How could I resist?

Ha ha ha!!! (Ok, maybe it's a little too true.... )

Random

So many little random things to catch up on.

Last week was our anniversary - four years! We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate - Seuao did bring me home a gorgeous bouquet of roses. I got him a U of U sweatshirt. We ate Chinese take-out and he fell asleep on the couch while I was on baby duty upstairs. Romantic, I know.

It was haircut weekend at our house. Here are the befores and afters... Nice change!



Rebecca and her girls stopped by for a few minutes to get ready for pictures. More befores and afters!





Basement update (since I know you're all waiting with baited breath...) I got my electrician back to finish up everything. Long story short - he didn't give me any notice that he was coming, complained when I had the house available, said he would be in touch, wasn't, I left a grumpy message for him, discovered work was mostly done. Decided we were DONE. I'll live with it. So that's one thing off the list.

The bathroom is as done as it's going to be. Bless mom's heart - she came down here on Friday to meet with a plumber who was supposed to be able to fix the shower wall problems, but couldn't. She met with about 3 other people to try to just get it fixed for me. Ended up practically standing on her head with a caulking gun in black dress pants and nearly broke her leg (just the toilet seat took the fall) trying to clean up afterwards! I haven't tested it again, but it's going to have to do. Maybe next year we'll just tear it out and start over... What a joke.

The thing that's killing me is my AWOL carpenter. Without him I have no doors, no cupboards, NO CLOSET RODS!!!! I'm seriously going crazy. We have clothes EVERYWHERE because I can't put them away. Lily can't even go into her bedroom unless it's to sleep because it's such a nightmare. I'm leaving him messages daily - sometimes twice a day, NOTHING. I did talk to him for a minute last week, and he said he would finish it up last Friday or Saturday. Did I hear from him again... no. I'm withholding money still, but apparently it isn't enough to motivate him.

It is so frustrating to me to have pumped thousands of dollars into this basement and I can't even use it yet. Until he at least hangs the doors, I can't let Lily down there - sorry for venting. This is truly making me insane!

All I know is I can't wait to get out of town tomorrow! Thanksgiving here we come!!!!

Happy Birthday Seuao!

Today is my hunny's birthday. We won't disclose his age, because it's just something we don't talk about! In his honor, I thought I would share a few little-known facts about Seuao:

1. He loves any and all things Adidas
2. Growing up, he wanted to be a policeman
3. When he's stressed out while driving, he starts to hum
4. He loves his girls, but prefers them in small doses
5. The Kenny & Dolly Christmas CD is his favorite
6. Any meat that I cook doesn't count as meat unless it's on a bone or from a can
7. He's nearly as addicted to Diet Coke as I am
8. He has beautiful handwriting
9. He's the master at "Pounce" - and he doesn't even cheat!
10. He would (and does) literally give the shirt off his back to anyone

Ok, so maybe those aren't so obscure - I hope I don't get in trouble for embarassing him! He is such a wonderful man, loving husband and amazing father. I am truly blessed to have him in my life.

Happy Birthday, Love!

Changes

It feels like along with the fall season, so many things around me are changing. I have to return to work full-time next week. I'm so grateful I have been able to ease into it by being part-time the last week or so. It has made the transition easier. But it will never be easy leaving my babies all day every day. I love that they go to Lexy's and that she is so patient and takes such good care of them. That is a huge blessing, but it's not the same as taking care of them yourself. It's just not.

Tessa is changing so much. She is getting bigger and bigger. She smiles at us all the time and coos and talks so sweetly. She is starting to bust out of her 0-3 month clothes and I might have to go up another diaper size too! She is the sweetest little love there is. She is so content to be held and cuddled and who doesn't want to just kiss those cheeks off???


Lily has been changing too. She doesn't seem like a baby anymore. She feels like a little girl. She is always so attentive and concerned for Tessa. The first thing she says everytime she wakes up is "Tessa?" (Well, sometimes she asks for a "nana" (banana) first, but then Tessa is always second!) She has always been somewhat independent, but it's different now. At church I've started taking her into nursery, and watching her play on her own with other kids is a strange feeling! Seeing her interact and enjoy this new adventure on her own tugs at my heart a little bit! She's growing up, and I can't stop it! If I'm this much of a mess now, heaven help us all when she starts school - or even preschool, or even Sunbeams! I've gotta get a grip!

