When Crap Happens.

Well crap. Bad news ahead.

My hubby got hurt yesterday - we spent last night in the ER as he can't walk or even stand up right now. After dozens of x'rays they found that he strained/sprained his back and has 2 slipped disks that he will most likely have to have surgery on. He's on a ton of pain meds and will be out of work for at least a week. (not good as we're self employed... no work - no pay for us) so just keep us in your thoughts and prayers please - if he ends up needing surgery soon I may end up getting a job - and at nearly 8 months preggo we all know how hard that will be.

I'm so overwhelmed right now, just trying to take it one day at a time. We won't know much more until Wednesday as to the surgery and if it'll be right away or in a few months/year or so. I'm scared for him, he's such a "mans man" Mr. I can do it myself... it's hard seeing him struggle through this. They discharged him from the hospital with orders to not get off the sofa or do anything to strain himself whatsoever in the next 48 hours. He can crawl and walk hunched over - but he can't stand up or walk normally. Poor guy is really struggling with this.

Lizzy doesn't understand why daddy can't play and rough house with her, so I've had to keep her away from him a good bit - which is all the worse for him. He hates not being with us... MIL watched Liz for us for awhile and I just spent time talking and sitting with him today. *sigh* He's staying at my MIL's right now in case something spasms again and he has to go back to the ER - that way his brothers can help load him up into a car and get him there... as there's just no way I could help get a 200+lb man into a car right now. That part stinks too - I'm not with him or able to take care of him as much as I want...

To top it all off, I rolled down the windows in my car yesterday and the back window got stuck... in the rain - so fun. *rollseyes* It just couldn't have gotten stuck any other freakin day when Jay would be able to fix it... so I had to use an umbrella last night sticking out of the window to keep water off the back seats - then today when I was taking Liz home to nap... there was a yellow jacket in the car. Fun fun times. (I'm terrified of bees)

AHHHHHHHHHH *&$*#!#$!@*&^!*&@^!!!!!!!!

Okay, I feel better. lol Jay thinks this is Gods way of telling him to slow down... he said he knew he shouldn't have been working so hard - pulling 50+ hour weeks in the tree business and then going straight over to the new house every night until 11 or later was taking its toll - but he just kept on pushing himself.... and now we have about 4 or 5 big projects left to do before we could move in... and we're at a standstill.

Anyway... sorry - just needed to vent and get that all off my chest. We'll figure it out, I know God will provide for us, he always has before... it's just tough when we're in the middle of the crappy times.

But a friend once told me the only way to get to the otherside of a crappy situation is to keep walking forward and not stop.

I'm hoping and praying that Madeline stays put until her due date - I was hoping she'd get here early but now I realize, life is much simpler while pregnant with a toddler than with a newborn and a toddler and a hubby who's injured. I'll definately take the aches and pains and have her stay put awhile longer...

I'll update more as the doctors give us info... for now, I'm tired. Jay's hurting. Lizzy's napping and Maddy's doing loop de loops. Prayers needed.

Christmas Update:

Well goodness, Christmas is long gone but we all had a wonderful time and ate way too much. LOL Christmas Eve service was wonderful, our worship team was just fantastic. They really made it an evening to remember... after church we went to Linda's (MIL's) for Christmas Eve Dinner of pot roast with all kinds of goodies on the side. After that we went home and I passed out early leaving Jay to ready the tree for the morning since I was sooooo exhausted. As of Christmas Eve my cold had moved onto a nasty sinus infection - fun fun times... so I slept little that night and was wide awake by 6 am... however my husband and daughter slept until 8:30 - well... actually i woke both of them up at 8:30 because I was bored and wanted to get on with our day. LOL My sleepy kiddo would have gladly slept another hour...

Morning Liz! :D (I'm so rotten!) Anyway, once awake she was thrilled to dig into the big pile of presents, she just *had* to be the one to hand them all out, we got a good kick out of this... "Who dis one for mommy?" LOL And she got stuck on every single present for a LONG time. It was hilarious... the smallest of books would have to be gone through before she could move on to another present, every toy had to be taken out of the box and played with before another gift could be opened... it had us in stitches and also made Christmas last for quite awhile.

Jay and I got each other some much needed clothes (thank goodness Motherhood was running a few sales before christmas!) along with a few "fun" things, and we all enjoyed our overstuffed stockings as well. This is her "Cheese" face... Anyway, fast forward a bit... while we were opening presents, my Cream Cheese Breakfast Casserole was in the oven and making the house smell heavenly. We hauled our breakfast over to my MIL's house where between 5 adults we polished off a 9x13 pan of the casserole in no time, before digging into our second Christmas of the morning. Lizzy was spoiled rotten by her grammy this year, receiving some VERY cute clothes from the Carters store, as well as a Leap Frog learning pad with a few books, a 9 foot tunnel to play outside with daddy, lots of games and books and smaller toys too, AND a Disney Princess Trunk of dress up clothes... good gracious! Jay and I got more clothes and a wonderful gift card to Target with the instructions to go purchase the girls new bathroom accessories. (SO FUN! I had a blast picking it all out last night... ) Anyway, Christmas at Linda's was great fun, Ashley and Emery came over to have lunch with us since Seth had to work all day.... poor guy. We had a huge ham with all the fixins ;) and lots of fun. After lunch we went home and napped and then woke up and went over to my mama's house. Mom and Daddy spoiled Lizzy rotten as well, Liz got a new Baby Alive doll that coo's, cries, eats, pees, poo's, giggles, sucks a bottle, etc. She's really cute. They got her a stroller, some diapers, clothes, etc to go with the new baby...

