Garden

I weeded the garden the other day and I want to show how Tim how nice a garden looks with out all the weeds.  He likes to plant all kinds of stuff in the garden but kind of slacks on the weeding part.  Our garden is kind of bare compared to previous years, but we knew we wouldn't be around the whole season to enjoy the fruits of our labor. 

 This onion bed had a volunteer tomato plant growing in it that Tim knew about but I didn't.  He didn't put a cage around it and now it is too late.  It had to many tomatoes on it for my to feel like pulling.  I will admit it already gave me my first ripe tomato.  I don't know if it was good or not because I gave it to Willow to eat. 

The last pic is of my feet after I was done.  I came inside and Willow started to brush my feet off because they were dirty.  I thought that was quite funny.

Weekend Getaway

Well I went to Phoenix to visit Tim for the weekend and to get the interior stuff all ironed out on the new house.  It was like a long date weekend for us since my mom was watching Willow for us.  There are a lot of things I need to learn while I am there and lots to get used to. 
The house Tim is staying in is really nice.  I am thankful that it is not forever though.  It is basically white throughout the place.  The bathrooms are carpeted, yikes.  It will be nice for a couple months but I will be ready to move into our own house with our own things.  One of the things I find strange is that there is no cold water.  The pipes are so close to the ground surface it is hard to keep water cold.  So needless to say brushing your teeth with warm water is not my cup of tea.  Tim's trash can is quite interesting and I am sure this is just in his area.  It looks like a little manhole and the lid has a handle on it.  It is just big enough for two bags of trash.  I guess it is so the coyotes don't get in the trash.  Kind of nice not having to worry about taking the can to the curb or it blowing away. 

Here is something funny that shows what a dork my husband can be.  I noticed the pillows he took with him still did not have the pillowcases on them, just the pillow covers.  I pulled the comforter back and was like Tim where are your sheets?  He said they were on there and I was like I don't think so, that is the mattress pad.  He then said oh well I thought it felt kind of weird and there was no top sheet.  So he was sleeping on the mattress pad all week.  What a dork.

We did a lot of running around checking out the place.  In Tim's area there are a lot of golf carts.  They drive on the streets, have their own parking spots and they even have seat belts.  It is hilarious.  Some of these carts are pimped out too.  When we would go to a store Tim would try and find a spot that was in the shade to park under.  He said it was like a sport there to get the best shade spot.  There are not a lot of these spaces.  The trees are not that big to create a lot of shade. 

There a ton of different places to eat. Tim found the best place for wings according to him.  It has 30 different flavors of wing sauce, from mild to extremely hot.  When we went it was making it his 3rd time in one week. He tried the hottest sauce when I was there.  I think he wanted to die!  He said he has never had anything so hot in his life and he loves hot food.  I don't know if he will try those again.

One day when we were out I saw a guy dressed up on the side of the road with a sign that read: funeral donations, anything will help.  I could not believe someone was doing that.  It was crazy. 
We visited the pool at the gym both Saturday and Sunday.  It was nice and refreshing.  I do have to toughen up my feet though, walking on the cement with no flip flops was brutal!  It was fun to people watch.  There was a mom there with her daughter and she asked her daughter if she could see the clouds.  I was kind of puzzled by this thinking uhh yeah who hasn't seen clouds, but I guess there are not a lot of clouds there and it is unusual to see them.

So I finished my trip off with picking out the stuff for the inside of the house.  It comes with basic stuff but you can upgrade things if you want.  Well some of the basic stuff was a joke and upgrading was mandatory.  The huge downside to that was the nice stuff that shouldn't be a whole heck of a lot was super expensive.  We left spending more then I wanted.  So it ended a great weekend off not so great.  Plus my flight was 2 hours delayed.  Needless to say stressed out.

I am home now and wondering if it is better here with the hot humid weather or down there with it just plain HOT! Oh lordy, what have I gotten myself into? 

The Beginning

So my new job started officially last Saturday as a 24/7 stay at home mom.  I haven't been to impressed with it thus far.  The main reason being Willow has been off a schedule and getting her back on it is trying to say the least.  There is so much stuff going on that messes it up.  The time change from Seattle was not a huge help at all being 2 hours behind Nebraska time.  You would think that she would sleep in later but no, she is awake at 6A.M. That doesn't mean I get her out of bed though.  I let her lay there hoping she might get a few more winks in before I decide it is time to get up.  Good mom, huh?  Going to bed is not what it used to be either she will either lay in bed talking to herself or scream.  Maybe I need to make her bedtime later to get her somewhat acclimated to Phoenix time. 

