The Big Move!

Well, everything is as good as done for both selling our current house and buying a new one! After a blitz twenty hours of looking at houses (twelve of them!) last weekend, we put in an offer on our favorite, had a counter-offer back to us three hours later, and by 9:00 on Sunday night we had accepted and signed the offer. Everything has been happening so quickly that it almost seems surreal, and I have a feeling the next five weeks are going to fly by. Between packing and inspections and paperwork with our realtor and paperwork with the bank and paperwork with the utility companies--all on top of our "normal" stuff: work, meetings, doctor's appointments, birthday parties, bridal showers, eating, sleeping--things are just crazy around these parts. I've already had to reschedule a dentist appointment twice, and I'm not holding my breath that the new time I have scheduled is going to stick. But, in spite of all of the craziness, I couldn't be more happy and thankful. Never did we anticipate our house selling as quickly as it did (for as much as it did!), never did we anticipate getting as nice of a house as we did (and still within budget!), never did we imagine the process going so smoothly (if not a little rapidly). So I'll take a few weeks of craziness and some sleepless nights and the inevitable tension and stress for the luxury of being able to call this beautiful dwelling "home" in a mere five weeks!

William: Eleven Months!

I can't believe this is my last monthly update before William is a year old--although that's probably a good thing because I'm having a terribly tough time getting these posted with any sort of timeliness. And since this moving stuff is taking off faster than we could have imagined (more on that soon--hopefully!), I'm going to run though through this quickly.

--No official height and weight stats, but kid is growing like a weed--mostly thanks to the fact that he will eat pretty much anything we put in front of him (and some things--like cheese--he would eat non-stop if we let him). He's between sizes in clothes; I'm constantly going back and forth between 6-9 month outfits and 9-12 month outfits and often will have a shirt of one size paired with pants of a different size.

--Baths have made a drastic improvement from last month. It may have been a temporary sensory phase that he went through because we discovered that using less water helped, although he also may have just finally accepted them as part of his bedtime routine.

--Speaking of bedtime, things are still going wonderfully in that department. Eleven hours (730-630) is the norm, and he rarely protests getting put down. He's already dropped his morning nap (eek!), but usually takes at least a ninety-minute nap in his crib in the afternoon.

--Communication seems to have jumped leaps and bounds. Not only is he making consonant-vowel sounds much more frequently, but he is also showing much more variety in the sounds he makes. He still hasn't really said a word with intentional meaning (that we know of), but he is definitely learning what words mean (when his ball is in the room he will crawl to it if we ask him to get his ball).

--It won't be long before he is taking off on two legs. Anything and everything is a push toy that he uses to walk around the house with, and he's getting braver about letting go of things while standing. He's also starting to sit on his knees more often (as opposed to his butt), and we think it's in preparation for standing up on his own.

--And, of course, he's constantly doing fun and silly things that make this month even more exciting than last month. He'll now give high fives, he loves to clap, he thinks it's fun to put blocks and toys into a container (albeit not necessarily the container they belong in--we've started finding random toys in our kitchen drawers), and he has figured out how to put rings and blocks onto pegs which keeps him entertained for at least ten minutes (which may not seem like much, but it is fantastic). And I think it's safe to say we are going to have a little spitfire on our hands--it is unwise to remove a toy from his possession before he is done playing with it. Of course, once he gets over his tantrum he goes back to being a crazy goofy kid, so it's hard to feel sorry for him for too long!

The Happy Wives Club

This was our book club selection for the month of January? February? I honestly don't remember. Anyway, despite not actually finishing it in time for our book club meeting, I did finish the book a few days later. And I have a conflict of interest with what to write about it.

Here's the deal. Part of me wants to whole-heartedly endorse this book and recommend it to all my friends (female or not--the message of the book can be applicable for both sexes). In fact, I really want to pass my copy of the book around to others and share the message with them. But then I start to worry about how I would go about recommending it to my friends. I'm afraid that if I say, "Here, I think you should read this book about how to be a happy wife and have a wonderful marriage", all they'll hear is "Here, I think you should read this book because you seem terribly unhappy in your marriage and I think it could use some work". Even if I just think they should read the book because it's happy and uplifting and a positive book about marriage (for once!), I'm afraid there's no way to avoid my recommendation sounding like I think their life and marriage need improvements.