So many things around us have been changing. I'm not one to welcome change. I don't love it. However, I am adapting slowly to the changes around me, and true to the Lord's promises, they are good.

No Bueno

Last week I felt like I was literally falling apart. My body had finally decided enough was enough and was done. A guy at work saw me popping some ibuprofen and asked if I had a headache - I just said "You have no idea how many aches I have!" From head to toe (literally) my body was a mess. I had been fighting a migraine for a couple of days, my right shoulder felt like it was dislocated from hauling around heavy babies in even heavier car seats, my ribs ached, my lungs felt like they were being squashed and I couldn't breathe, I had stubbed my pinky toe HARD and it was all purple and swollen, all of this on top of still not being right from having a baby. It wasn't good.

Nevertheless, the world doesn't stop. Babies don't stop needing you, dishes don't stop getting dirty, etc. I did my best to just tough it out and keep going, however on Sunday night, this is where I found myself...

Let me back up - on Saturday the girls and I were in Logan, and my not being able to breathe became a real issue. I wondered if it was just anxiety from all the stress I had been under (just returning to work, basement drama, etc.) It was terribly painful - and I know what pain is! It was scary too. Cute Lex suggested I get a blessing from Dave while I was there, and I'm so glad I did. The main thing I remember being told is that I have medical insurance and I need to take care of myself! So on Sunday when I didn't feel much better at all, and Seuao was off to help with the kids, I decided to go to Instacare.

Because I just had a baby, they were worried I had a blood clot in my lung. They did an x-ray there at Instacare, but decided I needed further tests, and sent me over to the GIGANTIC mega-big hospital emergency room. When you start talking about blood clots, things get pretty serious pretty fast. As soon as I got there, I was strapped up for an EKG, IV, and they were ready to wheel me in for a CT Scan. I did tell my family what was happening, because I knew if one of them were in this situation and didn't tell me I would be furious! Sweet Sarah took over the role of Chief Worrier and rushed to the hospital to wait with me. Bless her heart. Turns out everything bad was ruled out. My heart is great, no blood clots anywhere, no pneumonia, no gall bladder issues, no asthma. Unfortunately all that left is Pleurisy. A crappy diagnosis that essentially sent me out the door no better off than when I came. I was told to go home and take more ibuprofen. Nice. Six plus hours of my life and thousands of dollars wasted to tell me to go home and keep doing what I was already doing.

I know, I know - we needed to know what it wasn't. And, I'm so grateful it wasn't anything serious. It has been a few days since all of this, and I still don't feel any better. It's supposed to only last 7-10 days, but I'm feeling no signs of improvement. As the doctor so eloquently put it, "At least you know you're not going to drop dead at home now."

At least I know that.

Adventures in Remodeling

This is one for the books....

A few weeks ago, the night after the sheetrockers had hung all the drywall, my dad was here and went downstairs to check it out. I heard him struggling to move stuff around down there, and thought he was trying to clean up after them. I shouted down to him, and told him he didn't need to worry about it. Well, that wasn't exactly the case. Apparently the little deep freeze we have down there had gotten unplugged when they hung all the drywall and my dad was moving it over to the only plug he could see, which my furnace also happens to be plugged into.

He asked me to go turn off the air. He unplugged the furnace, plugged in the freezer, then plugged the furnace back in. Freezer was working, and everything seemed fine. Until... we're back upstairs, and realize the compressor on my air conditioner isn't working. This has happened before, and Dad was headed out back to wiggle the thingy (technical, I know) to turn it back on. Knowing he probably wasn't sure what thingy to wiggle, I told him I would do it (even though I was trying to get out the door to go to the Old Ladies that night). Well, the magic wiggle wasn't going to work this time. No A/C. We thought it might be a breaker, so I ran up and down the stairs, in and out of the house testing all the breakers and wiggling thingys all around, and nothing was working. "Oh well" I thought - we'll just call an HVAC guy tomorrow to come fix it. I had wanted to get my furnace serviced anyway. We can live without A/C one night.

