow him to attend school. In fact one class this last semester he was unable to attend at all after September and luckily was able to still get an A with the lecture notes the professor posted and the professor's understanding. What a blessing! He is now studying for his professional engineer credential exam, since it is required for a lot of different jobs that he has looked at.
5. Some remodeling has been done on our home, including: replacing the surround in the master bath with tile, adding railing to the deck, repainting the main room and hallway in the basement, adding a sprinkler system to the front yard, replacing the counter tops in the kitchen with granite and adding a tile back splash. Now that Jim is out of school, we plan to hit the remodeling again. This will include replacing all the flooring in the upstairs, completing the laundry room, replacing the trim and repainting the two bedrooms in the basement, fixing cracks in the wall, touch up painting upstairs, and STAGING! Our goal is to have the house on the market by the end of March. (Fingers crossed.)
6. After a year of several misdiagnoses of arthritis and other things, we finally had Jim see an orthopedic surgeon for his shoulder and found out that he had bone spur, bursitis, and two tears within his rotator cuff that all required surgery to clean it up. While others were celebrating their graduation, we were spending his graduation day in the hospital. Amazingly enough he has been healing rather quickly and was able to go back to work within a week. We feel truly blessed, especially when we know what could have been the outcome and are reminded of this every time he goes to physical therapy and we see all the other people there who have had shoulder surgery and have long recoveries ahead of them. He is not 100%, but will be with time.
7. Cancer has once again reared its ugly head in the Boyd family. My father is currently battling colon cancer and one my nephews is battling some type of cancer in his brain. I don't want to/can't go into a lot of details. Let's just say cancer sucks and it's time for our family's turn to end. If nothing else, remember to hug your loved ones a little tighter. You just never know.
With all of this in mind, we have a long year ahead of us with lots of changes and uncertainty. The biggest one of uncertainty for our own little family is where we will be living by this time next year. The only thing I know for sure is that it will not be at our present location. Should be interesting with a toddler and a newborn, but somehow we will make it work. We always do.
"We make plans and God laughs."
I know I have used that phrase a lot, but honestly that is truly how this past year has gone. At the beginning of the year, we had a lot of plans. We knew there were a lot of endings coming in the year which would also lead to a lot of new beginnings. We just did not realize just what type of results each one would truly bring nor had any way of anticipating what they would bring.
2011:
1. Child support FINALLY ended! Unfortunately, it did not end as smoothly as we had hoped. Instead, it ended as we had feared. Jim's daughter legally changed her last name on her 18th birthday without telling us and his ex-wife attempted to have child support reinstated after his daughter had graduated from high school and the child support had ended. Consequently, a lot of bad feelings have intensified not only with his daughter and ex-wife, but my husband's family as well. This has led to several relationships being severed that I do not know will ever be repaired. I hope with time that they can. However, it is truly nice not having a court order hanging over us and making all of us have contact with one another when that is not in the best interest of anyone at this time with emotions running so high.
2. A new contractor was named on the project that Jim works on. Out of the three contractors that were in the final decision, this was the one company we hoped would not get the contract because we knew what it would mean for the employees and the community. While we did survive a pretty hefty layoff that occurred, my husband now has to commute out to the actual nuclear site which has resulted in a hour to hour and a half drive each way. He is unable to ride on the site buses because he is a subcontractor and is also unable to ride in the van provided by his actual company he is an employee for due to his work schedule that he is required to work by the contractor management. Instead he gets $7.50/day in gas reimbursement and that is it. Since I am unable to divulge a lot of details for various reasons, the work conditions have also been compromised so we are currently trying to decide what is best for our family at this time.
3. After several failed infertility treatments, being told there is nothing more that medically could be done, and suffering a miscarriage, we discovered that I actually was pregnant in August of 2011. So far the pregnancy has been "normal" including horrible "morning" sickness that has decided to once again to rear its ugly head. The plus side: we know the baby is alive and kicking. Also, we just had the "big" ultrasound and everything is looking completely normal. Truly a blessing!
