First time

Yesterday, Saturday, was the first time the kids and Tom saw the new house. It was good for them to see what I had picked out. Luckily, they gave their stamp of approval and the kids picked out their rooms. When the movers come, I can have them put it in the right room first try.

Here are some photos we took. The last time I had seen the house, by myself, I took hardly any.

Entry

Living room, to the left of entry. Door to the basement.

Formal dining room. I forgot to take photo of living room and dining room, so these two photos are from the listing.

Breakfast room, and door to backyard

Kitchen

Pantry

Laundry-indoor, on other side of kitchen. 1st time it won't be outside in a storage shed or garage

Laundry storage and folding counter

Laundry folding counter and sink

Coat closet just inside of garage

Main floor half bath, between kitchen and garage

Deck and backyard. Hard to tell from this photo, but the deck is red

Family room. So happy fireplace doesn't take up 2/3 of the wall like the Cypress house.

Upstairs bonus space just off the stairs

One bedroom is off to right of stairs, two other bedrooms directly behind this photo

Jack and Jill bath for the boys

View from boys' bathroom into both bedrooms

One of the boy rooms. The other is identical.

Ivy luckily chose the bedroom I had picked out for her

Ivy's walk-in closet. All the bedrooms have walk-in closets.

Ivy's personal bathroom right next to her bedroom.

Only one sink, but space for a stool once she starts getting interested in makeup.

Upstairs hall linen closet

Master walk-in closet. Can't tell from this photo, but it's the size of a small room.

Master room, bay window with seating.

Master bath

Basement stairs

Unfinished basembasement, including rough-in for a bathroom

Hoping to turn space under stairs into storage

Still figuring out other ideas for basement

Garage

2015 Family pictures

These are our first family photos in about 5 years. So glad we got them done before Christmas. Everyone is definitely getting older. Usually it is me behind the camera, so there aren't many of me the past few years. These are my favorites of the 200+ we have.

Another brief update

In September, my hair got cut short. Very short. The shortest Tom has ever seen me with, but he likes it. Everyone's been sharing positive reactions to it. Most importantly, I'm happy with it. It was time.

Speaking of time, I have been in therapy for about 6 weeks now. Right after hearing the Conference talks from both Saturday sessions, I knew I had to get back to it. It's mostly going well so far. We've been so blessed that this therapist is such a perfect fit for my issues, and their being LDS helps a lot in a therapy setting. He's very blunt, and doesn't sugarcoat anything. I've been doing a lot of homework assignments, especially reading. There are no free rides, everything has to be worked hard for. I am on medication right now. I've only accidentally missed one dose and the difference I saw/felt the next dosage I took after the missed one was night & day. For now, I can kind of tell when a dose is wearing off (conveniently a few hours before the next dose) so I am a little grouchy/cranky around an already stressful dinner time. My appetite is going down. I lost 6-7 lbs the first week of medication. The therapist and I have differing opinions about the scale and what my weight should be, and technically I'm not supposed to look at one for at least 3 months (I have cheated a few times--old habits die hard). So for now, I'm monitoring via an app to make sure I'm hitting at least 1200 calories a day since that's not the scale. If I don't, 9 times out of 10, I'm under the 1200 calories. Energy levels are just about back to where they should be. I had to do lab-work to check to see if any hormone levels, including thyroid, were off. They all came back normal. Also have been recently counseled to get back into journaling by hand. I haven't done hardly any of that since having any of the kids.

The kids are mostly liking school. We've had issues with the new principal and her micromanaging things that don't need to be and should be of little consequence to her. Specifically, us sitting together as a family in the mornings with Collin (which has always been permitted) and about siblings waving hi to each other on campus by the playground(she told Drew he wasn't allowed to wave to Collin). After a discussion with the school district superintendent and the district special ed coordinator, for now she is leaving us alone. Collin has a new teacher this year. Last year's decided not to come back from maternity leave. That's unfortunate since we were fairly certain in April/May that she'd be returning this fall, but he's doing okay with the change. Ivy has an awesome teacher. We love her. Andrew I think is doing well. He's got a church friend in his class this year. He graduated out of special ed for speech services and is on a short term speech program(off the record) right now. Brent--I seriously think his 3's are worse than his 2's. At least he's sweet for the first half of the day.