Lizzy has had SO much fun the last few days walking "baby Abby" (that's what Liz named her) around the house in her stroller, changing her diaper - every 5 seconds, and feeding her a bottle whenever she cries. It's super cute and she's learning how to hold the baby gently, burp the baby after she drinks, etc. I'm hoping this will all help gear her up for Madeline's arrival. Mama got Lizzy a ton of clothes, leap frog toys, art things etc, and got me yet MORE maternity clothes (I'm set now with lots of winter clothes!) as well as a ton of things for Madeline. Mom made Beth and I baby boxes full of diapers, wipes, paci's, bottles, toys, clothes, socks, lotions, bottle cleaners etc etc... it was SO much fun going through all the fun new baby things - and I just had to open the newborn diapers up - and ooooooh how I'd forgotten how tiny they are! It put tears in my eyes seeing those tiny little things and knowing those first few days, those diapers are actually BIG on the baby! Mom also got me the crib blanket to match Madeline's nursery. SO cute. And a fun splurge - I was planning on buying that really soon as it's quite adorable, but now I have my blanket. AND she got me the matching diaper bag!!! Brown and Pink polka dots with pink and brown toile as well. Soooo adorable!
So it was a wonderful Christmas... we all enjoyed our day and everyone was blessed with TONS of new things. More importantly though... it was really special being pregnant over Christmas Day... it was a great reminder of what a special gift I have inside of me, and how amazing Mary of so long ago was to give birth in a stable to Jesus... I can't image the thoughts and feelings of travleling on a donkey in my 9th month of pregnancy... I can't help but wonder what was going through her mind when everyone turned them away with no room in the inn's... and yet she gave birth to Jesus - right there in the middle of a barn... no bed... no drugs... no mom around to help, just her and her unexperienced husband. So scary, and yet so amazing. The birth of Christ really came to life for me this year... which gave the holidays true meaning and made it quite special to be pregnant over such an important day.

Anyways, since Christmas Day, I've exchanged a few things that didn't fit Jay or I, picked up my new bathroom set for the girls room. Here's a picture of the line we went with (from Target's website) we added lavender towels and a huge lavender bath rug for the floor:

All in all, our goal is to try to move in on Monday and Tuesday - hopefully completing the rest of the house rennovations by Sunday night... I went over today and hung 3 blinds. Not a huge deal I know, but anything I can do to help makes me feel like I'm pitching in. (And hanging blinds is TOUGH!) LOL Easy enough for Jay but it took me awhile to get used to the drill, not to mention Lizzy was busy holding on to my legs and begging me to pick her up the whole time - so on the whole, I think 3 blinds was actually quite good. hahaha. Lots of little projects left to do, and still a couple big ones... (beadboard both bathrooms, install new sinks and countertops, finish the pine floors in both baths, and finish "refinishing" the kitchen cabinets... aka... sand, paint, sand paint and paint some more until they look new again.) Not so huge that we can't do it, but it'll definately take awhile considering Jay's got work booked up through Saturday during the day - so it means lots of long nights while we finish all this up. But we're getting there... and by next week this time hopefully I'll be updating from our new house. :) That's all for now!

Christmas Eve!

So, it's 2:30 and we've already had a fun filled day! We woke up this morning and all cuddled together on the couch (it was in the 40's outside! And not much warmer inside! LOL) So we huddled under a blanket and all watched Evan Almighty together. Cute movie, and Liz loved the animals. Then we went over to mama's house for our Christmas Eve party. Mom had a chocolate fondue fountain - YUMMO - and cheese fondue along with tons of little appetizers. Wow that was good... then daddy read Luke 2:1-20 - our Christmas Eve tradition and then we opened all the kids gifts to each other. It was a great time. Everyone bought Madeline presents this year - that was super special. She got baby toys, some receiving blankets to match her new room, and an adorable hat to wear home from the hospital! Lizzy got an Aquadoodle for the bathtub, 2 My Little Ponies, a Little People Opposites book, and Christmas PJ's from Nanie. (Tomorrow we'll open all of Nanies gifts to the girls, but for today it was just sibling gifts.) I got a new maternity shirt, a gift card to O'Charlie's for dinner, a wallet and some new Christmas PJ's. LOL Love that Christmas Eve tradition!

Now we're home so Liz can nap - our Christmas Eve service is tonight at 5 and then we're having dinner at Linda's afterwards. Then tomorrow's the big day! :) I'm *finally* getting into the Christmas mood! Took me long enough!

I've got a head cold that's driving me nuts, and the moved Suedophed to the class C list so it's not really safe to take anymore - so I'm pushing through with as little meds as possible... I hope this clears up soon, I hate feeling yucky during all the festivities. Anyway, I'm off to nap - I did get Jay to take a pic of my belly this morning - so here's my 30 weeks shot: (not sure why it's so grainy though)

Anyway, that's all for now... Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Almost Christmas!

So amidst all the craziness of this house... there's also a very special holiday approaching that I'm *finally* finished shopping for! LOL I did more than I said I would... I always do that... I'd been collecting things for Lizzy's stocking for quite awhile now - and when I finally sat down to see if I needed anything else to top it off, I realized - I could have filled up 3 stockings for her. LOL I have a huge bag of stocking stuffers left over. Since we're refinishing her new desk, I bought her lots of art things - crayons, washable markers, chalk, colored pencils, construction paper, coloring books, washable paints, etc. And a couple organizers to keep it all neat in her desk! I'm so excited to see her sitting there making art. LOL So cute! Aside from that I filled Jay and Lizzy's stockings to the top - with no room left for so much as a candy cane. I just love stockings! :D My favorite part of the gift giving process... fun to shop for, fun to stuff, and fun to open! LOL

On top of all that, I picked up the last of my holiday baking/cooking things this morning. I'm making a cream cheese breakfast casserole on Christmas Eve so all I have to do is pop it in the oven on Christmas morning... suuuuper yummy! And then, since we're having dinner at my MIL's on Christmas day instead of my mama's... I figured I'd bring a few of my favorite Christmas Dinner dishes along so it still felt like home for me too. So I'm making a sweet creamed corn casserole and Waldorf Salad. *lickin my lips already* Yay! I do need to go pick up some seedless red grapes from Publix - they were all out at Walmart this morning. And boy was that place crazy - stupid me for waiting until the Saturday before Christmas to finish up my shoppng - but oh well... they had tons of people stocking shelves, and 3x's that many people loading up their carts just as fast - there were several things I got nearly the last item of, off the shelf. It was just nuts! The line wasn't too long - fortunately they had almost every aisle open instead of their usual 3. So I was only 2 back and made it through the line in under 20 minutes.

