Amy Scott's Thoughts

I wrote a blog post on Saturday night, but the internet wasn’t agreeing with me so I abandoned ship. Now I’m blogging again, but have more to add so this will be two posts in one. Enjoy!

We are Pending – Post One

We are under contract! Our house is pending! Woo hoo! The papers have been signed and our closing date will be August 12th. Of course, things can always change with inspection and appraisal, but we are praying for the best and hoping things continue to move smoothly. Now that our house is pending, we met for the second time with Lexar Homes to talk through the building process and where to start. We are excited to do a home tour of the plan we are considering this next week. It will be great to see the floor plan in person. I’ve learned that I’m really bad at picturing things so I’m excited to see the floor plan I’ve been studying off the screen and in real life.  Next week, we’ll have the septic pumped (oh goodie) and possibly the home inspection. The ball is rolling! I’ve already started packing some non-essentials and moving items into the garage. My philosophy is I’d rather pack a box or two a day instead of packing the whole house up in short time.

I promised an update on Owen! This kid… He is crazy. He has shifted to being a morning person. It’s been a rough transition for our family. I miss the days when he consistently slept past 8:00am. Those were good days. Since Graham is up multiple times in the night, I live for nap time. I can coordinate the boys both going down for an afternoon nap at the same time. Owen only naps for an hour these days, so it’s a short window to rest, but I’ll take what I can get. Sleep is a big deal in this house and it’s been lacking…

Owen loves letters, numbers and shapes. It’s been fun to watch him learn. At times I look around the house and I’m blown away that I’m surrounded by trains, cars, construction vehicles… We watch Mater’s Tall Tales daily. Owen still enjoys Winnie the Pooh and Thomas. He has also really gotten into kid’s music. I love listening to him learn songs. He is also getting into doing motions with the music. I know it will be like this in every life stage, but I love watching him learn! His world continues grow and expand.

Owen is putting sentences together like crazy these days. We were passing a section of a manufactured home on the freeway and Owen exclaimed, “Look, Mommy! There is a house on a flat bed.” He tells me to “Look, Mommy” often. He is taking it all in. The world is so interesting and he can tell me all about it these days. He is getting to that stage where kids say really funny things. We’ll have to be careful about what we say around him since he repeats everything. I love his little voice. He is certainly a chatterbox.

It’s now summer time, so we’ve been taking lots of walks to enjoy the nice weather. Owen has taken to pushing Graham in the stroller. It was sweet the first time he did it, but now it’s just annoying. He walks super slow… And I have to make sure he doesn’t run of the road… Owen is Daddy’s helper in the yard and waters the flowers. He loves his swing set and his sandbox.

Other random facts, Owen is super into pretzels right now… He can says the ABCs in order through G (he knows all the letters, but is still learning order). He can count to 5, but his favorite number is 11. Owen now has to share all his toys with a mobile Graham. This hasn’t been a development he likes. We are working with Owen to not be rough with Graham. Now that Graham is moving, Owen doesn’t view him as baby anymore. He is now competition. Sibling rivalry begins…

That’s the update for now. It’s my bedtime!

I have No Good Title for Post Two

Okay, here we are at the next update. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I often struggle with how to much to write here on this blog. I don’t want to sound whiny and I don’t want to overwhelm the world with too many details. It’s a fine line to find balance. I’m just going to be real with you all, but try to keep it short and sweet.

Sunday, we made it up to Puyallup to celebrate some family birthdays. It had been a while since we’d seen my family so it was really important to us that we made it to the party. It was a good day to BBQ and chat. Owen ran around the cousins and attempted to eat his first popsicle. He ate the top 1/4 before losing interest. He didn’t quite get the concept of big licks or biting on it.

Yesterday was the 4th of July but it didn’t feel too much like a holiday… Our family was busy moving my parents. Again. Last weekend we moved them into what I called the storental (combination of storage and rental). It turns out the storental had tenacious fleas and some other serious issues. God opened up a new rental house and a totally better situation for my parents. After the big day of moving, the family came back to our house for dinner and pie to celebrate my Dad’s 60th birthday (which is today). Happy birthday, Dad!