Her liking of foods is changing as well.  It is hard to get her to eat things that she used to devour.  Her love of fruit has not diminished at all.  Thus the lovely the diaper presents she makes me. She can go to my mom's house and will eat anything for her no problem.  Why do kids do that?  Maybe this food aversion will slow her down in the weight area.  We bought her a new sweatshirt in Seattle in a size 3T, remember she is not even 2 yet.  I went to put it on her and it would not even go over her HEAD.  I had to return it.  I know her head won't shrink but jeez does she have to have such a big melon?

I have not had to put her in time out yet.  Thank you Jesus.  That can be tiring to me.  She will repeatedly get up from the naughty spot and I am repeatedly putting her back there until her time is up.  I learned that from the Supper Nanny. 

I would like to transition her to a toddler bed but I am weighing the pros and cons of this one.  Pro is that when I go to change her at night before I head to bed my growing belly will not get in the way of leaning into the crib.  (Side note here:  I have to change her because she wets her diaper so bad it won't last the whole night.  I change her while still in bed so she won't really wake up and not go back to sleep.) Another good thing is when we do get into our house and the new baby is here she will be ready for a big person bed.  The baby will be getting this crib.  Bad thing and this is big, is that she will probably be getting up from bed when I put her down for bedtime or nap because she is not ready to go down.  Plus her getting up at 6 AM means that it will be my new time to get up even if I am not ready.  Oh the problems I face at my new full time job.  Could be worse I guess.  

I figured out how to add pictures.  These are from our trip to Seattle a week ago.  What do you think of my new nerdy glasses?  Eat your heart out Buddy Holly.

First House Hunting Trip

Last Sunday and Monday Tim and I took a really quick trip to Phoenix to try and find a house.  We know it would be just to look since we have yet to sell our house.  The market down there is crazy.  Houses will sell fast and if you don't have the money you will loose out.  No one will take a contingent with your offer, they don't have to due to all the offers one house will get.  My plan was to look at some houses and maybe in a couple of days we would have an offer on our house.
We look at two houses and I was immediately disappointed.  Houses there have no basements due to the ground being hard to dig.  So there for there is not a storage room like I have currently.   Tim has so much crap we need that extra space.  Basically the only storage the houses offered was the closets in the bedrooms.  The realtor suggested we look at some homes that are being built and maybe go that route.  I was sceptical about it.  We looked at a house that was just in the framing in stage so I couldn't really see what it looked like.  One of the things that Tim really wants is a 3 car garage and a large lot.  If there is no pool with the house already he want enough land to put in a pool and still have a yard.  The new development we were looking in didn't have that huge lot.  So we went over to another area that had the model home to look at.  here the house showed us again no storage space.  Tim inquired about a bigger lot and they had one and the only house plan that could be built on that large lot was bigger.  I looked at this and it was screaming storage.  The master had two walk in closets (WIC) and the larger one was as big as one of the bedrooms.  I had to see this house done.  It also was a 4 car garage or you could make the 4 stall a bonus room.
The next day we looked at the model of this larger home and we were in love.  I could not believe all the big closets and places I could put things!  Ladies, all I have to say is I need more clothes and shoes to fill this HUGE WIC!!!  We talked about it an decided this is the route we were going to take.  After tons of details and signing we left there having a house that we both liked. 
It is going to be a long road to get to the point of actually living in that house but it will be done.  I pray that it is finished before baby #2 arrives.  If everything goes well it should be done by November 1st a couple weeks before the little one should be done cooking.  Some down sides to it is until then we have another place to live.  Tim is living in a house in Sun City, which is an active living community.  That is another way of saying retirement community.  There is a law there that you have to be 55+ to live there.  We are saying he is the landlords nephew and there is a little break in the rule that you can be younger to live there but you only 90 days.  After that I am not sure what is going to happen.  If we are able to stay there longer I am not sure what we will do with our dogs.  No pets are allowed.  So as you can see we have some hurdle to overcome until we can be settled into our new home.
When I figure out how to get a photo up I will post the floor plan.

Preface

In starting this blog I need you to understand first and foremost I am horrible at spelling and grammar.  Hard to believe since I have a BA in Journalism.  So please just sit back and enjoy the content and don't cringe about how it is written.  This disclaimer is for Abby.
I decided to do this since the plan is for me to be a SAHM (stay at home mom).  Every blog I have read it seems to be a mom who stays at home with her children and home schools.  I will not be doing the home schooling part.  I guess it is a way for me to keep family and friends updated on what is going on in my life.  It also could be an outlet for me to vent or a get away from kiddie land and somewhat into the adult world. 
I can't wait to share with you my adventures about my family.  Both Tim and Willow do some pretty darn funny stuff.  They both amaze me everyday along with frustrate me, but isn't that what loved ones are suppose to do.  In return I still love them and love them for all their flaws. 
Hopefully I can figure out how to post pictures on here to so I can get you a visual of things that I am talking about. 
So here's to a new beginning, Livin' on Love Under the Hot Desert Sun.  Enjoy.