Last night was our annual Oyster Roast. It was super fun. Grandma and Grandaddy Clemmons got Liz, Jay and I EACH a $25 gift card to Walmart... so my $100 shopping list this morning only cost me $25. :D Gotta love that! I stocked up on milk and OJ too so we won't have to go back until after Christmas. Now we can focus more on getting the bathrooms and kitchen finished so we can move in next weekend! I can't even begin to believe we're moving already... I've yet to pack almost anything. I guess it'll be one car/truck load after another until the house is empty.

Anyway, back to the Oyster Roast - G&G Clemmons celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, so we all sang to them and smiled as Grandaddy showed an uncommon kindess to grandma all night. (Usually he's an old codger to his saintly wife.) But last night was a special treat for all of us. Aunt Marianne made it a Hawaiian Christmas (having just got back from Hawaii) so we played a big gift exchange game where everyone went home with something from Hawaii - Lizzy ended up with a Hula Rag doll, I ended up with a Hawaiian calander and a set of oven mits, dish towels etc with sea turtles on them, and Jay found himself with two necklaces - one of a turtle and the other a fish hook made from the bone of some exotic animal whose name escapes me at the moment. All in all it was good fun for everyone. We all came home stuffed to the brim (though I didn't have a single oyster *sad*) I managed to fill up on grapes, veggies, summer sausage, and punch. LOL Jay's dad was a weirdo last night... telling me how "beautiful you are when you're pregnant." *shivers* He creeps me out. Bryan seemed to be doing alright considering Ashley's out of the picture now. He has his bad days but seems to be managing - that stupid girl keeps screwing with the family which is really starting to tick me off - but I'm trying to stay out of it all as much as I can. We spent way too much on Bryan this year - but I figure since he just came out of a breakup, we'll help make up for what he'll be missing on Christmas morning. :)

All in all I found some huge deals this week... I got my whole family shopped for and finished up and managed to stay under budget! So fun! I'll post the list just so I have this to look back on - for those who read my blogs - skip ahead as this will be boring. LOL

Daddy~ Lizzy picked out some tools from Lowes... actually, she grabbed this big gift set right off the shelf and said "Pawpaw!!!!" very loudly. LOL I took that as a sign, they were in our budget and it's a nice set so that's what we got pawpaw.
Mama~ I found a really pretty sweater the day after Thanksgiving for her, then topped it off with some bath salts and lip balm.
Beth~ Super cute maternity shirt, bath salts and lip balm (different scent from mama's.)
Jamie~ Hess gas card. He's in college.... mom said he could really use it. LOL
Caleb~ Black and Grey striped thermal knit shirt with a white belt with big X's on it. Hard to explain but it looked like him.
Linda~ A Tempurpedic pillow (she asked for this) and a Tupperware Pot that you use in the mircrowave to make cakes or just store things in... I went to a tupperware party and got one for myself and one for her. LOL She's like me, I know she'll get a kick out of making a cake in the microwave in 8 minutes. LOL
Bryan~ A cologne gift set. (The boys love their cologne) A Button up Shirt and a Pullover to match it.
Chris~ A cologne gift set. (Different set than Bryan) A book on Architecture and a book on Wood Working. (His career, and his hobby)
Grandma and Grandaddy C~ Dinner at their Cary Hilliards (their favorite restaurant)

And then everything else for my family we've already given out at previous parties...

Jay and Lizzy are going to have great Christmas's this year. There's lots of great things under the tree for both of them and I have a feeling my hubby will spoil me as well... he always does - even though we said to take it easy on Christmas... I know him well. LOL

Lizzy's stocking included: bubble bath, bath markers, a princess mirror and chapstick set, new sippy cups, toothbrush, toothpaste, flash cards (for colors and numbers) crayons, markers, chalk, candy necklace, candycane filled with smarties (her favorite) and I can't remember what else - but there's more stuffed in there. LOL

Jay's stocking includes: 3 pairs of socks for his birk slides, some boxers, a new razor, candy, 3 kinds of cologne, toothbrush, and I can't remember what else in his either. LOL

Anywho this is mostly it... It's been fun shopping for people I love. And I since I managed to get so many amazing deals on things, we still have enough left to work on the house this weekend. I'm headed to Lowes in a few minutes to pick up some high gloss white paint to finish painting Lizzy's new desk, and also the kitchen cabinets need a fresh coat. Jay's going to try to get all the sub floors laid in the bathrooms today. We found a KILLER deal on Craigslist for flooring - a lady in downtown charleston had just refinished her dining room with wide plank natural pine flooring and had 100 sq. feet left over... she was selling all 100 sq. feet for $25. Yep - it's $7 a square foot at Lowes. So this was a HUGE Deal. Granted now we have to do more work than just laying a new floor, as they have to be sanded and stained and then sealed since it's in bathrooms - but they'll be gorgeous when they're finished. And Jay was thrilled to get them - so that's what we'll be working on tomorrow hopefully, getting them laid and sanded and maybe the first coat of stain. We'll see. Jay woke up with a sinus cold this morning... poor guy feels miserable, but he took some cold meds and wants to go work on the house rather than lay around all day... so we may not get a lot done since he's kinda out of it - but that's okay... we've been working our tails off, we'll just do the best we can and move in whenever it all get's finished. :) No worries.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! OH OH OH!!! AND We got our new insurance which covers EVERYTHING. So Madeline is officially 100% covered for all the hospital bills... which means we can go to MUSC after all! I really wanted too, but it's more expensive than other hospitals in the area so unless the insurance came through we weren't going to go that route... so that's very exciting. I can't wait to take the "tour" sometime after the new year. It'll be really neat getting to deliver in this amazing hospital!

So if anyone other than myself managed to read through this whole thing, Thanks! and Merry Christmas to you!

Flooring.

Well, we finally finished the floors! The carpet is in, and it is GORGEOUS!!!! And the hardwood is done... it almost put tears in my eyes - (stupid, I know) but it just made me SO excited! We've always had laminate - or in this current house refinished hardwood but it was never very pretty, this was rustic... however our new floors are nothing short of beautiful. I'm in love! LOL I spent the evening sitting in each room imagining how I'm going to arrange all the furniture. I decided to switch Maddy's and Lizzy's rooms for now. I was going to give Liz the bigger room - but since we're using part of the nursery as a play room for the next long while, I realized that's silly as all Lizzy will have in her room is a bed, dresser and desk. All of that will easily fit in the smaller of the two rooms - with room to spare... while the nursery/play room will house a crib, glider, dresser, toy chest, kitchen, bookshelf, etc. Definately needs to be the bigger room.

