Ten reasons I can't wait to have our own house.
1. Now that I know how much Deacon loves being outside, watching Willow run around, and relaxing in the swings, I can't wait to make him his own playground. My dad made my siblings and me the coolest backyard set-up when we were kids, and I would love to create something similar for Deacon. He needs his own sandbox, slide, and swing!
2. We want to get Willow a Boston brother or sister so badly, but we decided to wait until we moved out of an apartment where we could have a yard for them to run around. She gets so jealous and needy sometimes, it would be so nice to throw her outside with a playmate so she could release some of her pent-up energy.
3. I am SO ready to not have neighbors directly below me that scream, swear, and slam doors at 3 in the morning! They are crazy and about two shakes away from me calling the police. Really people?! And if the alarm of the XTerra parked next to me goes off in the middle of the night one more time I think I might completely lose it. How can you not hear that?!
4. I've lived in two different apartments now, and I'm very ready to be able to establish my roots in a home with the intention of staying there for a long time. It all seems so temporary in an apartment, and no matter how "homey" you try to make it feel, it's never yours.
5. I desperately need a bigger kitchen, I have absolutely no storage! Everything is piled on top of something else, and I have to keep my George Foreman in the same cabinet as my Nutri-Grain bars. Serious issue.
6. WE NEED ANOTHER FREEZER! If you open our freezer you will get bags of frozen milk spilling out onto the floor. In the first couple of months after Deacon was born, I pumped and pumped and pumped because I thought I would be returning to work 12 hours a day 3 days a week. So I have over 150 bags of breastmilk in our freezer! HAHA! We literally have to minimize the amount of frozen things we buy at the grocery store, it's madness.
7. After doing yardwork at my parents house over the Easter break, I can't wait to have my own yard to pretty up. I know Scott is looking forward to mowing his own lawn and raking his own leaves, and I personally can't wait to pick out and plant my own flowers. My mom has taught me the art of color themes, sunlight vs shade, and annuals vs perennials, so bring it on!
8. When anyone comes to visit us, they either have to sleep on the couch, in a sleeping bag on the floor, or get a hotel room. I'm so excited to have company come and actually have their own room! This also means that we get to buy new bedroom furniture :) My mom is an incredible hostess, now it's my turn to make her proud and show my guests some good old southern hospitality!
9. As I mentioned above, our neighbors are atrocious. When I was little I remember living at the top of the culdesac and having all of my friends out riding bikes together, jumping from house to house playing on all the different swingsets, and spending summer afternoons outside running around getting into trouble. I want to be part of a neighborhood and make friends with other parents, and for Deacon to have the same fun experiences that I did when I was little. All I know about my neighbors is that they are really good at using four letter words, and the lady across that hall has a little boy that is cute enough to eat, but I want so much more than that once we finally get grounded somewhere!
10. And finally, buying a house is one of those grown-up milestones that everyone looks forward to. I feel like I've accomplished so many other grown-up things that a house is really the only thing that's missing. I can't WAIT!
Tex-Mex Turkey Burgers
To DIE for!
1 1/4lb ground turkey
1 envelope reduced-sodium taco seasoning
1 Tbsp. dried cilantro flakes
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup salsa
4 hamburger buns, split
4 lettuce leaves
In a large bowl, combine the turkey, taco seasoning and cilantro; shape into four patties. Grill, covered, over medium heat or broil 4-6 inches fromt he heat for 5 minutes on each side.
Sprinkle cheese over the burgers; grill 2-3 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted. Combine sour cream and salsa. Serve burgers on buns with sour cream mixture and lettuce.
Yesterday I got my re-acceptance letter from UTA, I'm going back to school starting in June. I never meant to take a whole year off from school, but between being sick, pregnant, and my advisor majorly sucking I'm having to throw myself back into school mode almost a year behind. At least I'm only taking two online classes, I hope it won't be too bad. I also plan to study all summer and refresh my Spanish memory so that I can CLEP out of the 14 hours of Spanish classes I now need. I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and was incredibly close to being fluent at one point that it should come back rather quickly. I still dream in Spanish and find myself translating conversations randomly, it's frustrating that I didn't force myself to stick with it when I first started college. I had originally planned to major in nursing and minor in Spanish, but now it looks like I'll major in psychology and minor in biology. Haha things have definitely changed! If I successfully CLEP out of those hours, I will complete over a full semester worth of work in a summer. That would be amazing! Who knows what I'll end up doing, I really only want to finish so that I can say I did and to get my piece of paper. I don't feel like I can push my kids to go to college if I didn't finish, even if I don't plan to use my degree at all until all my children are in school. I'm so tired of everyone questioning whether or not I will finish, and the conversations behind my back about my motivation are starting to get old. Fortunately my degree is something that I really do want for myself, otherwise the pushing from all angles would normally push me to do the exact opposite of what everyone is wanting from me. (My rebellious streak still hasn't completely left me, even after mommyhood /:) I just really want to get the whole thing over with so that I can focus on my babies, Scott and I agreed that there won't be any more until I'm done, which makes me want to finish even more! Once my kids are all in school then I can figure out exactly what it is I want to do, whether it's still nursing and I can bridge to get my RN, get my teaching certificate and continue to play with kiddos all day, or maybe I'll want to stay in the psychology field and become a child life therapist. Who knows! Right now, all I want to do is finish, so wish me luck! I'm going to need it.
