Getting closer

We have a (tentative) closing date for the new house - July 12!!!  And we have already closed on the sale of our current house - things seem to be moving along so quickly, and I have a LOT left to pack.  New house photo updates:

Saturday, June 22, lighting installed, grinding floors for installation of wood.

Driveway is laid out and ready for pouring.

Dining Room lighting.

 

Tuesday, June 25 - driveway poured (probably poured Monday).

Wood floors are in, but already covered over so they don't get ruined.

Tack strips installed for carpeting.

Concrete Pad poured under the AC unit.

Thursday, June 27 - Carpeting is all installed!! (this is the upstairs hallway)

Mirrors are installed.

Electricity is turned on.

Blinds are installed - even in the upper windows - yeah!

Still need to stain that front door.

 

Master bath - even has clean floors.

Shower door installed.

Master bath.

Kitchen with all the cleaning supplies they are using right now to get it in top shape before we do the final walk through (and cover the house top to bottom in blue tape spots for them to fix - seriously they won't know what hit them).

Covered AC pad.

 

Leveled yard ready to receive grass.

 

 

And that is about it, they should be putting in the sprinkler system, and locating the couple of trees which we get pretty soon.  We have been told that we get input on tree location, we'll see if that actually happens.



Turning 30

So turning 30 really wasn't all that bad (Blake keeps telling me how old I am, but I knew that was coming).  It was a fantastic birthday though, and I have Blake to thank almost entirely for that.

I started out my birthday celebration a couple days early by going to The Cheesecake Factory after the kids were in bed with a few of my favorite friends.  And, we went - just for dessert!!  I got the Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake, and Oh-My-Goodness it was delicious, and very, very, very rich, I could not finish the whole thing.  Layers of Chocolate Cake, Chocolate cheesecake, Vanilla Bean Mousse with Chocolate in it, and topped off with Chocolate Ganache.  You can't tell from the picture, but it has this pretty white chocolate swirl on the top too.

 

 

On my actual birthday, we all got up, dressed, and were out of the house by 8:40 (with promises of Starbucks to come).  We took the kiddos to Blake's parent's house so that they could play while we went on my birthday surprise excursion.  We drove up North for the excursion, and discovered quickly that between Blake's parent's house in Westlake, and our destination 25 minutes away, there was not a single drive-thru Starbucks.  (I mean seriously, get on that Starbucks!).  So we did find one without a drive thru (which apparently was close to where we were going) which I got out and got us drinks from.  About 3 minutes later, we pull up here - IFly Austin:

 

 

 

Now, this is funny for a couple reasons: 1. Blake had been telling me that we were going skydiving for my birthday, and I didn't believe him (mainly because I told him we could do whatever, but I was NOT jumping out of an airplane and possibly leaving our kids without parents).  2. I saw it on a show a while back (Conan I think), and then I guess again on the news when it opened in Austin, and said - "Let's do that, it looks like so much fun".  3. We literally had to drive past this place once we got off the highway looking for coffee, and I totally missed it - hard to miss the huge sign and red building but somehow I did.  Oh well.

 

Just a bit after we signed in, our friends Anthony and Vanessa showed up to join in on the fun.  We all went upstairs, and as soon as we got to the top of the stairs, were greeted by this huge tube thing:

 

 

 

There were a bunch of apparently much more advanced guys in there flying around doing tricks, and we naively thought we would be doing that kind of thing (Whew, didn't have to, looked awesome, but way advanced).  We took a brief class which taught us hand signals, and then we donned our flight suits, goggles, ear plugs, and helmets.  Before we knew it, we were in line inside the outer chamber of the tube, and then we were flying!

 

Me flying.

Me flying higher, and this isn't as high as I went either!

Me flying tandem with an instructor - who took me up really high, then really quickly pulled me back down (awesome, but scary too).

Blake flying.

Blake flying tandem with the instructor.

 

Blake, Sarah (Me), Vanessa and Anthony after flying.

 

After flying, we had a wonderful lunch downtown at Zax, and then spent a relaxing rest of the afternoon at Blake's parent's house.

 

All in all, good birthday, and I feel no different being 30 than I did being 28, although I guess the last 5 months of working out do have me in probably the best shape that I have been in since high school - so take that 30, can't beat me down!!