Anyway, I worked out how I want my living room - and we're getting very close to the final run to Lowes for one last major load and then we'll have everything we need to move in!!!!

So anyway, the carpet people did an amazing job - they stayed all day and did it perfectly. I can't wait to take my vacuum and mop over tomorrow afternoon and make those floors sparkle! Right now the carpet has lots of fuzzy stuff and the wood floors look great, but have glue bits and dust on them from all the cutting and such. Just wanted to update - the new flooring has made this house look brand new. SO FUN!

Little Update!

Well after much looking, bargaining, looking some more, pricing everything under the sun, calling contractors and basically spending way too much time on it... the French Doors have FINALLY been ordered! :D Today is the 18th - they said they average 18 days to come in - putting us well past the new year before installation - but there's a very very *slim* chance that the doors may come in before the warehouse closes for Christmas week... if that's the case, we'll have them before New Years! *Crossing my fingers and praying hard* I hope they come in soon - I'd hate to be living in the house with the back door as it is as there's a broken panel in it so it's super drafty, and just plain ugly. LOL

The reason we did so much leg work on this is because those doors are EXPENSIVE. I was bound and determined to get a better deal than anyone was offering us, and in the end, I did. From Lowes none the less! It's still way more than Jay or I would have ever paid - but since the previous owners agreed to pay for a new door, I wanted to find them the best price. And now I'm confidant that I have - and the doors are paid for, ordered and should be shipped soon! I can't *wait* to see them! :D

Here's a pic of the one's we ordered...

Getting There!

Okay, I know these updates are getting old - but I like to be able to look back and see how far we've come over the last week, and this helps me keep my sanity about the whole thing. LOL

Yesterday was a loooooong day - for the guys anyways... it was hardwood floor day and they started at 3 in the afternoon and didn't get home until 1 in the morning!!! AND it's not done yet... SHEESH. It's almost done though - they ran out of glue so they had to stop or they would have stayed all night! CRAZY BOYS. Anyways, what the do have done looks amazing - it's really really beautiful, I can't wait to see it all cleaned up!

As for today... the carpet guys showed up bright and early so they're hard at work right now putting in our carpet. Super thrilled about that! This means that from now on I don't have to drop Lizzy off at anyone's house! :D lol It's now safe for her to come inside while we work and play with her toys/books/etc. again! Yay!

So we decided not to get the table and chairs for her for Christmas after all... because... the people who previously owned the house left this really beautiful desk that will be perfect for Liz... I'm going to repaint it and put on some cute knobs and we'll get her a cute chair to match - it'll be perfect for her room. We're going to take the legs off of it so that it sets about 7 inches lower, which will be the perfect height for a toddler to sit and color or whatever she wants to do - which also gives me more stocking ideas, I'm going to add in lots of artsy stuff so we can fill her desk with fun things for her to play with! SOOO exciting!

AND I found the chandelier that I want for the dining room - at Lowes today! LOL Weird place to find a chandelier I know, but it's wrought iron and very elegant, but not overly huge - and it's on sale. Gotta love that. :D Now that the carpet is in the house we can get to work on the bathrooms and kitchen this week and weekend and then we'll be ready to move in! I cannot believe how fast this all went... or how hard we've been working! LOL But it's finally all coming together. We're hoping to have a New Years party at our new house if we can get all moved in and the boxes all put up in time. :) We shall see... I'm not pushing it.

The backdoor won't be installed until probably after the first of the year as it's a custom order so they said it'd be a couple more weeks. Bummer on that as the current back door is drafty and ugly - but I can always hang curtains in front of it until we get the new one so it doesn't uglify our house. LOL

OOOOOOH and today was Lizzy's Christmas Pagent. Crack. Me. Up. They dressed the kids up in heather brown sweats with reindeer antlers and a fuzzy cotten tail - then they sang 3 songs up on stage - (well the other kids did... Lizzy preffered to dance with the banister leading up the steps to the stage - she seriously just goofed off the whole time, but then again - none of the 2 year olds sang. LOL They mixed them with the 3's and a couple of the 3's sang but for the most part all the kids just stood there with blank expressions on their faces.) SO Cute. None of my pictures turned out great because the church had bad lighting - but I got a few moments on video - not that it's interesting at all, unless you count seeing my kids backside a good video. haha

The baskets I made for the teachers came out beautiful. I wish I'd have gotten a picture of them... all the parents chipped in $10 (8 kids) so we were able to get both the teacher and the assistant a $40 gift card to California Dreaming (a great restaurant on the water in Charleston) and then one of the other mom's and I bought and filled up baskets for the teachers. We put in Christmasy dish towels, a jar candle, christmas ornaments, some soaps, a mug, some hot chocolate along with the gift cards and then placed it all in pretty baskets. It really turned out pretty... the teachers were floored and I was pleased that we were able to do a "big" gift instead of all of us doing our own little things... they ended up with something really nice. So that was fun. Liz is officially on Christmas break! She wore her Christmas dress to school today - along with all the other little girls... they all looked so pretty and festive! One of the little boys (Cole) had on a reindeer sweater - TOOO Cute! All in all It's barely 1 pm and I'm already pooped. LOL It's been a busy couple of days - but we've gotten a lot done and it feels good.