Here is where the story gets interesting…. Toby was supposed to be going to the humane society tomorrow. I had told my family that this would be the last time they got to see him and to say their good-byes. I planned on blogging about Toby’s departure in advance so I wouldn’t have to write about it once it happened… I had been preparing Owen that Toby was leaving. I told him that Nana and Papa were going to take Toby and find him a new home. It’s been a year since I started looking for a new home for Toby. It was actually last 4th of July that I broke down and contacted a local dog person to see what she could do. That turned into a dead end. Then in January, we tried again to place Toby, but learned that he needed a home with no kids and no other pets. He came back to us… Now my in-laws had offered to take him the humane society for us. It was a nice gesture. With moving, it seems like now would be a good time to part ways. Toby hasn’t been a good fit for our family for a long time, but we’ve done our best to make it work…. Anyway back to the main story… April was loving on Toby and discovered that he had fleas. In all the years that we’ve owned him, he has never had fleas. Sadly, we think that the fleas from my parent’s storental may have come to visit us. My mom and TC had been walking with us a couple days last week. It all seemed innocent and yet a transfer was made. Jeremy gave Toby a bath last night and got a few off of him. It looks like he got them all and we are getting Toby a flea collar and we will bug bomb the house this weekend just to make sure that no fleas have decided to live with us… It seemed like a lot of drama for one dog who will only be with us one more day… but wait… he will stay with longer because the humane society has pet release appointments that we learned about today. My in-laws can’t Toby for us and our appointment is now scheduled for later this month.

It wouldn’t be such a big deal with the whole flea Toby situation, but things are moving quickly with our house. We had the septic pumped today and got to meet the buyers. Our home inspection is tomorrow morning and I am crazy worried that somehow the inspector will think our home is flea ridden (which it isn’t… but I am paranoid). There will be lots of cleaning and vacuuming between now and tomorrow. All these inspections have me on edge because I want them to go well and for there to be no major unforeseen issues. I’m trying to take a deep breath and not stress… It’s kind of working… Kind of not.

All that to say, if I can survive the home inspection tomorrow, we have plans to go look at a house in our favorite Lexar floor plan. I am excited to snoop and see if it’s a plan that will work for us. Thursday, we take off for the beach to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We will be taking the boys with us. Not the most romantic trip, but I am excited to get away (from the fleas, just kidding, kind of). I am ready to have a few days away from the house and all the plates we seem to be juggling. Jeremy leaves for kid’s camp on Sunday… It will be a long week at home with the boys. I’m looking forward to some family time before the week of camp begins. I’m going to try to make some plans throughout the week as a way to keep myself busy and not go crazy at home with two little people all alone.

That about sums it up. Life has been insane. I am overwhelmed and trying not to overthink things. It’s hard for me to just focus on the moment before me and live right now. I have to refocus my thoughts away from worry and stress. God is in control. God is good. God is in the mess of life and he is the details. He’s got this. I don’t have to worry. (Repeat italicized words over and over again).

The end!

All three boys snuggled up watching Daniel Tiger

Walking baby

Graham figured out how to get under the train table, but then he couldn’t figure out how to get out!

Popsicle

Love my Grandma! She is so amazing!

Summertime fun!

Happy 4th of July

Loaded up and ready to move!

Celebrating the Big 6-0 with my  awesome dad! I have a feeling 60 will be a full year for him with building a house and getting new neighbors!

It’s hard to believe that it’s June! May went by in a blink! Here are the cliff notes on our life…

The house is still for sale. I’ve stopped cleaning it. I was driving myself crazy trying to keep our house spotless at all times. I’m back to my normal cleaning schedule and I’ll do a rush cleaning job if we have a showing. The showings have been few and far between so I’ll take my chances.

Graham is close to crawling. He is currently doing a combo of army crawling and rolling to get where he wants. He never sits still. He can’t be content to sit and play with toys. He has to be always moving. It’s exciting and annoying. I sometimes wish he would just be chill and relax.

