Hi...I'm stressed and my clothes don't fit me

Sigh.

The other night, Matthew said to me, "Have you been losing weight? You look like you have lost weight."

I looked around to see who he was talking to. Um, it was me.

Obviously the paint fumes and all the hammering have been getting to him and impaired his vision.

Because I have GAINED FOUR POUNDS.

Yep, gained.

It's true, love is blind.

I know for some, if the scale increased by 4 lbs they would go cut off an arm or leg...or do something really drastic and workout or count calories.

I am beyond stressed and when I get stressed, I EAT CRAP. (and it tastes good!)

Guess what Matthew does? Yep, you got it...he loses weight.

I feel like I spend my entire day in the car shuffling my family place to place. If I am not doing something productive during the day-like clean the new house, pack the old house, peel wallpaper, shop for new house, clean old house, go to the store-I am wasting my time. At night I feel guilty when I sitting down working on my school stuff instead of packing (or cleaning). If I am not spending my time with the girls playing or being creative I feel guilty because, that's my job, right?

Obviously, I eat. Obviously.

We had scheduled our move-in date to be this coming weekend BUT that is not going to happen. All of our flooring is not going to be in and our master bedroom is still a long way from being done. We think that will be completely moved in by the middle of September at this point.

I know, sob story. Really, this stress that I'm feeling is so minimal in the grand scheme.

Are we so blessed that we are able to stay in our old house while we renovate our new one? ABSOLUTELY! We are not having to pack twice.

Are we so blessed that we are all four healthy? DEFINITELY!

I am so thankful for Matthew and for his attitude and energy and so thankful that I love him more than I did before all the craziness began (I know, crazy).

I just needed to write about my stress and when you see me and think to yourself, "Wow, she is getting more plump", well, you are correct. Congratulations.

Now, pass me a donut.

First day of school…version “Elyn”

Today was Elyn’s first day of pre-school (sob!).  Elyn was NOT sad though.  She has been begging me to take her to school since Nora started last week.

Because of my new part-time job, I will be working several Mondays and Wednesdays each month-during the school day.  I needed a place that both girls could attend on M/W for the entire school day.  For Elyn, we chose Bentonville Christian Academy and we are so happy she is there!

Enjoying a bowl of oatmeal before Day 1.

 

Oh Nora.  She was sad this morning because it wasn’t her special day.  She was crying and sad that the world wasn’t revolving around her at every moment of the morning.  Geez.  (This is a picture of her pouting.)

  

Now, role-reversal.  Nora is happy to have her picture taken and Elyn is “Miss Shy”.  Such is life.

 

Once we got to school, she was EXCITED!  I took the first picture and then she said, “Take another Mommy, I want to do one with hips.” Ha!

 

Posing with teacher gift…tutorial coming soon.

 

Looking a little nervous here…we had just gotten inside the school building.

Elyn and Mrs. Danielle…great friend and director of BCA.

 

Elyn, backpack and lunchbox

 

Giving her teacher her gift.

Elyn and Miss M…Elyn is starting to look a little nervous

 

My girls.

 

After the last picture, I gave her a hug and a kiss and told her that I loved her.  She ignored me and played with the play-doh…I guess she was ready for me to leave.

When I picked her up she was a HOT MESS!  They had just come in from the playground and she was sweaty and red-faced…but she had a BLAST at school.  She could not quit talking about it.  I’m so glad that she did…makes the “mama guilt” a little less.

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On a different note…I was at Target today, getting some last minute grocery shopping done before I went to pick up the girls.

I finished up a phone conversation while I was shopping and set my phone on top of my purse.  About 5 minutes later, I looked down at my phone to check the time and IT WAS MISSING!!!!

I retraced my steps immediately and went to customer service to see if someone had turned a phone in…nope.

My heart sank.  It had been stolen!  I was sick!

I have called Target and asked if it has been found 3 different times.  Nope.

I have gone by AT&T and erased the phone from our contract (and from my life).

I started crying after that and not really because I didn’t have my phone anymore (well, it was about that) but I just felt violated.