Tomorrow I'm going to attack the rest of my Christmas shopping - I cannot believe it's less than a week away and I have practically NOBODY finished! Seriously. It's sort of sad actually. lol But I'm hoping to knock out a big portion of it tomorrow. :)

So that's it for now, i think I'll try to catch a nap before Liz wakes up and we head over to see the new carpet! :D

Feelin good. :D

We got SOOOO much done today! We skipped church... (but we're watching the online sermon tomorrow so it's all good.) and went straight over to the house this morning. And boy did we get A LOT done today. I worked on the trim while Jay finished replacing all the new subflooring... then I went home and napped Liz, while Jay stayed and painted the M/Bedroom ceiling. (Looks AWESOME) then we all went over to Rae's house for Grey's 1st birthday party - he's such a cutie pie! It was great getting to spend some time with everyone - we chatted, ate and played beat the hell out of Elmo... aka, Elmo the pinata... Liz was so confused. "Take a hit at Elmo" She turned around and gave us the hairy eye. LOL Poor kids... today they learned that Elmo is stuffed with raisins and little bottles of bubbles... and that it's okay to hit our favorite Sesame Street Star... just in time for Sesame Street to come to Charleston next week. hahahahaha... I can see it now... Lizzy walking up to elmo and sucker punching him expecting bubbles and sweets to fall out of his back hatch. It was a great time... truly hilarious watching the kids get so puzzled over being allowed to hit something with a stick!

Anyway, after we left we dropped Liz off at mom's house around 6 and then went straight back over to our new house. Jay got to work on painting the vaulted ceilings in the living room, Chris came over and painted all 3 bedroom closets and I got to work on all the trim and the floor in the dining room. All in all we finally left about 11:30, feeling like we FINALLY got something done! It was wonderful.

Tomorrow I have a doctors apt in the morning and then the guys are putting in the hardwood floors tomorrow afternoon while I paint the rest of the subfloors to seal it all off - then carpet goes in on Tuesday! :D YAY!

After that we can attack the kitchen and finish up the cabinets and countertops, then the hall and m/bathrooms but that's not too bad as that's all we have left! So today felt really really good. Like we might actually make this work! LOL Let's all keep our fingers crossed that business stays busy so we can afford to do the rest of this stuff before we move in and not afterwards. ;)

It's 31 degree's outside... and after midnight... so I'm off to bed, sore as anything but happy that we managed to accomplish so much today.

Pooped.

Well, Jay got tired and came home around 8. (Liz and I came back at 7) But since we'd barely touched my list of things to do today - I drove back to the new house by myself and painted the m/bedroom. It took me a little over 2 hours and I am SORE as crap but at least it's done. I made a list of things we need to get done tomorrow - and there is just no way it's going to happen. Oh well... we're doing the best we can.

Anyway... I'm sore and pooped... but at least I got something done. :) Now I'm sitting at home sipping my apple juice slushi from Sonic. Gosh I am addicted to slushies right now. LOL It's a good craving as far as cravings go - at least it's not donuts again like last time. I'm still under 30 lbs total weight gain so far! (With Liz I'd gained nearly 50 by now) So that's nice, I'm still in all my Mediums - the larges are swimming on me. That feels great. I feel SO huge but at least I know I'm not as big as I was last time around. LOL

Confusion...

Well, I got Madeline's room is finished. Ashley came over and helped with the second coat. Today I planned on getting a million things done... but I forgot, I had to go to Beth's graduation and then we had Grey's birthday party... except, I just realized that Grey's party is tomorrow. *sigh* I hate preggo brain. It's ridiculous. I rushed home from the graduation, woke Lizzy up early, put her in a dress, got her in the car and then looked up directions online... and realized it's not until tomorrow. UGH. Jay threw on some work clothes and went back to the house for an hour... this is just getting stupid at this point. I cannot believe I'm confusing EVERYTHING right now. Stupid stupid stupid preggo brain.

I don't think we're going to be able to get everything done before Tuesday morning... we have SO much to do and SO little time to do it. Darn it. AND it didn't help that I woke up with bad cramps this morning... I guess it was my body saying slow down, but I actually thought I might be going into labor for awhile there... it was like Madeline was tring to claw her way out. So Jay wouldn't let me paint today. UGH That's just one more thing to do tomorrow...

Anyway, enough with the negative stuff... I know in a few more days we'll get it all figured out... I just hope we manage to get most of it done before the carpet goes in otherwise it's going to be a MAJOR pain finishing up the painting with carpet in the house.

So that's that. Just venting a little. I'm so tired all the time right now - and finding a place for Lizzy while we work has been tough... all in all between me not being able to do as much as I'd like, and having a toddler in tow - poor Jay is doing almost all of this on his own. Well, I better load my kid up and go over there and see if I can at least hand him tools or something, lol makes me feel useful. ;)

Baby Stuff...

Let me just tell you, that while I thought baby 2 would have less in the way of new things (especially considering we just did all this 2 years ago) I was wrong... oooooh so wrong. LOL A friend of mine who has a 4 month old daughter handed me a trash bag yesterday with TONS of new baby clothes in it. (And I don't mean a small trash bag, I mean one of those giant - I really shouldn't be lifting it - black trash bags.) And it was stuffed to the brim with newborn gowns, bibs, burp cloths, onsies, sleepers, adorable outfits, summer dresses, hats... and on and on and on! Much of it was new still with tags on it! WOW This was her last baby and her only girl, so everything was in pristine condition that had been used... not a single stain on anything...

And what's more, at the Christmas party the other night, Aunt Jill and Grandma Harsh bought Madeline tons of new girl clothes as well! I have SO many things in her closet now... and I haven't even pulled out a single box of Lizzy's yet!!!! CRAZY. And so fun. :) Holding baby Connor the other night when I dropped off dinner at Erica's house was beyond special, he's SO tiny - weight right under 7 lbs right now - about what Liz weighed when we brought her home - I'd forgotten just how tiny they really are at first... soooo sweetly tiny. He smelled new, he was just so beautiful and TINY. Gosh did I mention that? His whole body fit in the crook of one of my arms... amazing...

I cannot WAIT until Madeline get's here! Gosh this all has me so excited to meet my baby girl now! :D And it's helped me redouble my efforts to get this house done in a timely manner... a few things got pushed back - the carpet isn't going to be installed until Tuesday now as we still have a lot of painting to do, and Jay's packed with his work and can't take off today or tomorrow... on the upside - being slammed with work means we can afford to do our countertops and lighting BEFORE we move in now! Super thrilled about that! :D I really want to get Maddy's room finished soon so that right after the carpet goes in, I can start bringing all these new clothes over and hanging them in her big closet. :) SO fun! I realized today that I haven't bought a single newborn diaper yet either though so I better get on that. She's going to arrive and I won't have done anything in the way of diapers or lotion! I guess I still have 2 1/2 months so I've got some time... as long as she doesn't show up too early. If she ends up arriving about like she's measuring I've actually got a little less than 2 months! WOW that would be awesome - but we shall see... she'll get here when she's good and ready, I know that. :)


So anyway, fun updates on baby!

