He's Leaving on a Jet Plane (Without Me!)

Ethan's on his way to visit Grandma and Papi for two weeks.

Two weeks!!!!!!!!!

Why did I agree to this again?

Truth is, he misses them terribly... asks to go to Grandma's house all the time, even though he knows he has to go on the "big airplane" to get there. I'm sure they'll have a blast, and while's he's gone, Mike and I can actually work on the house... and hopefully have it ready for him by the time he gets back after 4th of July weekend.

At least that's the plan....

I miss my baby already!!!! The last time I was away from him for longer than a day was when Mike and went on a cruise for a week. He was only a few months then, but that didn't stop me from spending $20/min to go on the internet to write emails to an infant.

I hope I survive the next 2 weeks.....

Sleepless

What kind of crazy person gets up at 4am (on a Saturday) to look at wall color inspirations and floor samples online?

Oh wait. That's me....


Too excited to work on the house maybe? I have a bad case of decorating fever right now. Can you blame me? I have a BLANK slate, and despite Mike's willingness to give his input in color schemes and accent pillows, eventually he's going to come around and realize that a happy wife = happy life.

:)

Don't get me wrong. I totally welcome his input. It is, after all, OUR home. But we've already butted heads when it comes to decor. For example, he prefers paintings of valleys and french cottages by the river bend, and I like the modern motif. He says he's not hanging up anything that looks like a drunk painted it, and I say I don't want the house looking like a nursing home (no offense to others who like cottages by the river bend too).

So I was searching about 2 weeks ago online for some inspiration on how to tackle the huge loft upstairs -- thought we would try to have a half playroom/half "place-to-chill-and-watch-tv". And I ran into this photo and just fell in love with the wall color.

So crazy me... as of last week (before we even signed the loan documents and closed escrow)... we already had a quart of "test paint" ready. Went first thing yesterday after work to put our test square on the wall, and hopefully, this weekend, we can actually take a crack at the walls downstairs.

I'm waiting on a few more requests for flooring estimates, and hopefully we could get those started within the week. Staining the cabinets, next. Counter tops, MAYBE. Our goal is to solicit as many of my brother's recently graduated friends who will help move furniture for pizza by the holiday weekend. :)

I should really get back to bed......

Ethan's First Report Card

It's Official! We're Homeowners!

We finally got our keys today!! We're all super excited!! After months and months and months of looking... out of probably over 30 houses (yes, that's a lot of touring) that we looked at, this was the first house that we submitted an offer for. But after 2 heartbreaks from being passed over for other offers on this house, I almost didn't want to make the last offer after it went back on the market for the third time. But.... everything happens for a reason...... and I think we were meant to get it.....

So we're not proud homeowners..... and IT'S DECORATING TIME!!!!

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'Nuff Said

Congratulations Jojo!

I can’t believe my baby brother (using the term baby somewhat loosely) has graduated high school!!!! Not only does that make me very proud, it also makes me… well…. feel VERY old.

After 4 long years of high school drama and exasperating varsity football, he’s giving up his football cleats and exchanging it for a stethoscope! He’ll be taking nursing at a California State University about 2 hours away (so he’ll be going “away” without ever being “too far” – which I’m sure makes our mom happy). I told him he’ll always have a spot in our couch for those pesky frequent visits :)

Note to self: 3-year-olds DO NOT fair well with long speeches. After trying desperately to keep Ethan occupied through speeches from 2 co-valedictorians, the class president, the school district superintendent (and a bag of Oreos)…. he was over it. Not to mention having to wait through 100 names to hear Jojo’s name called out, and then waiting for another 500 others after his name was called out.

First Oreo Dunk

Ethan has had Oreos before - plenty of them.

But he's NEVER dunked them in milk, Mike and I aren't quit sure with the delay. But Ethan's revelation of dunking a cookie in milk was just too precious not to deserve to be a milestone.

Here's Mike instructing Ethan on how long to leave an Oreo cookie in the milk and when to anticipate that it's ready to be eaten. What do you know?!? Suddenly, junk food becomes a perfect exercise in counting to 20.

Here's Ethan mesmerized with the process of getting an Oreo cookie to its perfect level of sogginess.

Winding Down and Looking Forward

After a rough start last week, I'm finally getting back to my regular sleep schedule and while I can't say I'm 100% rested, I did get to relax a little the last few days and got to spend a lot of time with my family.

Getting anxious from hopes of closing escrow this week, I've been overly obsessed with trying to (prematurely) decorate for our soon-to-be new home -- online, in the stores, in my dreams, while watching TV.... I just can't get enough of it!

I used to make fun of my mom for watching all those decorating shows on HGTV, and now I have turned into one of them!!! But after scouting a few furniture stores this weekend and coming up empty, I refuse to be discouraged.

The house is move-in ready... although there are a few things we'd like to get done before finally hauling our stuff in. We plan to tile the kitchen floor, stain the kitchen cabinets and pain the walls for starters. Once upon a time, I dreamt of having plantation shutters installed but I think that might have to wait a little bit.

I'm ok with that....



Anywho, since I'm a little behind on posting photos, I'm going to dig for some taken this weekend -- then I'm off to stalking the furniture section on Craigslist. :)