So, the next morning, I called a HVAC guy, and made an appointment for him to come the next day. Problems solved. Until... I was making dinner that night. Had a nice chicken and potato dish ready to go into the oven when I realize that my oven that had been "preheating" was dead. No power whatsoever. Hmmm... not good. I'm debating on what to do, when I hear Tessa grunting and groaning in the living room - sure enough - blow out! I went to change her and knew I had some clean clothes for her in the dryer, so I grabbed them, and discovered that the laundry I had put in there that morning didn't dry. I tried to start the dryer - dead. Not good....

I decided I definitely needed to call my electrician to see if he could help me out. In the meantime, Lily decides it's time for a fit. I got my electrician on the phone and amidst Lily's screaming, he said I should go try the main breaker for the house. I made sure with him I wouldn't electrocute myself by flipping that breaker, and gave it a shot. No luck - everything was still dead. Lily was still screaming, only now Dad informed me that the cable went out. Great.... I was ready to start crying right along with Lily!

Trying to solve one crisis at a time, I got Lily calmed down with some "juuk" (i.e. juice), got Comcast on the phone to reset our cable, wrapped up my chicken & potatoes and put them in the fridge (at least that was still working), and made an appointment with our electrician for the next day to come see what was wrong.

Bob the electrician showed up the next evening, went downstairs to the breaker panel, flipped all my 220 amp breakers back and sure enough stove works, dryer works, A/C works. Can you believe that's all it was??? I guess in all of the crazy breaker flipping the first time when the A/C went out, we ended up shutting them all off instead of on. Nice.

In my own defense, it IS a new breaker panel, and nothing was labeled, and it IS mighty hard to tell which way is on and which is off....

What a joke!

Basement

The thing that has (unfortunately) been occuping all of my time and brainpower has been the finishing of our basement. We had it framed out before Lily was born, and it kind of sat on hold for a while. When we found out Tessa was coming, we knew we needed more room, and it really couldn't wait much longer.


So, in the few months leading up to Tessa's birth I (with the invaluable help and cheerleading support of my dear friend April) managed to get the rough plumbing, rough electrical and insulation done. My goal was to have it that far before the baby came, so we could finish it off while I was on maternity leave.

Lesson #1: Maternity leaves are given to new moms for a reason, and home improvements are not it!

With my work experience, I really thought it wouldn't be a big deal to manage this little project. I have managed construction projects before, and wasn't completely oblivious to the process. However, the timeframe I was trying to get this done in may have been a little unrealistic... AND, trying to care for a newborn and a 15-month old while juggling contractors, phone calls, trips to Home Depot, crisis after crisis doesn't bode for a speedy delivery recovery (nevermind the fact that having a big baby in the first place throws everything off anyway!)

It started with the sheetrockers. I hired a great crew, but they got delayed when the main boss guy got sick and then his cell phone broke. That threw off my carpenter, who does great work but is flakey about coming when he says he will. He did eventually come for one full day, left his tools, and disappeared the second day he was supposed to finish up. After a few pointed voicemails I found out his sister had overdosed and he had been at the hospital with her all day...

Carpentry eventually got done, and while the carpenter was here, I wanted him to build out shelving in all my bedroom closets. I especially wanted him to rebuild my Master Bedroom closet - that poor thing has fallen out of the wall way too many times. He did a great job building the shelving, but didn't put in any poles to hang anything... go figure. So he needs to come back after the painting is done and the carpet is in to hang all the doors, so he said he'd do it then. In the meantime, NONE of my closets are functional - pretty much every item of clothing is in a massive pile in Lily's bedroom, and I get the choice experience of plowing through it on a regular basis. Good times.


I found a great tile guy, who did an awesome job. We used a Samoan painter that our friends had used, who also did a good job, but overcharged us, and left a HUGE mess. He was on time though and always showed up when he said he would (apparently NOT a common thing for contractors, which I have learned).

The major problems came with the bathroom. We used a recommended plumber, and I had even gotten comparable bids, but it was a big job. They had to jackhammer underneath the footings and relocate all the stubs.