Projects...

Okay, so yesterday we stripped all the rest of the carpet out of the house, gave the living room another coat, ripped up the foyer floor so we can put the wood down this week, put in most of the outlets in the rooms we've painted so far, and then painted Lizzy's room last night. Thankfully Linda took Liz after her nap yesterday so she had a good time with grammy while mommy and daddy worked their tails off... however... we stayed at the house until 10 and didn't get Liz home in bed until closer to 11... poor kid was TIRED. Still up at 8 this morning though. LOL Like clockwork. Today's a bit crazy, I need to get my tush to the store, I'm taking a friend who just had a baby some lasagna and garlic bread tonight, and I'm going to make an extra one for us. Then I drop that off at 2, come back to Ladson where I'm meeting the guy who's doing our carpet, he's going to take a final measurement so we can order it this afternoon and then have it delivered and installed this weekend hopefully! THEN we're having a Christmas party at mom's tonight... and then tomorrow Liz has school and the house goal is to clean out the garage (an all day project I'm sure), Wednesday is the Mommies Cookie Swap so I have to bake on Tuesday night, Thursday Liz has school again and then Thursday night is Mom's Night out! :D That'll be fun. Friday we're laying the floors and Friday night is small group, then Saturday the carpet goes in! CRAZY!!!! Sometime in there I have to find time to paint Madeline's room and our Room, bathroom and closet. After that the painting will pretty much be done! Oh and I need to give all the trim in the house a fresh coat of paint before they deliver carpet on Saturday. I get the feeling this week is going to FLY by. LOL Then next week we'll deal with the new countertops, sink and cabinets in the kitchen. If we have the $$ I think Jay and I are going to go in on a flat screen TV for each other for Christmas. We really haven't had time to shop and I only have a few small things for him so we agreed that this would be a great joint gift this year. We'll see... if business keeps up until Christmas we'll be able to do that... if not, we may wait and try to do it in January. So anyway, just putting all my thoughts in order... I need to get my butt to the store... I have to do some cooking this afternoon!

Larger than Life.

My ankles that is. And here I thought I'd be able to escape that nonsense this time around... no such luck. The last 3 days I've spent around 12-15 hours on my feet... basically sun up to sun down working on the house... we really want to finish all the big stuff before next weekend so that we can have a week or so to really enjoy Christmas once it's all completed... but that means lots of work, little rest, and falling into bed exhausted... only to wake up still exhausted and do it all over again. And why am I typing this at 3 in the afternoon? Because I took Lizzy home to nap, thinking I would nap too - but my brain is too wired thinking of all I should be getting done right now rather than just sleeping. *sigh*

Oh well, just thought I'd share. Sorry I haven't uploaded any pics lately. My belly is certainly huge lately... I *finally* bought a battery charger today, after searching my house 10x's over and still not finding my old one. So as soon as these charge I'll get a picture up... hopefully in the next couple days. Madeline has been rather patient with me lately... I can tell she's getting bigger as she's slowing down on the loop de loops and concentrating more on just shoving her feet between my ribs when she gets uncomfortable. Or maybe it's her way of saying "Hey! Get out of these paint fumes mommy! I'm feeling woozy in here!" Who knows. ;) She has the hiccups right now... lol it feels funny seeing my belly jump every few seconds. haha

Well I suppose I'm going to go try and lay down again... hopefully I can get a few minutes of shut eye before Liz wakes up and we get back to work. :) Anyone want to trade ankles? Mine need to be put on a shelf until they deswell. :P

Hard At Work.

Well, as if this time of year isn't busy enough... we decided to take on a major move in 3 weeks. So Christmas will be on quite the budget but we're thrilled with the hope of finding a new home that we love. We spent yesterday ripping out carpet and painting. Today I got to go to Lowes and drop a couple hundred bucks on paint, outlet, outlet covers, more paint, more paint supplies, new registers for the AC, curtains, curtain rods (yes I purchased both from Lowes as I just wanted a plain and simple rod and taupe floor length curtain), blinds for the windows, etc. etc. And that's just for the dining room, kitchen and foyer... we haven't even started on the living room or bedrooms yet! Yikes! And we have to go back and pick out our counter tops here pretty soon... It's going to be a crazy time of year but we are truly grateful that this door opened for us. We're trying to enjoy each step and not feel overwhelmed. All the painting has to be done by Tuesday, then the garage get's cleaned out Tuesday afternoon, the pest guys are coming in to spray before we put the new carpet down just as an extra precaution, followed by the Electrician coming by to fix a couple things in the breaker box on Wednesday, then the hard wood floors go in on Thursday, followed by the new carpet on Saturday... *whew* After that we'll need to tile or hardwood the bathroom floors (i still haven't decided what I want in either bath) and then start on the light fixtures and bathroom countertops. Oooh and did I mention the kids bathroom has funky fishy wallpaper? Liz goes in there and just stares at it... *bangshead* all that has to come out some time next week so we can paint as well. In fact... now that I think about it, my BIL is coming over tomorrow to help finish pulling out the rest of the carpet and he hates painting so I may stick him on wallpaper duty if he doesn't mind... hmmmmm... is that mean? LOL I hate taking down wallpaper - my most recent escapades from February have taught me that it's a royal pain in the rear getting in there and scraping away at everything. Well anyways, that's one more thing that has to happen before we move in after Christmas. Our French Garden Doors on the back of the house will be installed the week between Christmas and New Years... gosh it's all so much! I'm going crazy thinking of all these details but I'm super excited as well. I sort of feel bad because Christmas is my favorite time of year. It's almost over and my brain just can't slow down long enough to truly enjoy it right now... I need to fix that. I love my Christmas tree, it sits right beside our nativity so as I type I've got the glow of the tree in the background and a manger scene in my corner vision... nothing beats this time of year. I really need to sit back and enjoy it more and let the house stuff just happen. I'm trying... I really am.