Thanksgiving is nearly here. Thankfully, I've done my meal planning & the shopping for the next 2 weeks. I had to pick up milk today and there was hardly any parking at 11 am. It's never like that. Monday certainly wasn't. We will be doing our own mini Thanksgiving on Wednesday, and go see the inlaws on Thursday. We'll also be helping Tom's mom put up her tree.

Christmas we'll get to see my family. Haven't been out for 2 years, and there are new cousins younger than Brent we haven't met yet.

Summer

This is one crazy summer. Ivy & Collin started up swim lessons the 1st Monday after school got out.  Andrew wasn't clear from the doctor to start the first 2 week session. We took Drew in for his last appointment, and got the a-ok on everything, with only instructions of he'd know when to quit the walker, and no full blown running/training for races for 4 weeks. Drew & Tom both tried to get him off the walker before he was ready. He's just about back at 100% today--still hobbles a little. Anyway, the next 2 week session of swim, Collin, Ivy & Drew got to do lessons. I had Drew in the class with Collin & told them that he hadn't had his cast off long, so if his leg coordination was off, not to stress over it.  Drew actually ended up being moved up a class for this 3rd two week session(next week is the last session for 1 week). Drew can just about swim by himself. He just needs to get over the mentality of not holding the instructors' arm. Ivy is now out of beginners and into Intermediates. She may be moving up to what's called Swimmers since she's mastered(after about 3 weeks), breaststroke. Brent is doing a mom & me type swim class this summer also--just 3 Saturdays, 30 minutes each.

Brent turned 3. He only gained 3 lbs, and 4 inches since his last birthday--the kid doesn't like to/want to sit down to eat. He's just as disagreeable as he was at 2. You get either really sweet, or really upset/frustrated instigator. He is definitely a strong fighter--any fight or flight type situations he perceives himself to be in, you get 100% of the time fight response. I don't know what that's all about--maybe because, with the exception of Collin's being in summer school(Collin only gets 3 weeks between end of school, and summer school; and 3 weeks after summer school & start of school year), he feels displaced?  He's really not terribly interested in going potty or telling me when he has to go, unless I cut off the computer and he asks "I go pee pee for 'nother turn?" Still doesn't sleep good, because someone won't let him cry it out because somehow it makes them feel less of a parent (even though there was no problem letting the older 3 cry it out). So bedtime is often way past 11 pm most nights.

I've been trying to get myself back into a regular exercise groove, and I can now say I'm consistently back up to 5-6 days a week, 30 minutes strength and 30 minutes cardio each day--but not usually done together/back to back.

I am so looking forward to the kids all starting school at the same time, and just about same pick up time this year. It was really hard with the last month and a half of school, taking Drew after kindergarten lunch & picking up like 1.5-2 hours later.

Tom & I had our 13th anniversary on July 8th. The date/celebration was kind of a let down though--won't lie. I made some stuff for Tom, and I got nothing. I'm overwhelmed & burned out with the summer stuff, as well as some other major issues I'm dealing with or should I say haven't been dealing with. So, it was poor planning on my part and Tom's been overworked taking over a co-workers' mechanisms while he was out for 2 weeks.

Before this, he had done a 4 day youth conference(6-7 am until after 10 most of those nights..ugh) and a full week of Coast Guard active duty time(they do training for 2 weeks in the year, usually summer but this year it was 1 week in April and 1 in June).

We've had 3 new younger couples move into our ward in the past month. Looking forward to getting to know them. I'm trying so hard to branch/reach out more, including going on a double date soon with some friends of ours we've known for 9 years. It would be nice to be able to have friends to do stuff with.

Not much other news. I am getting a big haircut in a month. Not related to my starting up therapy for me in a month or so, once everything's settled in place with the kids back to school, and not related to Tom.

7 x 7 fashion remix challenge

Linking up with Audrey @ PuttingMeTogether.com

I did a first 7x7 fashion remix hosted by Audrey at PuttingMeTogether.com and Ma Nouvelle Mode. The premise is to choose 7 items of clothing (1 has to be shoes) and make 7 outfits. I've never done anything like this before.

After a lot of careful, and thoughtful consideration, along with thinking about things Audrey has mentioned in her Build A Remixable Wardrobe Series, I came up with my 7 items. Here are the items I chose:

7x7 pieces by mindy-gee

1. White skinny jeans. These are a newer purchase, within the past couple months at Kohls to replace some capris I had. that I outgrew, literally. I like the fit and opaqueness of these.