 



 





Goodbye to my 20's

The last day of my twenties was spent much in the same way as most of my other days have been spent over the last year plus of being a full time Mama to two boys (although, less spit-up than a year ago thankfully).

7:30 am - awakened by Travis crying, joined almost immediately once we reached the living room by Jake - happy, and wanting to give Travis breakfast to make him happy too.

7:45 am - make coffee, and granola with yogurt for me, put breakfast bars and milk on the little table for the boys

8am - turn on Curious George for Jake (makes him way too happy), while I clean the kitchen, take out the recycling, and play on the computer a little bit.

9:30 am - finally remember to make Blake coffee - oops, a little late, but hey he wakes up later than me.

10am - convince Jake that if he wants to go on our play date with Bristol, that he needs to pick up the Lego's on the living room floor (It works, and then he wants to vacuum - I call this a win-win).

10:30am - all Lego's are finally picked up, and Jake gets out the vacuum.

10:45am - living room is looking better, I take over the vacuuming, and the living room soon looks awesome.

11am - sunscreen the kids, throw swimsuits on them, and get myself dressed and ready for the remainder of the day

11:30 am - make and pack lunch for the 3 of us to take on our play date

11:40am - put kiddos in the car and head off to the Hill Country Galleria Splash pad.

12pm - arrive at the splash pad and meet up with Bristol and family.

12pm - 1:20pm - play at the splash pad, chasing around 5 kiddos, everyone grabbing bits of lunch between running around.  The kids had a ton of fun, and Tiffany (Bristol's Mama) and I had a great time gabbing.

1:30pm - pack the kiddos back up into the car and head out to the new house to see progress, and show off to Bristol.

1:45pm - arrive at new house, and Jake has to go potty, as he always does soon after we get there, and he walks around and pees on the back of the port-a-potty (cause eww to going in there, and thank goodness he is a boy!!)  Show Bristol's family the house - and somehow manage to keep up with all 5 kiddos still.

2:10pm - Bristol and family leave the house and head on to do the other things they planned for the day.  Jake and Travis stay happy sitting in the back of the car enjoying peanut butter crackers.

2:15pm - Shannon, Liam and Ainsley arrive at the house so we can show off for them too! 

3pm - Arrive back at our now dubbed "old" house, and Travis goes down for a nap while Jake takes quiet time.  Now on a normal day I would do my workout during this time, but I decided that what I really wanted was a shower after being sunscreened up (and I hate the feeling of sunscreen once I don't need to be wearing it).  So I took a lovely mid-day shower, and used my new sugar scrub to get all that yucky sunscreen off of me.

4:45pm - Travis wakes up, and is in a "mood" and not a good one. He just cries and cries.  Looks like he has gas, so I give him some gas relief, and he continues to cry (How much I wish this kid already had words!).

4:50pm - Jake gets up from quiet time, and tries to find something to make Travis happy (he is so good with his little brother).  Unfortunately today nothing works.

5:15pm - Gas Meds. maybe have kicked in, and Jake and Travis start bouncing on the sofa, and playing peekaboo with me who is on the floor behind the sofa.

5:20pm - Travis hits his mouth on the wood framing on the inside of the back of the sofa, and his gums start bleeding, so we are now back to crying.  Now it is ouch crying, so we dose with ibuprofen.

6pm - Decide we need to start thinking about dinner, and we order Torchy's (not normal for us either, normally I have dinner home made and on the table by 6 - guess I was a little lazy today).

6:20pm - I go (without kids - score), and pick up dinner.

6:30pm - get home with dinner (we live too close to Torchy's), and we immediately devour it.  YUM!

7:30pm - kiddos go in the bath tub, and I get their sunscreen scrubbed off.  It is a little easier for my crazy clean brain that they were in their sunscreen a few hours longer than necessary - mainly because it wasn't on me.

8pm - Kiddos go to bed, and Blake and I can relax the rest of the evening.

8:30pm - Jake wanders back into the living room (joy), and I put him back to bed.

We watch the Dexter marathon gearing up for next week's final season.

Now it is past 11:30 pm, and I should probably be heading to bed.  I know, terrifically exciting life that I lead.  Oh well, I love it no matter how boring it may appear from the outside, we have a ton of fun.  Blake has something (a surprise none the less) planned for me tomorrow for my birthday which actually requires me to be up and presentable outside of my house by 9am.  So goodnight world, when I awake, I will be 30 - yikes!