4. Jim graduated from with his master's degree in December and even with a 4.0 gpa! How is that possible when he previously had two Bs? They were from ISU and transferred to U of I as just passing with not impact on his overall gpa. He has taken the PhD entrance exam and we are still waiting to hear the results of that, but regardless he is taking the spring semester off! This is not only due to the extra help I need with Tre as the pregnancy progesses and after the baby is born, but his present work situation does not allow him to attend school. In fact one class this last semester he was unable to attend at all after September and luckily was able to still get an A with the lecture notes the professor posted and the professor's understanding. What a blessing! He is now studying for his professional engineer credential exam, since it is required for a lot of different jobs that he has looked at.
5. Some remodeling has been done on our home, including: replacing the surround in the master bath with tile, adding railing to the deck, repainting the main room and hallway in the basement, adding a sprinkler system to the front yard, replacing the counter tops in the kitchen with granite and adding a tile back splash. Now that Jim is out of school, we plan to hit the remodeling again. This will include replacing all the flooring in the upstairs, completing the laundry room, replacing the trim and repainting the two bedrooms in the basement, fixing cracks in the wall, touch up painting upstairs, and STAGING! Our goal is to have the house on the market by the end of March. (Fingers crossed.)
6. After a year of several misdiagnoses of arthritis and other things, we finally had Jim see an orthopedic surgeon for his shoulder and found out that he had bone spur, bursitis, and two tears within his rotator cuff that all required surgery to clean it up. While others were celebrating their graduation, we were spending his graduation day in the hospital. Amazingly enough he has been healing rather quickly and was able to go back to work within a week. We feel truly blessed, especially when we know what could have been the outcome and are reminded of this every time he goes to physical therapy and we see all the other people there who have had shoulder surgery and have long recoveries ahead of them. He is not 100%, but will be with time.
7. Cancer has once again reared its ugly head in the Boyd family. My father is currently battling colon cancer and one my nephews is battling some type of cancer in his brain. I don't want to/can't go into a lot of details. Let's just say cancer sucks and it's time for our family's turn to end. If nothing else, remember to hug your loved ones a little tighter. You just never know.
With all of this in mind, we have a long year ahead of us with lots of changes and uncertainty. The biggest one of uncertainty for our own little family is where we will be living by this time next year. The only thing I know for sure is that it will not be at our present location. Should be interesting with a toddler and a newborn, but somehow we will make it work. We always do.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
How Do I Bottle This?
Today when my husband pulled out the little hand vac to vacuum up the crumbs from Little Man's cookie, a complete meltdown ensued. When I aked Little Man what was wrong, he said "I help," in between sobs. He was extremely upset that Daddy was not letting him help clean up. The grin on his face when Daddy stopped and let him finish was priceless.
Later he found a wet washcloth that I had used to wipe off his hands after dinner. He got a huge smile on his face and then got down on his hands and knees and began to wipe up the kitchen floor. He actually even did half the floor by himself. When Dad came to check on him, Little Man said, "I clean up the mess," and continued to wipe up the floor until he figured he was done.
I am so grateful that he loves helping whenever he can, even though there are times I wish he was not quite so helpful or would find something else to do while I worked on something. Now if I can just find a way to bottle all this helpfulness so when the time comes that he refuses to help, I can put the helpful spirit back in him In the meantime, I'll just enjoy it while I can.
Later he found a wet washcloth that I had used to wipe off his hands after dinner. He got a huge smile on his face and then got down on his hands and knees and began to wipe up the kitchen floor. He actually even did half the floor by himself. When Dad came to check on him, Little Man said, "I clean up the mess," and continued to wipe up the floor until he figured he was done.
I am so grateful that he loves helping whenever he can, even though there are times I wish he was not quite so helpful or would find something else to do while I worked on something. Now if I can just find a way to bottle all this helpfulness so when the time comes that he refuses to help, I can put the helpful spirit back in him In the meantime, I'll just enjoy it while I can.
Monday, December 19, 2011
When Life Hands You Lemons . . . . . .
