Dang. Slacker extraordinaire.

The last time I updated, we were looking at a few pieces of land and considering manufactured homes.

As of last Wednesday, we live in the country on 8 1/2 acres of land. We got a decent little house.. about 1500 square feet, and we are unpacking and trying to settle in. It’s been eventful. We were “homeless” for about a month. We were pushed out of our rental house due to code compliance issues (owner’s negligence) at the end of March. Since then we lived with friends for 3 weeks and family for 2 1/2 after that. Our dogs stayed with friends but are now here with us, spoiled rotten and running around on the 2-3 acres we fenced in.

I will try to update soon on how things are, and hopefully get some pictures up.

The past few weeks have basically involved countless conversations about goats, land and double wides. I know, you wish you were a fly on my wall.

Basically, we’ve been looking at moving outside the city limits for a while. We’re too close to our neighbors with barking dogs and parties and cars zooming down the streets 10 feet from our front door. We’re just.. done. We want to raise our kids on some land with animals and responsibilities and decent schools.. Not to say the schools here in the city aren’t decent (they are, and the elementary school Matthew would go to next year is actually pretty great) but the schools in the county we’re trying to buy this land in are supposed to be some of the top schools in the area. Their test scores are pretty great, and it’s in an Ag area.. meaning they also learn how to care for livestock and learn real responsibility.. rather than just, stare at the chalkboard and then go home and write on a piece of paper. The teacher/student ratio is also a bit better than schools in the city.

Anyways, that’s what most of our conversations have been. That and double wides. We’re looking at Solitaire homes, just trying to pick floorplans because some of them are plain stupid. I think the designers should be forced to live in whatever they come up with for a year before it is approved. Or put a family of 4 in it for a test period.

Also, we had a goat. For 10 days. Her name was Stella. I think I deleted all the pictures of her, but she was a little black goat. We took her in at 1 day old. My sister and her fiance were in the process of moving BACK to the land where they have all these goats, and this little one was rejected by it’s mom and it’s sibling died. She was doing okay but had diarrhea, and finally died at 10 days old. She was fine and then we were gone for 2 or 3 hours, and came back to her dead. They did an autopsy and still aren’t sure what was wrong, except they know her sibling died and some of the other goats at their house are also sick with something. Hopefully they figure it out. It’s heart breaking because they said we could bottle raise her for a few weeks, then they’d take her back, and once we got our land she could be one of our first goats. I’m so bummed out, but we will still get goats.. just not sickly one day old ones.

“When you feel like you can’t go any further, just know that the strength which carried you this far will take you the rest of the way.”

It’s been over a month of going non-stop, between my in-laws staying with us, to my mom breaking her ankle and staying with us for a few weeks, then Angie coming to visit. I enjoyed every single one of them, but winding down is proving to be difficult. Blake started getting sick about a week ago. After a few days of fever, I took him in yesterday (thank goodness for Saturday hours, I love our pediatrician!) and found out that he has an ear infection in his left ear. They gave him some antibiotics and instructions for tylenol, motrin and benadryl. Of course, it could take up to a week for him to feel any better, so he just sits around and cries. He’s already a huge momma’s boy so it’s been intense.

Today is the first day with nobody here. Just myself and the boys. Today was Jeremiah’s early day (he goes in an hour early & gets off early) so I’ve been on my own since just after 10. I miss having company.. and I know people have to go back to their lives, and Angie missed her hubby and all.. but they should stay here and keep me company! It makes it hard when the people you love live far away, but I’m glad they can visit occasionally.

I think the worst part of adjusting, is Matthew and his adjustment period. He was pretty good most of the day, then chose to fill the evening with epic tantrums. After screaming in his room for a while, he cried throughout bath time, as well as while picking up his room and the loft. Now he’s in bed reading for the duration of the evening. I told him I’d let him know when dinner was, and then he’d be going to sleep. I think he’s accepted his fate at this point.

Blake is finally napping for a few.. I think I’ll go shower and prepare myself for what is sure to be a fun evening with the kiddos…..

My little Blake is sick today. He started running a fever yesterday afternoon when he woke up from a 3 hour nap (which is abnormal in itself). I gave him a lukewarm bath, gave him some Tylenol and tucked him back in bed. Through the night I alternated Tylenol and Motrin and when he woke up around 8 he seemed to be feeling okay. He played for a little bit, but eventually I think the Motrin that I gave him at 5 wore off and he started feeling bad again. About 11, his temperature was 102.7, so I gave him his Tylenol and put him down for a nap. Jeremiah is stopping on his way home from school to get some more Motrin, but hopefully we won’t need it much. I hate when my babies don’t feel well. Matthew has been sick 2, maybe 3 times ever. This is Blake’s first time at 7 1/2 months, but I’m not surprised with everything that’s going around. Jeremiah is sick as well, so if anyone in our house was going to get it, it would be Blake.. with his tiny under developed immune system. I’m REALLY hoping that Matthew and I are safe (and Angie, hehe).. we’re taking our vitamins, drinking plenty of water and crossing our fingers!

Blake is going through this stage where he is just completely overwhelming. He is WAY more clingy than Matthew ever was, which is fine.. to an extent. But if I walk away from him once, it ruins his whole day. I can barely get anything done. My house is really starting to show the effects. He will only sit in an exersaucer or walker for about 20 minutes a day, total.. he lasts about 5 minutes each time I set him in there.

He naps okay, but I’m so exhausted during the day that him waking up at night kills me. He only wakes up 2 or 3 times, but by the morning I feel like crying when I hear him on the monitor. I’m just glad that most of the time, he goes right back to sleep after being changed and fed. I remember Matthew getting up in the middle of the night and wanting to play sometimes. That, right there, can take down any sane adult.