But hopefully by next weekend all this major stuff will be done and then we can settle in to a last week before Christmas to enjoy Elizabeth as this is the first time she's ever really been able to enjoy and understand Christmas.

Speaking of Lizzy... I just have to update... she is so precious to me. The last couple of days she's really started to sing more, her favorite song? Itsy Bitsy Spider! It's so cute to watch her sing all the words... she stumbles over the first few lines but then loves "WASH the SPIDER OUT!" then she'll go on and few more lines but always comes back to "wash the spider out" That's my girl! LOL Another thing that makes me smile is how much she loves prayer time. At night she'll often continue praying after we leave the room... I'll here her in there talking to Jesus "Bwess dweams... bwess mommy and daddy... tank you for minnie... " and on and on... it's heart melting and oh so precious to hear. I just love her sweet voice. Granted there are times when I wish she'd quiet down (most often in the car when I hear "mommy?" What? "Mommy!" What? "MOMMY?!" WHAT ELIZABETH?! "Airplane!" LOL an on and on and on and on and on and on and on.... lol her questions are never ending... and it's so funny if you're not paying 100% attention to her when she speaks she'll tilt my face toward her and say "Look at me!" Cracks us up. lol And to top it all off, she still loves to dance... but she's much less shy than she used to be. Turn on some music and no matter where we are this kid will start dancing all around. It's hilarious to watch, she's actually pretty good! You can tell they work on dancing in preschool as she has great rythym. LOL

Okay, so this is getting really long and I'm getting really sleepy so off I go. But that's my update for now. Lots going on, and not much time to chat or spend online, so my updates take place during nap time or waaaaay after bed time after I've sorted through Lowe's website and decided on what to do the next day on the house. LOL I still have some Christmas shopping to do too, so I better get on it or else I'll be shopping with all the men on Christmas Eve! ;)

*Jitters*

Well whoever was praying for us... it WORKED! We aimed for the stars last night asking for everything we really wanted (while still being fair) and they agreed! To EVERYTHING! What's more we found out they want to sell it for signifigantly less than we thought they would. They just came right out and said this is what we need to walk away with, so instead of bargaining and all that jazz, if you're okay with XXX price then we're fine with walking away knowing we're selling it a bit under market. *swoon* WOW. They are so easy to work with!!! We sat for 2 hours going over every single detail so that there is no confusion or anything left worrying about... I had broken our Propsal down into 3 parts, and we managed to work through and get exactly what we wanted/needed on every single part. So amazing. God was definately watching over that deal. I prayed before we left - "If this is supposed to be... please let it be obvious." And boy was it ever!

So wow. We're moving. In 3 weeks. Right after Christmas, and we have a TON of work to do. Thankfully not as much as we budgeted as we had planned on them refusing to do a few of the things we mentioned... but nope - they agreed to all of them. So basically it's all the "little" stuff we need to do (new outlets, update GFI switches, replace a couple doors, paint the ENTIRE house including trim and ceilings, lay new/better flooring in bathrooms, kitchen and entry way.) But they're handling the big stuff, replacing the AC unit, putting all new carpet in the whole house (we get to pick what type/color), replacing the back door with french doors (it was an older style and has a badly fixed pane that was ugly), etc. Those are the big ticket items that would be hard for us to budget out - but fortunately they okayed everything with no problem.

Sooooo it'll be a tight Christmas this year. We'll be putting out a lot the next couple weeks (Paint alone is going to be really expensive as we decided to only use Kilz paint b/c it's guarenteed to kill an bacteria, seal off any smoke stains, etc. It's really really thick.... and almost twice as much as the usual brand paint I use at Lowes) But it's worth it to me to move into a house that smells brand new, new paint, floor, etc. It already had new appliances... but eventually we'll want to replace the countertops - they're rather cheap looking. However that can wait for now. We also don't *have* to but want to replace most of the lighting fixtures as they all look rather dated. (Eg: Master bath has hanging globes for lighting... SO not my taste. LOL) But again, it works and that's something we can tackle come January or February while I'm waiting for Madeline to make her entrance and going stir crazy.

The good part to all this painting is that I'm starting to get that whole Nesting thing going on anyways... I was planning on painting the playroom (or as I'm now calling it the playroom/Madeline's room) pink to match Maddy's bedding... and i wanted to repaint this current kitchen (if we were staying) as the color irritates me. (Which I just picked out back in February. *bangshead*) But now I get to start all over and pick out all new colors for everything! But did I? Haaha... nope. I picked out the same saige for the living room although I'm also going to use it in the diningroom and kitchen to make it uniform... pink for both girls rooms... however I think I might go with a different color for the master bedroom. Idk.

Anyway. Bottom line. We got the house - or at least, we all agreed that we got the house - I won't believe it until we have keys in our hands - but nonetheless... it's looking like it's all going to work out. :D And that makes me one happy mama!

New House. No Sleep.

Well last night stunk for sleep, somewhat because Madeline must have really taken a growth spurt lately as she has figured out how to put her little foot right between two ribs and PUSH... boy does that hurt! Liz would press against my ribs, but this gal feels like she's bustin them in two! Anyway... adding to that one of our house appointments went REALLY well. In fact... we have another meeting tonight in a couple hours to go over some details, and if it all works out - we'll gain a bathroom, and about 400 square feet, AND it'll be cheaper than where we live now! It has a garage, a huge back yard and backs up to a lake - OMG I'm so excited about this. Please pray that this all works out for us. If this house works out, we'll be able to put up our green houses and "officially" start our tree farm (it's a 3 year process) in the back yard as the house sits on over half an acre. And better yet... we're not moving out to the boonies! We thought the only way we'd be able to afford a half acre and house is to move WAY out, but upon further digging we might have found the perfect solution. Same city, still close to my mom and sis... and only an extra 5 minutes away from Lizzy's preschool! I *love* the layout of the house - the master bath is nice and big and the girls bedrooms are tucked away in the back of the house so that if we entertained, they could go to bed and never hear anyone in the main living area! Did I mention it has a garage? Huge plus for us. And a fireplace... and a two story living room with the old ceiling beams and a drop fan. The kitchen is smaller than our current one, but that doesn't bother me at all... our kitchen is too big for me to keep 100% clean all the time. Drives me nuts actually. LOL

Okay now the downside... it needs to be completely repainted and the garage is full of junk that will be coming with the home - so it'll take us a few weeks to get it up to shape before we can move in. And that's a bit depressing since we just went through that with THIS house... but the foundation issues here have proven to be too big to handle, so we're going to cut our losses and move on. This new house has a perfectly stable foundation (#1 priority at this point) If I wasn't pregnant and Lizzy was a little older we'd tackle the foundation stuff no problem, but it's causing some issues inside the house that none of us can handle right now - and with us getting ready to bring a new baby home in less than 3 months, I want her to come home into a comfortable home and be able to adjust without a major move in her very near future.

