A day out with Thomas

I was watching PBS when I saw the Day out with Thomas event in our area. I was so excited that I quickly called Mike and brought it up. It was on his birthday, so I didn't know how he'd feel about visiting Thomas the Train for his birthday, but he gave me the go ahead and we planned the day around seeing E's beloved train.

We ended up purchasing tickets for the first train ride and had to be there by 8am for the 9am train tide.

They had a gift shop and several tents set up with activities like, playing with trains, a mock Sodor island, music, food, and Sir Topham Hat was even there! (Never in my life did I ever think I'd be excited to see kids characters.)

Here's a tip if anyone ever wants to do this. The whole event is free, except for the train ride. Tickets in my area were about $20 each for the train ride. You get to hop on the train that is an actual Thomas. They take you on a ride for about 30 minutes and then your little one gets a certificated saying that they are "Official Junior Engineers"

The fun part is that Thomas the Train actually talks, moves his mouth, and blows smoke.

All and all she had a blast.

The only thing I would do different is not have her ride the train. She wasn't exactly interested in it. She spent more time playing with her toy trains than actually caring about being on a real train. If she was a little older it probably would have clicked more, but she didn't seem to care.

We will definitely be doing it again next year if she is still into Thomas as much as she is right now. She might even want to ride the train this time!

Growing like a weed

Soon Emery will be 2 years old!

Right now she is putting words together and forming lots of sentences.

It's getting harder to get pictures of her. Her patience is at a zero, especially for posing with pictures.

She loves to be outside and play, but her most favorite thing to do is to still snuggle with mommy and daddy.

She loves to sing her ABC's and count her 1-2-3's. I'm constantly amazed by how much she is repeating and learning.

Lately we are still doing improvements on the house. A recent storm left us this nice hole so now we have to replace a window or two.

We found out a couple months ago that I had mono at some point in the last 6 months. We were wondering why I was so tired and felt so sick all the time. After a million tests we found out that I was recovering from Mono and that it could take months. Thankfully, the Curious George Christmas movie what helped us get through that during the day while Mike was at work.

Emery has learned that if she asks for it very nicely and says please that she would most likely get to watch it if I was sick. So, it's been Christmas here for the last few months.

I'm happy to say that I'm starting to feel better and I'm getting more and more energy back to continue with day to day things.

We are at the point now where it's still chaotic in our house, but I can actually start decorating and organizing things. So hopefully I'll be posting more pictures of things up and it looking like we own it and live here.

With love,
J

Mushy love post

3 years ago today I was rummaging through my closet trying to find something to wear that would take the attention away from my gigantic walking boot. Why I had agreed to go on a date with someone I had never met while wearing this walking boot, was beyond me. I remember that I realized that it didn't matter anyway. The chances of this date leading a second, third, or beyond weren't high and I wasn't expecting much.

I mean really, who just meets a person online and how do you say, "Sorry I can't drive because I have a gigantic walking cast. Can you come pick me up? Oh and by the way I live with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephews so... sorry if it's messy." And as I see him at the door I shew away my sister trying to take a peek, try not to trip on toy fire engines, while also trying not to trip over that bulky cast. So like I said, I wasn't expecting magical things to happen that night.

But... it did.

I tell Mike all the time that I wasn't expecting much out of the date. I wanted to have a good time, sure, but I wasn't expecting to be swept off my feet and have everything just fall in my lap.

Oh, but they did! All the things fell in my lap and very quickly!

I remember talking about pasta (for reals), our families, his business, and how we should probably order because our poor waiter was just waiting to actually work.

I remember my sister calling me at 11pm asking me if I was okay or if I was lying in a ditch somewhere because I hadn't returned home yet.

I remember his 80's playlist playing in the background. "Fields of Gold"

I remember thinking "Is he for real?" to said "Fields of Gold" but that thought quickly left when he looked at me.

I remember laughing and feeling nervous, but confident with him at the same time.

I remember him praying with me because he felt the urge from God to do so. I swooned.

I remember so much but so little at the same time. 3 years wasn't that long ago, but it feels like it especially now!