2. Striped pencil skirt. (exact sold out, but these are similar) Got this from Old Navy last year, in their Tall size, so it wouldn't ride up too high when I sit.  I knew in the 7 days of this challenge that I had at least 2 days where I had church functions,  where I had to be dressed up. I thought a skirt might be more versatile instead of a dress, since I had to make 7 different outfits.

3. Blue printed blouse. This was a recent find at Kohl's on clearance. They are now sold out of the long sleeved and short sleeved version. I have a hard time finding prints I like, but I liked the color and the small diamond print.

4. Polka dot chambray shirt. Similar I got this from Old Navy last year, and it is a workhorse for me. The weather has been typical "June gloom" where it's chilly in the morning, warms up late afternoon, and cooled down again by dinner. I knew I had to have at least 1 layering piece. I wanted to do 2 long sleeve layering pieces, but then the weather decided to warm up a bit.

5. Mint v-neck tee. Got on sale at Old Navy. Thought I'd try out the mint green trend that's going on.

6. Bird graphic tee. This was from Old Navy. It sold out online faster than you could blink. There must have been a couple returns, so when this came back on the website, I snatched it up fast. It's 1 size big for me, so it's been washed in the washer(against directions, since I know what happens to rayon in the wash) to shrink it down that size.

7. Cognac t-strap wedges. (also comes in other colors) These are from Target. I figured wedges would be the way to go, as I had casual and dressier outfits to accommodate. I will disclose though, that I bought Dr. Scholl's for Her High Heel inserts (also at Target, I found mine at the grocery store) to take pressure off the balls of my feet and have arch support.

Here are the outfits I came up with.  I apologize for no real photos. I've started potty-training the almost 3 year old and he messed with the computer (his reward for going potty in the toilet was a 3 minute computer game), and I've seen a lot of blue screens and computer restarts. More than I care to number.  So, I decided to bust out the Polyvore. Click on the images to see all 7 pieces I chose, as well as all 7 outfits. I could've gotten more than the 7 outfits, if I had used the skirt more but I only had 2 outfits that required skirts this past week.

7x7 Remix Challenge by mindy-gee on polyvore.com

1. White skinny jeans + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 2. White skinny jeans + blue printed blouse + wedges 3. White skinny jeans + mint v-neck tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 4. Striped pencil skirt + bird graphic tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 5. Striped pencil skirt + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 6. White skinny jeans + bird graphic tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 7. White skinny jeans + mint v-neck tee + wedges

Update on Drew

We went back on May 23rd to get Drew a new cast. Their office likes to switch casts every couple weeks so it doesn't get too dirty. He had an X-ray done and was starting to grow some new bone back. He chose green as his new cast color. The visit took awhile(way longer than expected), so the boys had I think 3-4 lollipops each.

Next visit was this past Thursday, June 6th. We had been told at the previous visit that there may be a slight chance of the cast coming off, if enough bone had grown back but told not to get our hopes up too high. They took his cast off, so they could X-ray his leg better. It's nice they have the X-ray capability in their office. We brought the portable DVD player this visit to ensure not a boatload of lollipops, and so the downtime for waiting wouldn't be too bad. I was quite surprised the cast came off and stayed off. I actually had to come home instead of straight to school, since I didn't bring a second shoe for Drew to wear.

His leg that had the cast has atrophied quite a bit--most noticeably in  calf. The left has almost no muscle and the right calf has so much muscle from compensation, it's solid. He's still got limitations on him, but his leg speed is slowly coming back.

Thursday, we tried a little walking around the neighborhood, to get him up and walking and see where his stamina was. We did less than 1/4 of 1 lap around the neighborhood in 30 minutes. Friday, he walked the whole 1 lap in 45 minutes. Yesterday was 40 minutes, and tonight was 26 minutes. As reference, it usually takes us 10-15 minutes for walking 1 lap, depending on how fast we go. So we are closer everyday.

Notice how his right leg(on this left in the pic) has more muscle in the calf?

This freckle used to be 1/4-1/2 of this size pre-cast. May have to check it out.

Taken tonight. He is still putting more weight/leaning towards his right when he walks. I also noticed that his left foot is in the habit of toes angled out when he walks.