This past weekend has been an "adventure." It is funny how you do not realize how dependent you become on someone or even just their presence until they are incapacitated in some way. With Jim recovering from surgery and me being pregnant, we are quite the pair.
This morning I was trying to help my husband bathe and change his bandages when I discovered that Little Man had spilled a bowl of water that I had underneath the sink to catch the water that is dripping from our disposal that needs to be fixed. He was trying to be helpful and give it to me because he knew that it was not in a place that it normally would be. After a quick wipe up of the floor and rushing him out of the kitchen, I then went back to my husband to finish changing his bandages and help him put his shirt back on. Shortly thereafter I again heard a splashing of water. I ran to the kitchen to discover a full pitcher of apple juice all over the kitchen floor. He wanted more juice and knew I was busy. Could I have gotten mad and yelled? Yep, and the thought crossed my mind as well as "What next?!"
However, I took a deep breath and helped my husband get Little Man out of his apple juice soaked clothes and in the bath tub. I then went and got the mop and bucket and began the task of mopping up the floor. Half way through I thought to myself, "Okay, how can I look at this differently?" Then realized that I had been meaning to mop the kitchen floor for several days and it definitely was in need. Now instead of putting it off once again, I was getting the task done and able to cross it off my to do list.
So thank you, Little Man. Thanks for helping Mom get her to do list a little smaller. Next time let's find a less messy "helpful" way.
This morning I was trying to help my husband bathe and change his bandages when I discovered that Little Man had spilled a bowl of water that I had underneath the sink to catch the water that is dripping from our disposal that needs to be fixed. He was trying to be helpful and give it to me because he knew that it was not in a place that it normally would be. After a quick wipe up of the floor and rushing him out of the kitchen, I then went back to my husband to finish changing his bandages and help him put his shirt back on. Shortly thereafter I again heard a splashing of water. I ran to the kitchen to discover a full pitcher of apple juice all over the kitchen floor. He wanted more juice and knew I was busy. Could I have gotten mad and yelled? Yep, and the thought crossed my mind as well as "What next?!"
However, I took a deep breath and helped my husband get Little Man out of his apple juice soaked clothes and in the bath tub. I then went and got the mop and bucket and began the task of mopping up the floor. Half way through I thought to myself, "Okay, how can I look at this differently?" Then realized that I had been meaning to mop the kitchen floor for several days and it definitely was in need. Now instead of putting it off once again, I was getting the task done and able to cross it off my to do list.
So thank you, Little Man. Thanks for helping Mom get her to do list a little smaller. Next time let's find a less messy "helpful" way.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Need a Quick Treat?
If your holiday season is going anything like mine, you are constantly on the run and the thought of one more thing to do just makes you want to cringe. I needed to make some treats and knew that one of the people that would be eating them was allergic to chocolate. I had heard from a friend of mine about Praline Pecan bars, but had never made them myself. However, when I researched the recipe I could not believe how easy it was to make! Plus, with my LOVE of pecan pie, I knew that this would probably be something that I liked. Boy was I right! Even my hubby has given them the two thumbs up and I actually have had to hide them to keep him from eating them all. However, I will warn you these are laden with calories and sugar, but sometimes that is just what the doctor has ordered.
Adapted from allrecipes.com recipe
24 graham cracker squares
1 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 t. cream of tarter
1 t. vanilla
4 oz. chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine sugar, butter, cream of tarter, and vanilla in pan and cook until sugar has dissolved. (Do not let this come to a boil.) Once sugar has dissolved, add pecans and let the mixture cool for ten minutes.
While mixture cools, place graham crackers together on jelly roll pan. Once the ten minutes are up, carefully pour and spread the mixture over the graham crackers. Bake for ten minutes. Let cool for a couple of minutes and then remove from pan.
See . . . easy right? This definitely will be a part of our yearly Christmas baking!
December Card
Actually the card for this month was a Christmas tag. When I saw this reindeer shape, I knew just what I wanted to do.