When he set everything originally, I had worries about the placement and spacing. I was assured everything would be fine. Well, when it came time for the plumber to come back and finish everything off, he informed me he doesn't install showers. WHAT??? If a plumber doesn't install a shower, who does??? I ended up having to call another guy to come out and install the shower walls, only to have him tell me that it's not going to fit right. Mr. Plumber Guy had to come back, tear up my tile, re-jackhammer and relocate the toilet. Plumber Guy did, only to move it too far the other way, so my vanity doesn't center under the plugs and lights anymore. AND when he installed the fixtures in my shower, we discovered that it's leaking, and I need to call Shower Wall Guy back to fix that. In the meantime, we pulled up the covering that had been on the floors from the painter, and discovered that there's a big gouge in my tile from when Plumber Guy jack-hammered the second time. GRRRRR!!! As of today, Shower Wall Guy is supposed to come back tomorrow to fix his walls, and Plumber Guy wants to come back yet again to inspect (and hopefully pay me back some of the extra money I had to spend to get Shower Wall Guy here).

One sign of progress today though is that my carpet is in!!! It is gorgeous, and even though I still need the carpenter, electrician, plumber, Shower Wall Guy, sheet rocker and painter all to come back, we have made progress!!!

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year! I knew ever since Halloween last year that I wanted Lily to be a flower this year. Then when we found out Tessa was coming, I thought a little bumblebee would go perfectly with my little flower!

I love homemade costumes, and while my mom was down here, she helped me get going on them. Actually, she ended up taking over and just doing them - which is exactly what needed to happen, or else they probably just wouldn't have gotten done at all! They turned out so cute, except I forgot the one-year-old factor. A little girl who isn't used to hats and stuff on her head, probably isn't likely to wear a great big flower around her face! I managed to get one shot of her with the flower how it should have been... kind of:


But, this is how we ended up... Some battles you just don't win! Still, she looked darling.


This poor costume was held together with safety pins and a prayer!

But how adorable is this little bumblebee???


We made yummy Halloween cookies and and visited Papa at his office the day before, and I took the girls to my office on Halloween morning. Noah joined us Trick or Treating in our little neighborhood that evening.


The kids so didn't get what Trick or Treating is, and it was more of a workout for me & Lexy than anything else! Seuao and Tessa came along too! We made it about half way around our little subdivision before it started raining, and we called it quits. Sarah minded the fort for us and passed out candy. We gathered back at our house for our traditional taco soup and corn bread, and Benji, Mary and Allen joined us. It was a fun-filled day!

Pictures

Here are a few of Tessa's newborn pictures. (She doesn't look much like a newborn though - she's so big!) I've left off my favorite - you'll have to see it on her birth announcement, assuming I ever get them off in the mail!








We had to snap a few of Lily too while we were there...





And a family shot too (which I'm not crazy about, but oh well...)



Aah, back to the cute kids - aren't they adorable???

Puh-Kees!!!!!!

Lily is talking so much now! I bet she says nearly 100 words. She's even starting to link them together! She's just so smart! One of her favorites has been "Puh-Kees!!!" (aka pumpkins) It is so cute to hear her say it! And she knows what they are!

A little while ago, I met up with my friend Paige and her little Emmy, who is exactly one year older than Lily.


We took the kids to Gardner Village to see all the "puh-kees" and Lily LOVED it! Emmy wasn't quite as impressed, but it was still a fun afternoon!


Lily is always looking for something to sit on - just like her mama!


Emmy prefered to push her stroller around, and unfortunately this is the only picture of Tessa we got that afternoon (under the purple blanket) - sorry baby!


I love my little poser! She LOVES to say "cheese!"


We are having so much fun. I really thought while I was on maternity leave I would want to send Lily back to Lexy for a break, but I honestly have loved spending all day with her. Sure we have our moments, but getting to spend this time with her has been such a blessing.

Yes, I have fallen off the face....

I'm trying to think of analogy of how life has been going. The words "tumble dryer" "salt shaker" and "drowning" come to mind! Things have been so insanely busy. I feel like I have been spinning in circles and literally can't pause for a breath. This poor blog has been one of many things on my mind that I feel like I'm failing at, and it's not supposed to be like this! Then I get so far behind, and wonder how I'm ever going to catch up, but I guess I never will, unless I just start, so bear with me...

(And to those of you who check on me regularly, had I known I would be taking such a hiatus, I DEFINITELY would not have left you with a hideous picture of Diet Pepsi for so long!!! Trust me, I'm still a Diet Coke girl through and through...)