Helloooo, is this thing still on?

Okay, can we all count how many times I have published a blank blog? Seriously, I think I do that almost every time! So, the purpose of this blog is to be short and sweet and figure out if anyone is still checking it. Or, to determine if this blog has died it's slow, inevitible death due to my lack of blogging in......a lot of months. So, comment if you're still out there checking in on the blog. IF in fact I do actually have readers then I will make a concious effort to be a better blogger. If not, then adios guilt for having a blog haning out there! I'll just let it go.

Helloooo, is this thing still on?

We're Moving!

Okay, forgive me. It's been FOREVER and one day since I last blogged. When I started this blog I thought oh, I'll be one of those really interesting people who blogs a little every day because really, how hard could it be right? As it turns out, most of my readers are people I talk to on a fairly regular basis and pretty much know the things I would blog about. Hmmmm, problem.....yes.

Well, it has been a busy past few months for us. Here's a bit of what has been going on just to make sure that everyone is updated. :)

We put our house on the market several months ago after finding a new house at an Auction. It took nearly 3 months and many, many, many showings before we received an offer on it, but as it turns out that was the one we were waiting for because we are now in the process of moving! The stress of keeping your house "show ready" for 3 months and being "kicked out" of your house for an hour nearly every other day was awful and I now have a new respect for anyone that I see with a Realtor sign in their front yard. Anywho, in the process of waiting on our house to sell we were able to do some freshening up to the new house. The new house by the way is a 3 bedroom in Rose Hill on an acre with a huge shop for Hubbie and a one car attached garage for me and a big covered deck. :) Back to the freshening up. We went in and removed a lot of wood paneling off of the living room and hallways and after prepping the walls painted them and put on all new trim. We also had to sand the ceiling in a few rooms that had highly textured ceilings and then painted them. The basement required the most work and that was of course hired out. The walls were cracked and in need of support so an excavator came out and dug out around the house to push the walls back out and we had them add 3 escape windows in the process so that space is now official square footage. The kitchen is the one big project left to do but we're going to have to move in and do it while living there. Thanks to the abilities of my Dad though the work should be able to be completed over Labor Day weekend. The kitchen will be getting all new cabinet door fronts and the existing cabinets will be stained to match the rest of the woodwork. The counter tops will also get new formica tops and the floor which is currently carpeted will be replaced with Laminate floor that looks like tile. We also have to purchase a new stove/microwave set and a dishwasher because the kitchen does not currently have one. A dishwasher is a requirement of mine, I won't go without one any more, 7 years is long enough. :) The kitchen also has some plastic tile board looking stuff on the walls that is turquoise and maroon and that will be coming off. Yuck. Unfortunatley that will mean cutting the sheetrock out but we'll go through and re-sheetrock it, put up a prettier tile backsplash and then I'll paint the walls in there as well. Hmmmm, I think that's it other then some massive yard work and planting some flowers.

Other news, most of you probably know that we have added to the furry side of our family. We have a Great Dane now named Bella. She's doing well but initially was a pretty sick little puppy. She's about 14 weeks now and is already twice as tall as Boomer. For reference, her head is about even with my knee. :) She's super sweet and is really coming along in not chewing on stuff and pottying in the house. She better the the potty training figured out by the time we move August 14th or I'm going to be annoyed. :)

I think I'll have to quit for now. I really need to get back to work. Check in with us when you can and I'll try and get our new address and phone number out to everyone when we're settled.

~H.

We're Moving!

At this very moment...

I am undeniably procrastinating work. What I'm working on is repetitive, and boring and I've been working on it for the last couple of hours. So yes, at this point I'm procrastinating doing any more of it for a bit.

Nothing very new has been going on. Bub is still adorable as ever and surprises me every day. He is showing signs of being so very smart, it makes my heart happy. Among other things he is really good at identifying animals and their sounds. He picks up on new things quite easily too. This week he learned what a snake sounds like after going over it a few times. He also learned what a train sounds like in just the few minutes that it takes to get home from daycare. We were stopped by one so I figured it was a good time for a little lesson. He's really into singing too. Favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle or Kinkle Kinkle as he says. I start him off and then he sings after me and after that I repeat what he just sang and he sings the rest of the line. Pretty good for almost 2 1/2. Itsy Bitsy Spider is a fave too, he does the hand motions and everything. Have I mentioned that he can count to 15 as well? We're working on ABC's and colors too. He's already a pro at shape sorting and can identify some of the shapes. Like I said, smart kid. He'll tell you he's smart too. I told him he was smart one day and he's just hung onto it and frequently says "I'm smart" when we review everything.