Tomorrow or Thursday I’m hoping to go get my mani/pedi that I got for Christmas. The last time I got a pedicure was in the beginning of November and the last time I got a manicure was… I have no idea. I have been trying to go at least every other month because it’s so relaxing and really is a nice treat. The place I went to in Fort Worth was amazing.. I’m hoping I can find a great place here as well!

At least when it comes to blogging. The most common phrase on the blogging scene has got to be “I’m going to post more”. Okay, maybe that’s my blog. But dude, it’s barely been a week since my last post. That’s some sort of personal record.

Angie is here.. right.. there *points* while my kids are on the floor in the living room watching Sesame Street. We don’t usually have them watch a lot of TV, but honestly, it’s for my own good. Blake is fussing a bit even while it’s on, but at least he’s not screaming. He has just been hard to please lately. He gets up at 5:30am, and during the day I become so exhausted that by 6 or 7 I’m ready to put him to bed. I’m going to TRY to keep him up a little bit later tonight and hope that he sleeps in just a little bit later. I could go for a 6:30 or 7am morning. 5:30 is getting old, fast.

I have officially jacked my husband’s laptop. I don’t know that this is a permanent arrangement, but he jacked my tablet so it’s only fair. His laptop is “too big” to take to work for school. He’s getting a keyboard for the tablet so that he can use it. He was going to use our netbook but he says it’s too small and he wants a touchscreen. I’m thinking we should sell it.

So anyways, I will try to stop lying. It’s a filthy habit, I know. No promises. Well, maybe, but just that I will try.

Okay, so Angie is on her way here right now.. I’m pretty sure she’s going to make me blog more.

The boys are doing well. Matthew is a typical 5 year old (Holy crap I have a 5 year old..) and Blake is 7 months as of yesterday. Two days ago he had FOUR teeth break through the gums on the top. That means by 7 1/2 months he’ll have six teeth, at which age Matthew was barely getting his first two. I’m in for it, that’s for sure.

Holidays were good. We spent a lot of time with family & friends and got a ton of stuff.

On Christmas Day, it snowed up in Fort Worth. My mom drove down here for Christmas but had to leave on Christmas Day to get home since she had to work the next day. That next morning while walking her dogs, one of the dogs pulled hard and caused her to fall in the ice, completely breaking her ankle off her leg. She was in the hospital for two days and had surgery that Thursday to rebuild her leg with pins and plates. I drove up there with the kids to take care of her dogs.. cleaned up her apartment and packed some stuff, picked her up from the hospital and drove her down here to SA. It’s been 2 weeks and she has her follow up with an orthopedic surgeon today. My sister is taking her since I’m picking up Angie from the airport, but hopefully it goes well. Her insurance is kind of being twatty about her being out of work very long, and has essentially told her that even if the doctor says she has to be out of work longer, they aren’t going to pay her after the 24th. I guess you get 3 1/2 weeks to heal. I get that she could possibly work if she was there, since her job is mostly sedentary, but she isn’t completely mobile yet. I don’t see how they can expect her to live alone in her apartment. We’ll figure it out, though. I wish I was rich and could pay for her to be off work long enough to heal more.. at least enough to where she could get around a bit easier.

Enough of that, though. I have so many things I think about blogging about during the day, then by the time I get online they are gone. I just got our netbook back from a friend so that Jeremiah can take it to work to do school, so I’ll have his laptop downstairs. Maybe I’ll try to blog from there occasionally.

I got Blake some Mum-mums at the store yesterday. Matthew loved those things when he was little. He still can’t quite figure out how to EAT them, but he sure enjoyed chewing the heck out of them and breaking them into a million soggy pieces.

Also, Blake has TEEF! They started coming through about 2 weeks ago, and to my relief, he is handling it like a champ! Matthew was a super good teether as well. I’m just a lucky mom.

It’s absolutely crazy that Jeremiah left town a month ago. He’ll be home in a week. When he left, there was a bald baby that just laid on the ground and kicked. He’ll be coming home to a head full of hair, teeth, and a crazy personality. He’s even trying to crawl! I can’t even remember when Matthew started to crawl. Sad, I know. But Blake will be kicking and pushing his arms up while on his belly, then drop his front side down and try to push himself with his legs. He gets his butt up in the air and face-plants into the ground. I should really get a picture of that before he figures out how to do both at the same time.

Thanks to Angie (noticing a trend here?) and Forever Design Studio I have a new layout! It’s winter-ish, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be up for like a year. I lubs it, so that’s alright.

I feel like it’s incredibly late, and yet it’s only 8pm. My kids have been in bed for an hour and a half. They were cranky so I figured an early bedtime couldn’t hurt. Well, it won’t hurt until 5am when they’re up for the day.

Anyways, still nothing exciting to see here. I’m probably going to go work on my about page if I can get PS installed on the new computer.

Angie is always harassing me to update my blog, and I generally give her a “meh” or “stfu” in return. I just never know what to post about. My life truly isn’t that interesting..

However, I feel like I owe her a blog post, since last night I got my NEW COMPUTER from her in the mail. YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. She bought a brand new computer! My other one was more than 3 years old and worked fine but was lacking in the features department. We’ll probably hang on to it and use it as a computer for Matthew at some point.

She also paid the $15 to upgrade the computer from Windows 7 to Windows 8, so I’m getting used to it. I do really like it, but using apps is definitely a change. I don’t know how I’d feel about it if I only had one screen, as so far I like having the apps open on my left screen and my browser window on my right. I feel like it’d be cluttered on a single screen, but I guess you’d get used to that just like I’m getting used to this.

I am going to *try* to post more, but I always say that. My day to day life is fairly dull, and when interesting things do happen, I don’t think to blog about it because I’m not in the habit.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Angie!!!