I had no idea that 5 weeks later he'd ask me to be his wife and 4 months later we'd be just that.

What an amazing journey we've had these last 3 years from the time we met till now.

You and me babe. Fireworks.

With love,
J

We're In!

I'm currently writing from out new living room (a little under the weather I might add.), and I'm so excited that I am, even though I'm not feeling the greatest.

What a crazy time we have had. Our house is nowhere finished yet, but the best part is that we are able to live in it right now.

Currently, we are still living out of boxes and things are all over the place as we try to find homes for belongings.

I have to say, this move went way better than I could have possibly imagined.

I was so thankful to have a friend offer to watch E for us so Mike and I could get as much done as we could during the day. Although we had several other friends offer to help us move, we were surprised that we managed to do almost everything by ourselves without any trouble!

Yours truly even helped lift a couch. Really, I did.

It's been nice to have Mike working on the house while we are all here versus him being gone every day and night after work. It has been great just to spend family time together again.

E is stringing words along and picking up new things every day. She is enjoying the house as well.

She has even loved all of the trips to Lowes we have taken and keeps a smile on her face.

This was the day before we moved in

I would show pictures of how it looks now, but I'm slightly embarrassed by all of the junk everywhere, so everyone will have to wait for that.

I promise though, once we can get everything put away, I'll be posting what we did and all of our fun tricks that we've done to stay organized and sane in our small space.

with love,

J

Catch up time

After a nice long break from most of my social media, it's nice to get back to sharing our how our renovations are going and how life is. Unfortunately that means an overload of info and cute pictures.

Back in October when we looked at our house, we saw so much potential. We figured that we would refinish the cabinets, maybe replace the bathroom floors, and try and skate by with doing as little as possible.

Fast forward 4 months later and we are still working on the house.

Let me tell you, one of the most challenging things we have gone through together as a couple has been this remodel. There have been long nights, lonely nights, frustrating days/nights, and days where it feels like it's never going to end.

Here is where we are at now. Day 1,456. Okay so not really, but I  lost track.

Here was out kitchen when we bought it.
                                                             October 2013

Here is where we these last 2 weeks.

 Jan. 2014

-We have taken out the pantry on the left.

-New cabinets

-Paint

-New overhead microwave

-Removed the "shelf" off of the penisula

-New counter tops, sink, and faucet

-Changed lay out of the side and back walls.

-Under cabinet lighting (It was a bargain and I can't wait to share all about it!)

-Restructuring the laundry closet door frame

Mike has done 90% of this by himself. He did every thing but put in our counter tops. He's worked so incredibly hard and I'm definitely grateful I have such a dedicated and determined husband.

The Living room:

October 2013 

                                     

Here is is as of this evening.
Jan. 2014

For the living room:

-New Paint

-New blinds

-New lights

-New laminate wood floor

-New front and side doors

-Replaced window ledges

-Restructuring of the front door frame

The living room was probably the easiest. Only because it's such a large empty space. There wasn't much that needed to be done.

Bathrooms:

Master, October 2013

Main, October 2013

(Main)

Bathrooms now

Master Jan 2014

Main Jan 2014

(Main)

Both bathrooms:

-New toilets

-Main has a new vanity

-New mirrors

-New light fixtures

-New floors

-New matching plumbing features, that are clean :)

We haven't done much to the bedrooms. But I am in love with my floors. I love them so much.

Now that we have the floors down, E and I can go to the house while Mike is there. We were too worried about the concrete floors and misc. tools laying around. Now there is a wide open space for her to play, although she just loves following us around and checking things out.

Speaking of that cutie.

We had a nice holiday back in Chicago. Unfortunately, it was awful timing with the arrival of E's first molar. With the combination of the molar, a long drive, a cold, and sleepless nights, we were really struggling with making it through every day.

Our first winter in Texas has been so refreshing. I've been loving the 50-70 degree weather. It's been so nice to take walks in January without having to freeze. We've only had a couple weeks worth of days where it has been extremely cold, but nothing like Chicago weather.

We are looking forward to getting into our house within the next week or two. I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Next post will hopefully be showing off our finished house. :)

With love,

J