I hate to pick Lizzy up and move her again (this will be her 4th home in 2 years!) But it's necessary and we're hoping to be able to stay in this home until we get our land in Florida for phase 2 of the Tree Farm stuff.... which will be at least a couple years - and even then, we found a way that we may be able to handle the Florida farm from Charleston with a little extra work and then just visit several times a year to keep up with it. Which is a win win for everyone. :)

So anyway... if you're the praying sort - I'm asking for it! This house could potentially be a HUGE blessing for us, I'm so hoping it all works out. The couple selling are absolutely precious, we stayed and chatted with them for an hour past our appointment and they seemed to like us to, so I sure hope we can make this work! I'll know more later tonight... but just wanted to share. I couldn't even take a nap today - way too wired. (Although that probably stemmed more from the Mt. Dew I had at lunch as I just wasn't in a water mood.) LOL

I'll update as we know more later. :)

Smiles.

Sometimes Jay is the biggest pain in my butt... and othertimes he's the best friend and lover I could ever hope for. I'm so glad we went through everything last year because it has changed our relationship in ways I could never imagine.

Anyway... I just wanted to have this to look back on... every day he text's me saying he loves me, is thankful for me, and is so glad I'm his... every day. No matter how I feel, he puts up with me... no matter how hormonal I am right now - he'll hug me, smile at me and kiss away my tears.

I'm blessed.

Fun Times!

Well tonight was interesting... after Jay got home and Lizzy woke up we all went downtown and saw the tree lighting! (Well, technically it was already lit since we got there late... but we got to see Marion Square all lit up!) Then we parked at Seth's fire station and met up with Ashley and Emery (Bryan rode with us downtown) and we all headed over to the Mellow Mushroom for super yummy pizza and pretzel bread! :D Chris joined us later and a good time was had by all... we took the long way back and walked through Marion Square where if you look directly at the big tree it'll burn your eyes it's so stinking bright! After that we went back to the fire station (Seth was on duty) and hung out for a bit... I got to see where the guys all bunk upstairs. Crazy how it all works out, but really neat too. I'm glad Jay's not a firefighter... I have all the respect in the world for those guys, but there is just no way I would be comfortable with my husband knowingly putting his life on the line - walking into dangerous situations - every day. *shivers* Those are some brave brave guys. (Although now that I think of it, my husband does risk his neck climbing 60 foot tree's on a daily basis...) LOL But still, something about walking directly into a fire just gives me goose bumps - and these guys do it all the time. Amazing.

Anyway, I'm exhausted but wanted to update. It was a fun night. :)

December Already?!

Wow how time is passing! I couldn't believe it today when my little preggo ticker flipped to the 3rd to the last baby! WOW! According to my weekly emails, Madeline (yes for now I'm sticking with Madeline) is about 2 pounds and 14 inches long! Oooh how I can't wait to meet her! I've been feeling really well lately. Hormones are still crazy, but I'm adjusting. We made up our mind that we're going to sell this house and find a new one after the first of the year. The foundation issues are just too big for us to handle, so we'll take a loss and sell it cheap and start over fresh in something nicer. That's the plan anyways... sure hope there's something out there for us! We've got an appointment to go look at a house tomorrow at 3, it's more central to Charleston than where we live now, but it's also about 15 minutes away from mom's house and preschool, where we're merely a few streets away from both right now. We'll see.

Anyway... it's December! And that means picture time! Abbie (Photo's by Abbie) did Lizzy's pictures today. Gosh she was so amazing with her! I was impressed... she got liz to loosen up and smile a lot... and just have some fun. I cannot wait to see the proofs!!! Also, Ashley and Emery came out and Emery had her picture's taken too... Abbie even got a few shots of the girls together, which I'm super excited about. There may be a year between Liz and Emery but I can see them being great friends for a long time. Jay and I just adore Ashley and Seth, we all get along so well. Same (aka twisted) sense of humor, and such. And Liz loves Emery - as long as I'm not carrying Emery... then she get's insanely jealous. Boy does she have a suprise in store. LOL

So I got a new maternity shirt today with my Kohls cash. I was going to do some Christmas shopping for Jay but didn't see anything he'd wear - and I've already finished Lizzy... and my mom and MIL and those are the only other people that I'd buy clothes for... so I just found something for myself! It was a nice little splurge and the shirt is cute - I'll get a pic up soon. I need to go get a new battery charger from Walmart as I seem to have lost mine. (Thus no pictures lately.)

Oh and I think next weekend we're having family pics taken. Should be fun. :D I found a cream sweater at Target today for Liz, and my new shirt is cream as well... Jay has a heathered cream polo that looks good with his jeans so I think we may all wear those, jeans and cream shirts - brown shoes, etc for our family shots. My belly is REALLY pokin out these days. Although, Jacquie (this tiny little gal from small group) is due a week before me... and I will say that she's poking out just a tiny bit more than me. LOL We sat next to each other on the sofa last night and joked about our girls boxin each other through our belly's. ;)

I think we're going downtown tonight to the big tree lighting festival in downtown Charleston. I love going to holiday events... so fun! Jay's working so it'll depend on what time he get's home... Linda just left on a cruise for a week so no sitter for date night as my family is all in Ohio right now. Oh well. lol

Annnnway, I'm chatting now, and I'm super tired so I'm going to go catch a nap while my kiddo is passed out. Just wanted to share a short update... I'll post Lizzy's pics as soon as I get them! :D