Here's my other hang-up with the book. While I loved the "secrets" the author uncovered about a happy, successful marriage on her journey around the world, I didn't truly find any of them earth-shattering. And, to risk sounding like I'm tooting the horn of my own marriage, I felt like Darrell and I already embodied most of them:

--Take divorce off the table. Never once has divorce been thrown out as a threat after a fight or particularly trying event. And it never will. We decided before we even got married that once those rings were on our fingers it was for good, and we would work at and do whatever it took to keep us together. Having parents who have never divorced certainly helped instill this mentality in us, but it was a decision we made together and we plan to stick to it.

--Laugh together every day. Please. Have you ever spent any time around my husband? Sometimes I wish he took himself and things more seriously. But only sometimes.

--Date your spouse. I don't exactly remember exactly when we started this ritual, but we make it a point to go on a date, just the two of us, once a month. We usually pick the night at the beginning of the month and plan something special, even if it is just dinner at a nice restaurant. We took a few months off right after William was born, but it's been especially good for us now to get back into the routine.

Those aren't the only "secrets", but I figured there was no sense in giving away the whole book because I do recommend this book and I do think lots of people should read it, regardless of their happiness level in their marriage. Because let's be honest--no one (and no marriage) is ever perfect.

Just a Little Bit Crazy

Here's a recap of the past two weeks:

Saturday, March 8th: Meet with my aunt Janelle, who is our realtor. Signed some paperwork to formally begin the process of selling our house, but didn't go so far as to put the house on the market (because it was no where near clean enough for showings and/or open houses).

Monday, March 10th: I had my first day back at work since William was born. Definitely a bit of a transition, but one I'm enjoying.

Tuesday, March 11th: My second day back at work. My aunt came down to the house to take a few pictures for a flyer to pass around to the other realtors at her office (but still no formal listing). My good friend got induced.

Thursday, March 13th: Go to the hospital to visit the newest, sweetest little girl I know. Darrell and I began tackling a list of things to get done around the house before we would be ready to list it.

Friday, March 14th: Get a call from my aunt in the evening that one of the realtors in her office has some clients who are very interested in our house. Wants to know if we can have it ready to show Sunday at noon. We agree, and then begin some mad cleaning/packing.

Saturday, March 15th: Mad packing/cleaning continues, but in shifts. I spend the late morning/early afternoon at the Shriner's Mosque at their annual beer pong tournament; Darrell brings William down after his nap and works at the event until after midnight.

Sunday, March 16th: Darrell, William, and I evacuate our house for the afternoon. We joke about how it doesn't feel like a "real" showing because A) it happened so quickly and B) we don't expect anything to come from it.

Monday, March 17th: Day three at work--still going well! We get a call from my aunt. The people who looked at the house have made an offer. Darrell and I panic slightly, and then stay up until 11:30 looking at houses online (plus we fill out like four March Madness brackets because, you know, why not?).

Tuesday, March 18th: We meet with our realtor and come up with a counter offer. By 10:00 that night the counter offer has been accepted and signed. (The only catch is that the buyers need to sell their house before they can close on ours). Darrell spends most of the night working on his "sermon" for the Lenten service on Wednesday.

Wednesday, March 19th: William and I have our last Kindermusik class (sad day!) Darrell gives his (fantastic!) Lenten message, although wishes things hadn't gotten so busy and he had spent more time preparing.

Thursday, March 20th: William wakes up SUPER early and is unusually fussy. Plus he naps for three hours in the morning--VERY uncharacteristic of him. I take his temperature before lunch--one hundred degrees. Head to the doctor's office that afternoon--double ear infection. We decide to postpone Book Club because other members are under the weather/have sick kiddos, so I get to lay low for the evening and cuddle up on my sick little guy. (Plus watch some crazy basketball games!)

Friday, March 21st: William is feeling much better (yay drugs!). Which is good, because there is no relief from the madness tonight (and I'm not just talking about the basketball games!). We are meeting with our realtor for round one of house shopping. Round two commences tomorrow morning (after William's first swimming lesson!), and, if necessary, round three is Sunday afternoon. Because we kind of need a place to live since our house is as good as sold.

Consider this my formal apology for my absence from the blog. Also consider this fair warning that there may be additional absences in the next two months (which will include William's birthday party, three bridal showers--two of which I'm helping to host--and a likely move).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We do have pictures on our real camera that aren't poor-quality iPhone pictures... But there's no guarantee those will be uploaded and edited in the next two months, so I figure something is better than nothing.

(If you think that "two months" is hyperbole, it's not. Things are getting all sorts of crazy in this house this spring. It's going to be to-do lists and organization central all up in here.)

Mom Confession

Confession: Yesterday I went back to work. And I enjoyed it.

Here's the details: A good friend of mine who I coach soccer with (and used to teach with) had a baby on Friday (super excited for a baby girl!!). Because she was having a hard time finding a long-term sub, myself and another teacher (who just retired last year) agreed to split the job. So on Mondays and Tuesdays I am now a freshman math teacher. And although I only have two days under my belt, I'm really enjoying it. It helps that I'm back at the school I used to work at, a school where I have a lot of personal connections with many of the staff. But even aside from that, it's nice to spend my days around other adults--regardless of who they are. Granted, dealing with freshman isn't always much different from dealing with an eleven-month old, but at least we can have real conversations--and they're usually about math, which is a bonus for the nerd in me.

I have to be honest and admit that my reaction to this has totally surprised me. Before we had kids I had always wanted to stay at home. Years before having kids (or even trying for kids) Darrell and I worked hard so that my dream could become a reality. And it's not that I haven't enjoyed staying at home, but it has definitely not been what I was expecting. I don't think I could ever go back to work full-time (unless, of course, I had to for financial reasons), and I certainly would not want to be working a lot in the early months of nursing (pumping just once a day is annoying enough; I can't imagine having to do it multiple times a day!), but maybe it'd be nice to get back into some sort of regular work. Maybe. We'll see how I feel a month or two from now.

Feeling a Little Emotional

Let me start this by saying that I am not an emotional person.* I did not cry when Darrell proposed (I actually think I laughed). I did not cry when we got married (but lots and lots of smiling). I did not cry when William was born (although watching Darrell get emotional almost got me going). However, doing laundry last weekend made me start to choke up a little bit.

You're probably thinking I'm nuts (and quite frankly, you'd probably be right). But here's the deal--William is getting ready to go into the next size of clothes, so I've been doing a little extra laundry to get his too-small clothes ready for storage and his "new" clothes ready to be worn. And--contrary to what you may think--it wasn't the boxing up of too-small clothes that got me emotional. I've actually never had issues with that; usually by the time he is outgrowing a size of clothes I'm sick of seeing all the same shirts and pajamas over and over again so I'm ready for a change. No, it was looking at the items in the next size up that got me choked up. Because seriously? These aren't baby clothes any more. These are little boy clothes. And I'm just not sure I'm ready to have a little boy--I want to keep him as my baby for as long as possible.


*I suppose I should make an important caveat here: Under normal circumstances, I am not an emotional person. But, as Darrell is quick to remind me, I do have a tendancy to be over emotional when my hormones get out of whack once a month. Such as the time I bawled because I had left our tomato seedlings outside to harden them off before transplanting them and the wind was too strong and pretty much killed them all. And bawled may even be understating my reaction. Thankfully, pregnancy hormones did not elicit similar responses out of me--something both Darrell and I are grateful for.

National Pancake Day?!?

So I was all excited to blog today about the awesomeness of National Pancake Day, and was super proud of myself for actually having a pancake recipe to share, only to discover that today, in fact, is not the only National Pancake Day. In fact, today is truly not about pancakes at all, but rather about the end of Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent. And traditionally, today--also known as Fat Tuesday--was just a day to use up the richer, fattier staples such as milk, butter, and eggs before the fasting of Lent began. And it just so happens that pancakes happen to be a quick, easy, delicious recipe that use all of those ingredients. In fact, according to Food.com, National Pancake Day is actually not until September 26th. How disappointing is that?!?

But, since IHOP recognizes today as National Pancake Day by giving away FREE pancakes (yes--even your local IHOP is probably participating in this giveaway), I'm going to follow suit. And, just for fun, I'll probably celebrate again come September 26th. Because really, any day with a built-in excuse to eat pancakes is a good day in my book.

Buttermilk Pancakes
(recipe originally found here)

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk together dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients, folding to combine. Batter will be lumpy. Cook pancakes on a preheated pan or griddle (approximately 300 degrees) until bubbles begin to form (three to four minutes). Flip and cook another minute or two.

If you need a quick substitute for buttermilk (because who really keeps that stocked in their fridge?), pour one tablespoon lemon juice into a measuring cup and fill to one cup with milk. Let stand for five minutes before using.

Oh, and fingers crossed this works as my shelf-stable dry pancake mix! I mixed up a few extra servings of the dry ingredients in a storage container and hopefully I'll be able to just scoop out a cup or two whenever Darrell and I want to make pancakes. Granted, we'll still have to measure out the correct ratio of wet ingredients, so it won't be quite as simple as those "just add water" mixes, but they should definitely be way more delicious. As long as the dry ingredients stay homogeneously mixed and don't get clumpy. I'll check back in after a few weeks/months to let you know how the experiment is going.

30 Before 30: Update

Well, here I am, a year and a half away from my thirtieth birthday. I'd make some quip about how quickly the time flies, but now that I have a kid, I'm pretty sure that this "fast" pace is actually just normal. So, with a mere eighteen months left for me to accomplish my 30 before 30 goals, I figured it was time to check in and see how my progress was coming.

As you may recall, I created four 30 before 30 lists to highlight four of my favorite past times: cooking, reading, crafting, and running (and because I'm an overachiever and couldn't settle on just one list). Here's where I stand on each list:

Cooking: So far, I have blogged about two recipes that Darrell and I have added to our permanent collection. I make the distinction of having "blogged" versus "made" because in reality, I've probably made ten or so recipes that we are going to add to our collection, including three or four from the list of recipes I wanted to be sure to master. I just haven't gotten around to blogging them. Because in order to blog them, I want need a picture of them. And in order to have a picture of them, I need to remember to take a picture of them. And in order to remember to take a picture of them, I need to not be juggling three other things, including feeding my son (who does not wait patiently for his food, mind you). So, while I think that I am pretty on pace to meet of goal of thirty new recipes by thirty, it seems the new challenge is going to be getting all those recipes blogged.

Reading: According to the blog I have read eight of my thirty books. That number seems low to me, though, and I feel like I've read some that perhaps never made it to the blog (which is very likely). However, I'm still not doing too poorly in terms of being on pace to hit my thirty--the only catch is that I gave myself a list of five that I wanted to be sure to read and I haven't read a single one of those. Guess I need to start convincing my book club friends to pull out some classics, eh?

Crafting: I'm actually surprised to see that I have six craft projects on the blog (since I started the challenge). I would have thought it was half that many. Granted, I still have a long ways to go to hit thirty in the next eighteen months, but William is becoming better able to participate in crafts, which will make it much easier for me to get them accomplished. And you'd better believe I have some more cute kid crafts on Pinterest in the back of my mind that I can't wait to try.

Running: Can we just pretend I never made this goal? Ugh. I don't think I've ran a mile since William was born, let alone an actual road race. Even though thirty miles of road races is only ten 5ks (approximately), that's quite a bit to squeeze into the next eighteen months. Especially considering I don't think I could actually run a 5k right now. Good thing my brother's fiancé is getting into running and is on board with doing some road races this summer before their wedding. I will desperately need some running buddies to help me get this goal accomplished.

So there you have it. Overall, I'm not quite as far along as I'd like to be, but considering I've spent the majority of the past twelve months finishing out a pregnancy and learning how to raise a child, I'd say I'm not doing too poorly. And it can only go up from here, right?