Owen is doing awesome in the potty training department. He has been wearing real underwear with no accidents. We have even taken him out on errands in real underwear. He is even dry for naps and in the morning when he wakes up. The big downside to potty training is now Owen wakes up super early having to pee. He doesn’t go back to sleep and peeing in his diaper isn’t an option anymore.

Maybe Owen getting up early wouldn’t be such a big deal, but Graham has decided to wake up 2-3 times a night and I’m back on the what feels like the newborn schedule. Since I’m up so often in the night, Jeremy has been taking the early morning shift with Owen. I really appreciate that. Normally I can’t go back to sleep after Owen screams me awake, but laying in bed is better that being upright.

As we look to June, we have a fun zoo day planned to celebrate two family birthdays. My parent’s house sold and we will be helping them move into their rental house.  We have still have yet to find our new homestead. I’m guessing there will be a fair amount of time spent looking at property this month. Good thing Owen loves romping through nature. The property search is one of the highlights of his life right now.

And that about sums it up. Until next time!

This kid! He took a short fall out of our living room window the same day I found him sitting like this. I guess you have to watch a toddler every second of the day to make sure they don’t kill themselves!

Dumped out brother’s toy bin so he could read in it.

“I hold him tight”

Trying to stay warm during the property search

A leaf, a pine cone and a puddle. Looking at a property is the best!

Our Thomas fan!

Enjoying the warmer weather

Owen wanted to ride in the stroller too. Too bad this only lasted for a 1/4 of our walk.

Bonding over Legos

Such a cutie!

Golfing in the backyard… Or playing “hockey” as Owen calls it!

My mind seems to be all over the place these days. Lots of big things to process. Our house as been on the market for two weeks. We’ve had two showings. Not as many as I would have hoped for right of the bat. I’m finding that keeping the house clean for potential showings seems a bit illogical. I clean, no one comes. We actually had a showing yesterday. All I can do is pray! So yes, the house update is the house is still for sale. I’m done keeping it clean. I’m praying it sells quickly so I can stop cleaning. I know that doesn’t sound like me. I love to clean… I’m learning that I love to clean weekly, not almost everyday. Big difference.

My last post was all about Graham so I thought I would take a moment to focus on Owen. He has become quite the helper around the house. He loves to put clothes in the washing machine for me. He will grab me a diaper when I’m changing Graham. He will also throw dirty diapers away for me. His new nighttime routine involves giving Graham hugs and kisses. It melts my heart. Owen still loves all things Thomas the train and Winnie the Pooh. He is also still into construction vehicles. He has found the things he loves and has stuck with them.

You might have noticed that I stopped mentioning Owen and potty training. There wasn’t any progress to report. He sort of stalled. However, I am happy to say that he has been doing fantastic this last week! He has done all his business on the toilet the last three days. I am so proud of him. I’m also excited because he can now use the toilet with the help of only a small step stool. No more potty chairs or potty seats! Woo hoo! I am one happy mama! I’m hoping we can officially claim potty training mastered soon!

Owen loves looking at property, going to church and visiting both sets of grandparents. He will often ask to get dressed and tell me he is ready to go. He also loves outside time in the yard. When we are in the van, Owen loves to sing along to the kid’s CD we have playing. He really loves The Isty Bitsy Spider. In fact, he is singing it right now as he plays with his trains.

In random news, I downloaded Pinterest for the first time this week. I now have the joy of creating boards full of ideas for decorating my future home and my boys’ birthday party (because yes, I plan their birthday all year long). Jeremy was away this weekend at a men’s conference and he got to golf twice. I was glad that he could enjoy one of his hobbies since he isn’t putting in a garden this year. He has a garden shaped void in his life. We also just cancelled our satellite television today now that all our shows are taking a break for the summer. This is the first time in our married life that we won’t have a couple hundred channels at our disposal. I have a feeling Jeremy will also have a ESPN and Weather Channel void in his life. Things are a changing here.

Well, I know it’s not brilliant, but that’s what we are up to these days. Lots of cleaning, playing, laughing, crying, praying (and eating of chocolate).

Never enough dump trucks

Watching for Daddy to get home from Men’s Conference

Settled in at Nana & Papa’s house while we have a showing at our house.

Celebrating three accident free days with three new mini trains!