Weekend Wedding Fun

We were in Houston this weekend for my cousin's wedding - my youngest cousin - wow makes me feel old that he is old enough to get married, well that and I turn 30 in 4 days, so that makes me feel old too. 

Staying in a hotel with 2 kids is a terrible idea interesting.  Particularly it is interesting with one kid who likes a night light, and one kid who likes it totally dark, and a husband who wants to watch TV because well, it is only 10pm...  In the end it all worked out though, and everyone slept in their designated locations - Jake on the chair (the first night, floor the second), Travis in the Pack-N-Play, and Mama and Daddy in the King bed (the first night, separate beds the second when we had to move rooms... see below).

I can not however actually recommend the hotel which we stayed at.  It was a decent hotel and all, but well, we had some issues.  We checked in, got all settled, explored the hotel, and then went back to the room to get ready before heading to the rehearsal dinner.  Well, I go in to take a shower, and the handle says "Pull Out", so I follow the directions, and I tug and tug on it, and there is no way that this thing is going to "pull out".  So I go to enlist help from Blake.  He tells me that likely he will either get it to turn on instantly (making me feel the total fool), or he will totally break the handle off.  Well, he totally broke the handle off - and I don't just mean it was loose and he pulled it off and we needed to get it re-fastened, I mean that there was a black plastic piece which a screw went through to make it work correctly, and both the black plastic piece and the screw were completely broken in half... half in the handle, half still on the wall.

So, we call the front desk and let them know that our shower doesn't work, and we need maintenance, and that we'll be out for a few hours, so it would be convenient to come then.  Well we leave, go to the rehearsal dinner, have a lovely time, and come back to the hotel about 9:30pm.  And... there is no sign that anyone has been in the room to even look at the shower (like the handle is in the same place).  So we call again, and they say that they'll send someone right up.  Surprise, surprise, they don't send anyone to the room.  So we go to bed and resolve to shower at my parent's room the next morning (thank goodness we knew other people staying in the hotel - can't even imagine how upset we would be with this if we couldn't have showered).  We go by the front desk in the morning on our way out again and tell them (for the third time), that our shower head is broken, that we have called twice, and that no-one has done anything about it.  They assure us that it will be taken care of while we are out during the day.

So we head into town to see our good friends Jon and Ashley, and their absolutely perfect baby boy Caden, and we have a wonderful time.  We do find out that Travis unfortunately is going to be able to open closed doors about a year earlier than Jake figured it out - partially due to the fact that our new house will have lever hardware, and the current one doesn't, and Travis sure figured that out this weekend.  Oh well!

When we get back to the hotel, guess what - yeah, nothing at all had changed, so Blake goes down to the front desk, and when he returns he tells me that we are changing rooms, and that we have free breakfast coupons for the next morning.  (Apparently he is a better negotiator to get things done than I am - no real surprise there though).  So we throw everything in the Pack-N-Play, and move rooms and floors.  (If you have ever traveled with 2 small children, you know how much crap stuff we had which needed to come with us, if not well let me assure you, it is a lot of stuff).

In the new room, I go to throw the boys in the bath and... yeah there is no stopper for the tub.  We end up using one of the glass hotel cups, and turn it upside down to keep as much of the water as possible in the tub (and still we had to run the water while they were in there for the majority of the bath to keep it somewhat filled, and the boys decently warm).  But it got the job done, and we were tired of complaining (since apparently most of our complaints fell on deaf ears anyway).

The wedding was beautiful though, and we had a fantastic time dancing and visiting with family.  The hotel breakfast bar ($15/person to the normal guest, free for us with the coupons) was nothing special, and I was glad that we didn't have to shell out the money for it.  And since you made it this far, below are the photos from the weekend:

Morning before we left, the boys decided to get in the shower while I was packing - they were pretty cute in there.

Jake on the drive - watching movies with his headphones on.

Travis spent the drive alternating between sleeping, and sucking on his toes (which made him crack up laughing).

The boy's job at the rehearsal dinner was to help Grandma and Granddad to empty the ice out of the big bucket - they loved their job.

Wedding Reception.

Blake and Travis - LOVE this photo, thinking I need to frame it.

We were allowed to blow bubbles at the table (or at least we did it anyway).

The happy couple - congratulations Libby and Erik.

Jake's favorite dance partner - Aunt Laura - he can't wait to go to another party with her!

