House

M and I had our house built right before we got married. It was just us and Mr K, and our 3 bedroom, 2 bath house was perfect. Add 2 more kids into the mix, and a mom that has to drive across the valley to babysit for us 2x a week, and we quickly have learned that we need more room. So we decided to put our house up for sale.

It hit the market today, we had 3 showings and an offer of full asking price in less than 12 hours. Wow. I never imagined it would sell so quickly! I am super excited that it did go quickly and we don't have to sit and wait, but part of me is really sad.

This is our house. We brought home all our kids to this house. I redid the master bathroom so nicely, and it is large, along with the walk-in closet. Our  new floors are gorgeous and M did an amazing job on the hearth for our fireplace. I don't want to leave those things behind!

We did find a house we really liked and put an offer in on it though. Our concern is that it has a sand point well, which I don't know much about. If we had to put a real well in it though, that could cost up to $15,000! Hoping that isn't the case.

This new house is much larger. The master bath is TINY. Single shower. No vanity counter top. The yard is great. Big mature trees surround the property on 3 sides. And we would only be about 5 minutes from our parents. And close to town, but still out of city limits.

I'm hoping it all works out and we are able to get this other house, but I am trying not to get to excited. If not we will have to possibly get a rental for awhile until something else opens up.

I am totally still in shock at how quickly our house went though, and that we weren't even offered less. Wow.

A Letter To My 16-Year-Old Self

Dear 16-year-old me:

You are beautiful. Your hair is gorgeous, body is amazing, but mostly your brain is magnificent. Do  not underestimate what it is capable of.

Pay attention in school. I know you do well, but I also know you don't put in much effort. You are going to wish you could recall some of this chemistry and French shit someday. So pay attention. Try to retain it a little more.

Ditch the boy. I know you think he is the world, but he's not. In fact, he is actually keeping you from the world. There is so much more to high school then him. Your girlfriends need you, and you them. There are a lot of experiences you will miss out on that you wish you could go back and do, if you stick with him. Plus, he turns out to be kind of a loser and you break up anyways, so its better now then in 3 years after he has turned violent and you are stuck in North Dakota.

Have fun. The worries you have now you aren't even going to remember later in life. Everything falls into place and turns out pretty spectacular, so have fun. Go to those parties and do those crazy things. You only get one chance at it, so take every opportunity you can and have fun.

Slow down. Enjoy this time and everything about it. Life moves so damn fast. It may seem like its taking forever, but trust me, I can't even think of where the years have gone. Live in this moment and don't rush things. They all happen when they should and work out without you trying to rush them.

Stop putting so much pressure on yourself. Like I said, you are beautiful, inside and out. Its really OK if you don't live up to what you think the world expects of you. You are you and you are perfect at it. So relax.

Love your chunkier, saggier boobed, more forgetful, older self

Allergy Testing

Mr K has had a pink eye for months. But not pink eye! There was no matting or any other symptoms to suggest pink eye, but his eye would not clear up so I took him to the dr. They tried 2 different eye drops to try and get it to clear, but they didn't work. They wanted to send us to an eye dr to see if there was a different med that would be better, but I asked to have allergy testing done first. Allergies are in our family and it has been that time of year.

So Mr K got to endure allergy testing!

Turns out the poor kid is allergic to grass! He has to do a nasal spray (that might actually help with his constant, horrible nose bleeds and huge boogers) and eye drops if he is going to be outside a lot. He also cannot have the dog sleep in his room anymore (during the warmer months) and we have to keep his window shut. This last one is hard because, even though he is only 7, he smells like a grown man. I don't understand it, his room just has this odor despite being clean and all the laundry done!

Anyways. He has taken this like a champ and likes to tell anyone and everyone that he is allergic to grass :)

Asthma

We were attempting to wean Miss L off some of her meds, and had missed a couple doses of her inhaler. The sound of her gasping and wheezing woke us in the middle of the night. She was having her first official asthma attack.

I cannot even begin to explain the horrid sounds that your child make when they can't breathe. My blood ran cold and my heart stopped. 911 crossed my mind but I figured I could get her to the ER faster then waiting for them to come all the way out to our house and then back in, so I quickly threw on sweats, grabbed her and raced into town. By the time we got the ER she was breathing better, thank God, but I still had her checked out.

They gave her 2 nebulizer treatments and took x-rays of her chest. She had a little fluid in her lungs, but not enough to diagnose pneumonia and her since her oxygen levels remained high enough we were able to go home after a couple hours.

Miss L is continuing on her daily inhaler 2x a day and now has a rescue inhaler in case of another attack. I pray we never have to use it.

Birthday #3

I had way too much fun with Miss L's birthday this year. She is really into Sophia The First, so we went with that for her theme. We only had a couple friends come to the house, along with our families, so it was small and sweet, and she had a blast.

Her cake turned out much better!

For a snack I made "magic wands": pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate. The kids helped me make them :)

"Clover's Veggie Patch" pizza was the main food

To drink was "Princess Punch"

The kids seemed to have a lot of fun

 And our little girl is 3! Getting so big and pretty... which she asks all the time if she is ;)

Birthday #2

Remember me? Probably not, so sorry. I'm going to pick up right where I left though!

Mr K is at the age now that he wants to have his friends stay the night. So for his birthday he got to have 2 friends come over and have a sleep over. They had happy meals for dinner (birthday boy's choice) and I made a pretty sweet Batman cake that was camo inside, and I would never recommend to anyone. It was a box cake and seemed super easy, but completely crumbled when you tried to cut it. It looked so gross that the kids didn't even touch it :/ Not saying that my Bat symbol turned out to be anything to talk about either though...

Being the horrible mom that I am, I really didn't take many pictures! I mean, honestly, I can't be that embarrassing mom who is taking a million pics of them playing Xbox or make a fort or eating... I did get to sneak a few in though.

This looked SO much better in my head!

I love that Mr K is getting to the age of real friends and sleep overs, but it sure does make me sad that he is growing so fast. Seriously, where have the last 7 years gone?!?!