I cut off the antlers that the printed shape came with and replace them with parts of branches I cut off of an aspen tree. I then added red glitter to the little nose to give it some "sparkle."
This was the first time I used the print and cut feature of my Silhouette. I definitely will have to do it again. It made life so much simpler!
I cut off the antlers that the printed shape came with and replace them with parts of branches I cut off of an aspen tree. I then added red glitter to the little nose to give it some "sparkle."
This was the first time I used the print and cut feature of my Silhouette. I definitely will have to do it again. It made life so much simpler!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
About That "Normal" Pregnancy Thing . . . .
Well, just when I thought that things were going smoothly with this pregnancy, we had a small wrinkle. Around 6:30 pm, Sunday night, I started cramping that I had just attributed to standing too long, so I decided to lie down and rest. As the night progressed, the cramping got worse and started coming at more regular intervals until they got to the point that I decided I should head to the hospital.
As it turned out I was in labor and got to spend the next five and half hours in the emergency room being on different types of medications and fluids. Long story, a little shorter, it turns out that they attributed it to being dehydrated from food poisoning that I got from food that one of my visiting teachers brought over from our ward's Christmas dinner. Apparently some of the ham was bad and we got lucky to get some of the bad batch.
Another friend of mine, who is also pregnant, also ended up in the emergency room on Monday for the same reason. She and her family also got the bad batch of ham. Needless to say we will not be wanting any meals brought to us anytime soon.
Anyway, we are now home and I am on bed rest/light activity with drinking plenty of fluids. "Nervous Nanny" (aka my husband) is freaking out and checking on me constantly and is constantly on standby to leave work, especially now that he works over an hour away. Consequently, me being the smart alec I am, have been texting him every hour so far letting him know I am still alive and okay.
The one thing I did learn in all of this is that I am way more worried about what happens with Little Man than I am with this pregnancy. I know that I have doctors and nurses to check on me. However, not many know of his little nuances and quirks.
We also live in a neighborhood with a lot of soon to be or actual empty nesters so they have forgotten what it is like to have little ones around. So while they are truly are hoping to help, it can be a challenge with the basics such as eating. (i.e. Our neighbor who watched him while we were at the hospital tried to spoon feed him yogurt. Two year olds do not want to be spoon fed. They want to feed themselves.) Needless to say, we need to come up with a better plan for the delivery especially since we have no family to help us out. Hopefully, that is far enough in the distant future that I don't have to worry about that for now. I am just glad that we are all home, healthy, and together.
As it turned out I was in labor and got to spend the next five and half hours in the emergency room being on different types of medications and fluids. Long story, a little shorter, it turns out that they attributed it to being dehydrated from food poisoning that I got from food that one of my visiting teachers brought over from our ward's Christmas dinner. Apparently some of the ham was bad and we got lucky to get some of the bad batch.
Another friend of mine, who is also pregnant, also ended up in the emergency room on Monday for the same reason. She and her family also got the bad batch of ham. Needless to say we will not be wanting any meals brought to us anytime soon.
Anyway, we are now home and I am on bed rest/light activity with drinking plenty of fluids. "Nervous Nanny" (aka my husband) is freaking out and checking on me constantly and is constantly on standby to leave work, especially now that he works over an hour away. Consequently, me being the smart alec I am, have been texting him every hour so far letting him know I am still alive and okay.
The one thing I did learn in all of this is that I am way more worried about what happens with Little Man than I am with this pregnancy. I know that I have doctors and nurses to check on me. However, not many know of his little nuances and quirks.
We also live in a neighborhood with a lot of soon to be or actual empty nesters so they have forgotten what it is like to have little ones around. So while they are truly are hoping to help, it can be a challenge with the basics such as eating. (i.e. Our neighbor who watched him while we were at the hospital tried to spoon feed him yogurt. Two year olds do not want to be spoon fed. They want to feed themselves.) Needless to say, we need to come up with a better plan for the delivery especially since we have no family to help us out. Hopefully, that is far enough in the distant future that I don't have to worry about that for now. I am just glad that we are all home, healthy, and together.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