Sisters dancing with the boys - they really liked this.

Mama and Travis.

There is Light at the End of the Tunnel

Things on the house are starting to look more and more like we will actually be able to live in it by the end of next month (actually maybe closer to the middle!!).  Well, we have to be in by the end of next month, because we will otherwise no longer have a place to live.  The closing for the sale of our house is June 24th, and then we are leasing it back from the new owner through the end of July.  Both sets of parents have offered to allow us to live with them for as long as necessary, but in all truth, I think it will be best for all of our relationships if that just doesn't have to happen, and it looks like it won't have to happen.  So, everyone cross your fingers that we are moved into the new house before July 31. 

Exterior stone has been applied to the house, which makes it look much better than the lovely black wrap which had been on it for so long.

Front of house with stone, scaffolding still in place (Wednesday).

 

Front porch stone - screams Texas doesn't it!

 

If the front porch doesn't scream we're Texans, the door sure does - LOVE it (still needs to be stained though).

Kitchen floor tile is being installed, and the pattern looks just like I wanted it to. Yeah!!

 

There is an awesome dirt pile at the back of the house, I think for leveling prior to landscaping.  Jake is pretty sure it is his new mountain sand pit to climb though, I hope he doesn't get too disappointed when it isn't there next week.

Front of the house with the scaffolding removed, and leveled out for the driveway (Thursday).

 

 

Looks like by the end of the weekend, who am I kidding by the end of tomorrow at the rate they have been going, all of our interior tiling will be done.  Might take a bit longer on the master bath flooring since they didn't install the correct pattern (oops), hopefully won't be too much delay though.  Maybe all the flooring will be in by the end of the weekend!!  Can't wait to see it progress farther.

 

Probably I am the only one who is really and truly excited by all of the little things which are going on.  Unfortunately, no one submitted samples to me for approval prior to installation like I am used to receiving for my projects - so I might have decided to procure them myself...  I might, or might not have swiped a tile scrap (from the cuttings pile on the front porch), a chip of paint (off the 5gallon tub, not the wall), and a piece of wood floor scrap (from the dumpster, which actually was probably from a neighbor's installation since ours hasn't arrived on site, but it is the same flooring)... I mean I needed something to go with the paint colors I have selected which I can play with at home, right???    Maybe I am too used to be a designer, and too dependent on having my samples available at all times to reference... 

House Progress Week 14

Well, I couldn't stay away from the house all the way until the weekend - there is just way too much exciting stuff going on!!!  So, Thursday, after a fun morning at the splash pad, I take the kiddos - sans Blake - to go see the house.  The exterior stone was delivered, interior doors were hung, trim work nearly complete, and cabinetry installed.

 

Travis, Everett, and Jake at the splash-pad.

 

Exterior stone, bit dusty, looks really white in this pic.

Master bath and Kitchen Cabinetry.

Garage door down - love the hardware on it, probably only costs $10, but makes the door look so much fancier!!

 

 

Saturday morning, we head back to the house - with Blake this time - and take my Mom and Dad to see progress, prior to an afternoon of everyone swimming at Blake's parent's house.  Very exciting still, they now have the stairwell stained, and have covered over all the cabinetry to start painting.

From the top of the newly stained stairs.

 

Swimming fun - look at the perfect form on that kid for the throw!!

 

 

Of course, Sunday morning, Blake's parents go by the house, and tell us it has first coat paint up.  And how can we possibly stay away, so we head back out to check it out.  It looks fantastic (way white - it will not stay that way once we close though).

Breakfast nook, and front of house looking toward living room.

Master bedroom.

Kitchen from Living room.

The boys had a great time playing with some of the discarded caulking bottles - they were banging them together, and being very happy.

These are the paint colors which the house will eventually end up being - builder would only do a single color paint, and wanted to charge way too much to paint the ceilings white, so we went with the whitest color they had to do both walls and ceilings, and decided we would just have to paint the walls the colors that we really wanted after the fact (seriously, they had only 4 wall colors to choose from, and I hated all of them).

 

These are the rest of the finishes which will be in the house.

And, it rained at the house Sunday morning, which washed all the dust off the stone, and made it much more the color which we were expecting to have - so yea!!

 

 

Expecting that this week we will have final paint on walls, trim painted, exterior stone installed, and flooring delivered (maybe even started on installing too).