Scott is almost done with his degree, he graduates in December and we are SO proud of him! Unfortunately though he has a long summer ahead of him. Scott lost a year worth of classes too when he transferred from Colorado School of Mines to UTA, because not only did he change schools but he also switched his major from engineering to economics. He has been such a trooper since our lives were turned upside down last spring, working during the day and going to classes every night. Scott has had to sacrifice a lot to finish his degree and support our family at the same time, and he will never know how much I appreciate all he's done and how proud I am of him. Right now he has classes Monday and Wednesday from 5:30-7 and Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30-8:20, and works out with his friend Travis every morning at 5:30 before work. BUSY! Thankfully he has 6 weeks off starting in May and I intend to do everything I can to make it relaxing and enjoyable for him. If
I can get off work we hope to go back to NC to visit everyone, but well see what happens! When Scott starts back up in June he will be working all day and then going to class Monday-Thursday from 5:30-10:30.. Crazy! He's already dreading it, especially not being able to see Deacon very much. We keep saying that it's only temporary and in the end all the long hours will be worth it, but it's going to be a VERY long summer. My poor husband :( In December we are hoping that he will be able to find a good job that pays well enough so that I can stop working and focus on Deacon and school, because once he's done then it's my turn. Scott is such a worrier, even more so than I am, and right now his fear is not being able to find a job when it comes time for him to graduate. I truly am not worried about him, Scott is one of the most driven and hard-working people I've ever met in my life and when he wants something he will do what it takes to get it. I just hope for his sake that he is able to find something appropriate for out lifestyle and that the process goes smoothly. We will be doing a lot of praying in the coming months that God brings us the perfect job and takes us wherever He wants us to go. And also for our sanity! Haha.
Deacon, Deacon, Deacon... What a trip! The boy has SO much personality and brings us more joy with each passing day. Bless his heart, those teeth are so close to coming up, I can see the little white peaks trying to break the surface, and he tries so hard to be happy but is in some serious pain. The one thing I am slightly dreading about his teeth coming in is how incredibly ravenous he will become. Deacon is already a machine, when he figures out how to chew things there will be no stopping him! Today at lunch the twins were eating a sweet potato that I cut up into bite size pieces, and Deacon was whining and begging at my feet so I gave him a piece to see what he would do with it. To my surprise he chewed it up and swallowed it with no problem at all! Even though he had just nursed for a good long while, Deacon probably ate 10-15 chunks while we sat there- amazing! Then tonight at dinner he ate a portion of green beans and then three more of applesauce. The boy is going to eat me out of house and home! I'm excited for this stage though, it's always fun to see babies try new things and grow into their own little person with likes and dislikes just as the rest of us have. It will definitely be interesting to see how big he is at his six month appointment! Both days last weekend we took Deacon and Willow to the park and we all had a blast. Willow got to run around and play fetch with her ball and a stick that she found, and of course ate up all the attention she got from people that passed us and told her how cute she was and patted her on the head. What a ham :) And Deacon has a new-found love for the swings, he just smiles and giggles at anyone and everyone like "Hey, do you see me? I'm swingin!" Of course the sunglasses and hat got him all kinds of attention, my little man has become quite a flirt with girls of all ages. Regardless of my jealousy, I forsee many park adventures in our future :) Our battle this last week has been to get Deacon to try and soothe himself at night when he wakes himself up. As of right now he's only eating once in the middle of the night, but some nights he wakes up 3 or 4 other times and needs his pap put back in his mouth. Even though I'm not getting up for a long period of time, those little wake-ups don't let me get a good nights rest- and with 4 kids for 10 hours a day I need it! So I've been trying to let him cry it out a little bit, hoping that he will find his pap and put himself back to sleep, but so far it's failed. Part of the reason is because I don't want to wake up our neighbors and have people complain about the screaming baby, because if you've ever heard Deacon cry you know the boy has some SERIOUS LUNGS! Scott and I actually got in a big argument the first night I decided to try letting him cry it out because he didn't understand what I was trying to have him do. So when Scott got up against my wishes and picked Deacon up in the middle of the night it threw him all out of whack, making things SO much worse! Now we're on the same page, but our plan has yet to work haha. Today at naptime I laid Deacon down to let him fall asleep by himself, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. After 10 minutes of laying there and staring at the ceiling, I walked up to his bed to check on him and smelled this horrible odor... Of course he pooped when I was trying to get him to fall asleep! He was so excited and starting kicking and squealing as if to say "Mama I pooped I pooped did you see?!" So precious, I couldn't help but laugh, pick him up, and give him a big kiss. LOVE my baby boy! :) Tonight is a new night, wish us luck! Tomorrow night we're taking Deacon to his first Rangers game, Scott is so excited to take him in hopes that baseball can become a love of his just like his Daddy. Should be tons of fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment