Mother's Day

Today is May 13th...it is also Mother's Day. Today is a bittersweet day for me. Three years ago on Mother's Day we announced to the family that we were having a baby. Today she is a beautiful 28 month old. On May 13th last year (it was Friday the 13th) I found out that I had lost a pregnancy 24 hours after finding out that I was pregnant. So today I should have a 28 month old and a 4 month old. But it just wasn't God's plan for us to be a family of 4 just yet.


Today was a good day. We all slept til 10 this morning (2nd day in a row that I got to sleep in!). Then we had breakfast and relaxed for a bit. Brandon then gave me my cards and said that I had an option. He had been looking at cameras for me and had gotten burned twice trying to get me one. So then he started looking at tablets and was unsure because I had never shown any interest in one. Truth is, I had never thought of getting one since I have a laptop and a smart phone. Since he had gotten burned on the camera deals he said that either I could take the money and put it up and it could go towards a camera once we found the right one OR we could go tablet shopping today. Well since anytime we put money up for something else, it always gets spent before on other things so I decided that we could go looking at tablets. Long story short, I am now the proud owner of a pretty awesome tablet. I like it much better than my phone(which is a pos) and my laptop(has an incredibly short battery life and has somehow reset itself to where it won't open my preferred browser no matter what I do). My husband is now playing deer hunter on my new tablet while I am blogging on my laptop:)


We went and had lunch with the family and gave Grammy and Memaw their gifts(homemade from Miss E of course). Miss E then decided that she wanted to go with them to look at a house that Michelle is looking to put an offer in on, so that is when Brandon and I took the opportunity to go shopping for my tablet. She wound up eating dinner with them so we went and ate the 2 of us before getting her back. She didn't get a nap so she was kinda cranky, but went right to sleep 30 minutes before her usual nap time.


Before I was a mom I hated Mother's Day to be quite honest. I haven't had a mom in many years to celebrate and pamper on Mother's Day. This day was just always a reminder of what I don't have. But now that I have Miss E, it is different. I'd be lying if I said I don't have hurt feelings and anger, but she has made me so much more. I love being a mother more than I ever thought I would. I can't put into words how much I love my child and my husband for giving me this precious gift. Even though I don't have my own flesh & blood mother (or adopted), I have a mother in law that I think of as a mother. She has been more of a mother to me than my adopted and biological mother ever were. I really believe that she thinks of me as a daughter and not just her son's wife. We have an excellent relationship and I am incredibly lucky to have her. She has been there for me for the better part of a decade and I can't ever thank her enough for all that she has done for me. She is such an amazing example of hoe to be a mother and how to live life. I don't think she will ever realize how much she has influenced my life and made me a better person. 


I am a very lucky woman. When times were really bad, when my biological mother was getting pulled out of the house by cops at 2am, when my adopted mother was telling me that I was nothing and would never be anything, I would pray that one day I would have better. That I would have a family that was full of love. I would pray that even though things seemed hopeless at the time, that God had a bigger plan for me and that one day everything would be okay. 


I am so happy to say that today, everything is okay:)


Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Updates!

Our internet was out for about a week because the phone line got dug up during yard work, so that is why I have been MIA. But I do have a lot to update!


Brandon was in Texas all of last week for school. He finally got a promotion(and a raise!). While he was gone, my wisdom tooth decided to try to make an appearance. My right bottom one started to come through and got stuck, which created a huge hole in my gum which got severely infected. It started on Monday and by the time I went to the dentist on Wednesday, my gum was infected all the way to my front teeth. Luckily, they took one look and decided not to touch or do anything since I was in so much pain. They just did x-rays and made the appt to get them removed. They said they would have taken them that day if I didn't have the infection. I've been on antibiotics and pain meds and am feeling a lot better. I'm just dealing with the wisdom tooth pain now, which I can deal with.


Brandon got home on Friday and we all went to dinner and did some shopping. I threw a baby shower for my best friend Angela on Saturday. This was the first shower I had ever thrown, but it was stress free and very easy. I had 2 people helping and everything was just perfect. I had a very specific vision in my head and it all came together beautifully. Everyone had a great time and it was so good to catch up with old friends.


Later that night, Ang sent me a text saying that her water had broken and they were on the way to the hospital. She was 32 weeks 2 days. She has been in the hospital since and they took the baby tonight. Little Dylan was born perfectly healthy and extremely handsome=) He is in the NICU but hopefully he won't have to stay for too terribly long. I am going up there in the morning and I can't wait to meet this little boy that I love so much already!


Miss E had her last dance class tonight. She has her very first recital on Saturday and she is pretty excited about it. I don't know how she is going to do though, she has never been on a stage in front of so many people before. She always does great in the classes, but this is going to be a huge difference. She has a rehearsal on Friday and hopefully she will get adjusted to the stage then. Her dance school just announced this week that they are closing, so I'm sad about that and am looking into dance schools for next year. She is going to do tumbling over the summer, her dance teacher teaches it, so that will give her something to do so maybe she won't miss dance so much.


I think I pretty much covered everything that has been going on=)

Amazing love

Tonight when it was Miss E's bed time, we sat on the bed and had a real conversation. We talked for probably a good 45 minutes about everything from how the Easter Bunny had left her a basket at our house & Grammie's house to how much she loves dance to what she wants to be when she grows up. That's right, my 27 month old told me tonight that she wants to be a doctor. I have no idea where that came from, but I love it. I love everything about her and that is no exaggeration. I am so unbelievably blessed to be this awesome little girl's momma. I never imagined that I could unconditionally love someone with all of my existence. 

I wish I could freeze time and keep her this age. Don't get me wrong, I love watching her grow and I look forward to seeing who she becomes. But there is something so special about toddlers. They are so pure hearted and innocent. She looks at the world and everything around her and see's nothing but good. When she see's someone, she doesn't see color or race or sex, she just see's a person that could potentially be a friend or someone to play with. She loves unconditionally as well. She doesn't care what anyone looks like, how much they weight, what their hair color is, etc. There is no hate in her heart, just pure innocence. I envy that in her and want her to hold on to that forever. I would love to see the world through her eyes for just a day. 

Having her has really changed me a lot. I don't look at things the way I used to and I have become a lot more tolerant of things because that's how I want her to be. I want her to be a good person.  A non judgmental woman of God. I want her to be accepting and caring. I have such high hopes for her and I pray for her every night. 

I am so proud of that little girl and the person that she is becoming. No, she hasn't had to overcome any hurtles such as a language or developmental delay, but that doesn't make me any less proud of who she is and what she accomplishes every day. She works hard and is so smart. I can't wait to see what awesome things that God has in store for her. 

I don't really have too much to update. We are still working on the front yard, but it is really close to being done. We are seriously going to have a HUGE yard, which is what I've wanted for a really long time. I want a place where we can run & play with Miss E & our future kids & that is what we are finally going to have. We are going to have a swing set and a garden with a cute little turquoise mini picket fence around it. I am really excited, I can't wait to see the final product. 

We finally got Miss E's loft bed/playhouse in her room, so today I rearranged her room around it. It is really cool & Miss E just loves her little house. We aren't quite finished with it, we still have to add the shutters and stairs and some other cosmetic things, but I'm really impressed with how it turned out.

It is going to look amazing when it is really finished. I told Miss E that this is extra special because her daddy hand built this specially just for her & now she tells everyone that she has a house that her daddy made just for her. It is really cute and she just loves spending time in there. Oh and you better not leave the door open bc she will tell you real quick that the door HAS to stay closed. I raised her well!

I am in an organizing, cleaning mood today, so that is what got her room done. I love being in these moods! I love really getting into something and getting it done. I think I'm going to attempt to move some furniture back into our bedroom today(it's still in our dining room & kitchen). We aren't moving everything back in there, but I would like what is going back in there, to be in there. I might try to move the desk and tv stand downstairs, we will see on that one.

I was thinking of having a little get together when all the renovations are done, a way to say thank you to the one's who have helped us and been here through out this stressful process and as a way to say screw you to the one's who have disappeared and haven't been around, not even a text message or anything. I'm still toying with the idea, the last time we had a party here, I said I would never have another party here. If we do, it will be a no alcohol thing(we don't believe in drinking around Miss E or any kids, well we don't drink at all anymore). I guess that's another thing we will have to wait and see about.

Projects!

We have had an extremely busy weekend. Miss E spent Sat-today at her Grammie's house, so we had time to get stuff done. Saturday I painted our bedroom (finally!) and it looks awesome! I was afraid of how the color blue was going to turn out on our accent wall & turns out, it is perfect. I'm so in love with how it is coming together. While I painted, Brandon worked on Miss E's loft bed/playhouse. Sunday, we both worked on her bed, I got all the pink & white parts painted, so today I'm going to paint all the purple parts. Then when Brandon gets home tomorrow night we can finally get it in her room and get it put together! I am SO excited since this has been in works since January. We still have to get the crack in her wall fixed from the tornado, and then I can finally get her room back together. 

Once her bed gets done, our next project is our bed. We have decided not to put it on the old frame & posts since it is so high. We took it down when Miss E was born for safety reasons and decided we want to keep it low to the ground(but not on the floor like it is now) to keep it safe for Miss E & any other future kiddos we have. So Brandon is going to build us a platform bed & a headboard. Oh and matching nightstands as well. I'm very excited about how our room is going to come together.

We should be finished clearing the trees in the front yard this week. Then we can start the grading work and hopefully get sod down within the next month. Then we have to start the back yard. We just have to take it one day at a time, as frustrating as that may be sometimes. 

Miss E is doing awesome. She decided to go ahead and have another growth spurt, so now she is in 3T/4T shirts (she has some 4/5 that fit as well) and went straight into a 7.5 shoe. I can't keep up with her growth spurts & it gets expensive quick! 

Right now, life is good, just busy, but I'm enjoying all the progress we are making!

Home Improvements

A lot has been going on this past week. Good news is that all the damage on the house has been officially repaired. The gutters are fixed and the window that was broken is now also fixed. A guy is coming tomorrow or Saturday to pressure wash the entire house and then I can re paint the front porch. Our house is going to look amazing! Now all the focus is on the front and back yard. We are on our 4th roll off dumpster($300 a piece!) for the yard debris. But our front yard is really starting to come together. Brandon's dad has been here almost every day when he gets off work and works until about 9pm. When Brandon is home, he also goes straight to work as well. To say they have been working hard is a huge understatement. I am so very grateful that Darryl has done as much as he has because he doesn't have to. He is seriously one pf the best people I know. 

While the guys have been busy improving the outside of our house, I've been busy improving the inside. On Saturday I started making the guest bath into Elyse's bathroom. She picked out the theme she wanted and then I painted it light purple(purple is her favorite color). The bathroom before was a light but bright blue, so covering it was not easy. I got the 2 in 1 paint and primer and had to really layer it on. I didn't get finished til after 11, so touch ups had to wait til Sunday. After I finally finished touch ups on Sunday, I hand scrubbed every inch of the bathroom. I'm talking on my hands and knees cleaning square by square on the floor kind of cleaning. Then I put in all of her new stuff and moved all of her bath stuff in. I had bought her all new towels and washcloths to match. Every thing looked great! I am so happy with the way it turned out. The best part was Miss E's face when she saw it the first time. She said "mommy, it's purple"! I said "this is your new big girl bathroom" and she said that she loved it. Now she wants to go in there numerous times a day to stand on her step stool and brush her teeth by herself and I happily oblige. 

Monday Darryl came over early and surprised me by telling me to go pick out new carpet for the bedroom! I can't even explain how happy that made me, our bedroom is in dire need of new carpet. He said we had enough insurance money from the tornado to put carpet in the bedroom. He had told Brandon that morning that he was going to surprise me with it. It almost brought tears to my eyes, this is something I've wanted to do since before Miss E was born, but we just couldn't afford it. We have a pretty big bedroom(it measured out to be 35.33 yards of carpet needed), so this is just awesome. He had already called the guy and told him that I was going to be coming and told me to pick out whatever I wanted. So yesterday Miss E and I went up there and picked out the type I wanted and brought the samples home so I could pick the color. I went back and ordered it this morning and it's going to be installed next Wed! Happy doesn't describe how I feel! It's enough to make me forget about what a crappy day I had Saturday.

So now I am on count down mode to Wednesday. After it gets installed, I'm going to pick out paint and finally paint our bedroom. We've lived here for 6 years and the walls are still bare and white and our bay windows still have no curtains. So I'm changing that and making it what I want it to be=) After I ge the bedroom how I want it, I'm going to start on the kitchen. I have plenty to keep me busy this summer with home improvements=) I'm excited because I love having projects though.

Tuesday we got our new roof. They came at 7:30 in the am and were up there banging all.day.long.I would have packed Miss E and I up and left for the day, but I was completely blocked in and I would have had to ask all of them to move their vehicles & the dump truck, so we just stayed in. It was a very long day to say the least, but our new roof looks amazing! We got an architectural roof and it looks so much nicer than the old one. And the best part is they finished it in one day!

The siding got finished this morning. They were here yesterday and had to come back and finish this am, but I am happy to say that is done too! We still have gutters to replace and some more minor things, but the big stuff on the house is done!

Miss E's room is still all messed up, all of her furniture is gathered in the middle of the room still, except for her twin bed, which is still in it's normal spot so she can sleep in there. I can't wait to get that room back to normal. Anyone who knows me knows about my OCD and I freak out a little every time I walk in the room. 

The kitchen window is still broken, but luckily we have double paned windows, so it's just broken on the outside.

Our insurance adjuster is AMAZING! Since Darryl is doing the tree removal himself(the insurance only pays for trees that caused damage to the house, truck, and Shyla's pen), it's looking like we should be completely covered and not have to come out of pocket for anything(well, we will have to be reimbursed for some of the things that have already been done). This is a huge blessing since we have about 100 trees down and it was going to cost about 10,000 to get them all taken care of. Our front and back yard is going to have to be completely redone( I can't even begin to explain what they look like at the moment) and sod is not cheap. So this is really a huge weight lifted. 

It's probably going to take all summer, but it's going to look amazing when it gets done=)