Another funny story, Bub apparently loves everything, he started that over the weekend. He insisted on wearing his snow boots with his PJ's Saturday morning, when I commented on them he said "I looooove boots". Too cute! Later I caught him sitting with Daddy watching sports (still in snow boots) and I commented "awwww, are you watching sports with Daddy?" his reponse "I looooove sports". Since then he has applied it to looooving shoes, choo-choo, snack, Patrick his stuffed elephant and of course also to Daddy and I among lots of other things. Like I said he loooooves everything.

Grant and I are considering adding a furry friend to our family. We've talked about it not so seriously for a while. Usually just in the context of "our next dog" but it seems that we have found our possible "next dog" a little early. Grant has been wanting a big dog and we found a Great Dane for a Great Deal (get it?). So anyway, we're thinking. I'm sure we'll think too long and the two that are left will be gone in which case I guess it then just wasn't meant to be. I'll let you know what happens.

Well, I suppose I can't procrastinate any longer and should see what I can get done in my last 18 minutes. (Sigh) I'm ready to go home and play!

~H.

18 Months

Yesterday I heard the news that my Aunt has been given 18 months to live. This is my Uncle's wife, just to be clear that it is not one of my Mom's siblings.

About a month ago I was at my Mom's house when she got the call from her brother that his wife had had two seizures and was in the hospital. With further testing it was determined that she had inoperable cancer in her brain but that they were going to do chemo and radiation to try to shrink it and there was hope that she would find some benefit from that and would show improvement.

In the meantime though her condition continued to go down hill and she was losing the ability to communicate etc. I'm not sure what changed between a week or so ago and yesterday but now they have given her 18 months and it made me think. If you or your spouse were given 18 months, what in the world would you do?

My first thought was quit work, and do everything you ever wanted to do in life. But, as it turns out my Aunt is already slightly incapacitated and I'm not sure that it will improve and my Uncle has to work to pay the bills. I tried to look at it from my Uncle's prespective and wondered how on Earth he will manage to continue going to work every day and not be just desperate to get home to spend time with her rather then "wasting" time at work that could be spent on more meaningful things and creating as many memories as possible.

I also tried to imagine it from their adult kids perspective and that was just awful. They're youngest can already hardly bear to be with her Mom in this condition and I just pray that she finds a way to get over that and make the most of her 18 months.

18 months people! Honestly how can that even be comprehended! I'm completely dumb founded and I will admit that I typically only saw my Aunt at holiday's for the most part but it's just really gotten to me, I can't imagine what it's doing to anyone closer to her. It's incredibly sad, she will never be a Grandmother, my Uncle will have to find a way to live the next 40+ years without her assuming he lives into his 90's and her kids will have to learn to know life without their Mom. It's unimagineable to me.

So, the point of this blog was not to depress everyone, or collect sympathy. The point is thought. Think about it, if the most awful of awful things was to happen and you were given 18 months with a loved one, what would you do? How would you spend it? In your day to day life, please remember what you have and what others are losing and reconsider how much attention you devote to the stressors of life, how long you hold onto a grudge. Pay special attention to the small moments that make the day awesome and never for a second take advantage of what you have or think too long about what you wish you had, because you never know when someone will drop 18 months on you.

Cute Story for the day....

Bub was outside with Hubbie and I last night and fell down and got his first really scraped knee. He was tough though, he didn't cry a bit, not even when I was cleaning it. Such a big boy! He's pretty proud of his Elmo Band-Aid too. I didn't put one on at first, but after I cleaned it he went outside and crawled under the camper to chase a ball. So, after cleaning it a 2nd time I decided a Band-Aid might keep it a little cleaner. We went back out after that and he would stop about every five steps, pull up the hem on his shorts and say Elmo, go back to running around and then do it again about 5 steps later. He's such a crack up.

Yesterday after work Bub and I went to Kohl's to try to find some shorts since this week is going to be so warm. We weren't successful in finding anything but we did talk a lot and of course counted (he can go to 15 now) and went through his animal sounds (which he is very good at). After one time of going through the animals I gave him a big kiss and said Bub, you're smart, then all through the store he said "I'm smart". Too cute, and yes, he is quite smart. ;0)

Update on the house business. We have had 8 showings on the house, all within the first week and so far no takers. Kind of discouraging but we have an open house scheduled for this weekend so we're hoping something comes from that. Keep us in your thoughts. Poor Hubbie has been working so hard to get the outside of the house looking better since we're finally having some dry/nice weather. He's already painted the exterior windows on the house and garage. He also weeded the flower bed while I chased Bub around outside and is going to work on the yard further tonight. Poor guy needs a break!!! We won't be able to work on the house Sunday due to the open house so we're talking about what to do that day, something fun and relaxing. My goal is to get some flowers into our big planters and move them to the front of the house to improve curb appeal before the open house. I'll update more later if anything exciting happens.