the whirlwind
and it has been three weeks. someday i will get this weekly posting thing down! the last three have been a whirlwind. a flurry of sawdust and paint fumes. working tirelessly from when we wake in the morning until we crash late at night. i am never. moving. ever. again.
our first week here, david painted the ceilings and walls in the entire house. that's a lot of paint. like. 10 gallons of wall paint and 5 gallons of ceiling paint. and then we had to get more. he's glad (and so am i) that i picked white so that you can't really tell if he got the ceiling paint on the walls or vice versa. works for me. it was a ton of work. i can't believe he did it all. there were a couple of nights he was up until 2am finishing up one last wall or ceiling. and then got up early to start all over again. i am amazed. so thankful for him and his ridiculous work ethic.
i have had my hands tied up with bina. which has been an adjustment for me. i'm used to being able to work non-stopped too in order to get our home ready to live in. but this time around, i have a little. and that means if she's not sleeping, i'm on duty. it's been frustrating for me to not be able to do the things i want to do, when i want to do them. but then i get faces like this one as i marvel at my freshly painted fireplace.
and she does super adorable things like stand at our front window with the pups.
and just by herself. giving me crazy baby faces.
and i just have to tell myself to chill the heck out. the house WILL get done. but not as quickly as i would like, and that is ok. confession: i wrestle with this reality every. single. day. stay at home mom life is going to be a struggle. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL.
one thing i was really looking forward to as a stay at home mom was regular walks with bina and the pups. every morning after bina eats breakfast, we go on a half hour neighborhood walk with the pups. this was from my first walk as an official on my own stay at home mom (aka david's first day of work, one week after we arrived). depending on how the day goes, we also go for a half hour walk in the afternoon before david gets home.
so anyways. that first week was. well. hell. i hated it. we had no furniture for nine days (three days longer than the longest the moving company told us it would take). which actually worked out for the best as david was able to finish painting before all of our stuff arrived. now we just (JUST. ha.) have doors and trim to paint. but i was constantly sweeping and vacuuming and mopping to try and keep on top of all of the dust. i have a baby who is a suicidal monkey and sticks every little thing in her mouth. it was so stressful to have her in our home that was a filthy work in progress, no matter how many times i cleaned and re-cleaned. the moving company said our stuff would arrive on monday, may 16 between 9-12. at 1pm i called and was like - where's my stuff? and the driver informed me that he was past his allowable hours and would have to delay until tuesday. i then had an emotional breakdown thinking about one more day in our empty paint fumes sawdust house and called up my step mom and went to home goods. because that's how i roll. for the record, i didn't buy anything. i just had to get out of the house.
so tuesday, may 17 our stuff FINALLY arrived. praise jesus the lamb of god. hallelujah. of course, david had started work the day before so i was on my own with dogs and baby when the movers showed up at my door. actually, i was on a walk when that happened and ran home after getting the call that they were here. i won't post pictures of the boxes piled high in the kitchen (that part was the worst) or elsewhere. because i will have a heart attack. shout out to my brother who stopped by during his lunch break to save my sanity, as well as my amazing step mom and aunt who came and helped unpack my kitchen so we could walk through it again and begin to think about using it. lifesavers. i am so thankful.
i immediately started working to get bina's play areas in order. the living room is pictured below.
of course when i start arranging things, i discover what i still need to buy. so we made several trips to target. one morning bina decided to skip her morning nap, so i told her we were going shopping (because she can understand me, of course). this is her losing it in the cart. i told her if she takes her morning nap, i won't drag her to target. it's up to her. ;)
we had the opportunity to get away from all of the house insanity last sunday to celebrate my sister in law's belated 30th birthday. hooray for turning 30 this year! we drove over to detroit and walked along the riverwalk, and then ate dinner at a nice restaurant by the water. it was a gorgeous day and it was super fun to be out with family.
the dogs are loving their lives here. our yard is their playground. they're entertained out there for hours. they've found something under the ac unit. i'm scared to look. bella caught a mouse the other night along the side of the house. chomped that little thing to death. good girl. jake is our buddy who is always by our sides wherever we are. below david is peeling all of the tape off the steps from painting the risers and trim. and jake... is special.
may 24 was our eighth wedding anniversary. eight years! i can't believe it. our eighth year has been a tough one with several major life changes (having a baby, returning to work after having a baby, buying and selling houses, moving across the country, starting new jobs). but nothing worth anything is easy, amiright? i'm so thankful for a loving and supportive husband who is the hardest working guy i know. one night i wanted to sit on the porch and drink wine. he agreed. and then two minutes later was like - i have to do something. and then began pulling weeds in the front yard. oh david. i love you. this is from our anniversary, right before heading to plymouth for dinner and ice cream. we had a very nice date night and babysitting provided by my amazing mom who came from tennessee to visit for a couple of days to help me get the house situated. success!
i've been furiously hanging artwork the last couple of days. we also made a trip to home depot and a nursery to spruce up the flowerbeds in the front yard. the house is getting so close!
my family room curtains arrived today, along with the lighting kit for my foyer shade. can't wait to get those up. once i've got everything in its place, i'll clean AGAIN and photograph the heck out of this house and post all of my before and after shots. my goal was to have the first floor all in order by bina's first birthday party. that happens on june 4. so i have just over a week now. we can do this! thank god for memorial day weekend. looking forward to family time and finishing touches on the house. and then photographing!
stay tuned!