That phone had EVERYTHING in it.  I have no idea what I am supposed to do this next week, month, semester, because my calendar was on that phone.  Phone numbers, photos, books, grrrrrrrrrr.  I know that most of these things are saved on my computer from syncing it-but still, not everything.  I’m sad.

Bye bye iPhone…I loved you, it was a great 8 months.

Sob.

(Good news though….Matthew is eligible for an upgrade on Sunday.  He’s the best and I am going to use it….for a new iPhone.  It still won’t be the same though.)

First Disney portfolio

Today was a busy day. Well, as busy as we let it be. We still found time to eat cupcakes and make necklaces.

When we got home from our “busy” day we ate dinner (scrambled eggs with cut up pieces of hotdogs in it…gross, I know. Nothing says, “Hey, we’re moving and most of the kitchen has been packed up” like scrambled eggs and cut up hot dogs do. Good news, the girls really enjoyed it. I hope we never have to eat that again.) Immediately after dinner, Nora went back to the play room to draw some pictures.

This is what she came back with:

She asked, “Can you guess who it is Mommy?” Well, obviously, it’s Ariel (from The Little Mermaid). She was so excited that I guessed correctly that she went to town on the rest of the princesses. Here they are:

Snow White

Jasmine (from Aladdin)

Cinderella (actually her last one to do…I think she was tired at this point)

Jasmine (you can see that her skin color is browner)

Belle (with her book and basket)

Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty

Mulan (the short-haired Mulan…she wanted to be SURE that I knew it was the short-haired one)

Then, she laid them all out and had me take a picture. How cute is she!?!

So, there you have it Disney World, her first portfolio. She’ll be FedEx-ing it to you tomorrow morning and awaiting her phone call for an interview.

house-progress

You asked for it…here it is-the progress:

Matthew is currently installing our hardwood floors.  I don’t think he is loving it.  But, I do think they look great!

Here is a picture of his work.  The floor is actually a little bit darker than it appears in this picture-and dirtier, so maybe that is why the floor appears lighter.

  

Here are some “before the can lights” pictures (with old fan):

And some during pictures:

The can lights with a new fan (and a lot of junk on the mantle-ignore).  You can also see the new wall color.  It’s called “Peaceful”.  Ahhhhhh…..

The utility room before.  Wow, it’s dark:

During:

And some more during-but further along:

The pantry!

Future home of washer and dryer:

 

Future home of cubbies:

 

Roof-before:

Roof-after.  Sadly, you really can’t see that big of a difference because of my stellar photography skills.  But, I assure you-there is DRAMATIC difference!  You can also see that we are in the process of taking down shutters and replacing windows.

Speaking of windows, here is one of the new ones.  It is so pretty!

But the biggest change to our home?  Well, it happened today.

Kitchen: before-

During:

Today, in stages…

  

The girls and I went over tonight to eat with dinner with Matthew (chicken enchiladas, thanks Mom!).  You can see the floor a little bit (still working on it).

 

See where Nora is standing?  We are going to have bench seating right there.  See where Elyn is standing?  Bench seating there too.  Two chairs on the opposite side.

The light above the table is not hooked up.  We just stuck it up there to see how it looks.  We think it looks great and will look even better when it has actual power.

Obviously we are missing countertops.  They come next.  And we’re missing the pulls.  They will come later too.  (After I go purchase them.)  You can see the huge cut-out where our refrigerator is going to go.  To the left of that is a smaller cut-out.  Our microwave will live there.  Our appliances are being delivered Monday-yea!

While they were installing our cabinets, I was kind of a freak.  I was SO EXCITED that they were making that space of our house into a kitchen that I could barely stay of their ways.  I kept asking, “Does everyone get this excited when you deliver their cabinets?”  Their answer-yes.

Matthew was really excited too.  I think he was most excited because it was something he wasn’t having to do.  So far, we have paid for labor in two areas-roofing and kitchen cabinets.  EVERYTHING else he has had a HUGE hand in.  Obviously, without the help of great friends, he wouldn’t be as far as he is now, but he is THE MAN and has done it all.  (We are also hiring out for the countertops and that’s it-no more paying for labor…sigh.)

So, again, for an impression:

Stick around, there will be another progress update soon!