MIA

   Yeah, it's been a while. We've been out of town a lot and life just really hasn't been very interesting besides our little trips. All three of us went down to Gray's Harbor for Nate's aunt's 50th birthday party, then Jack and I went to the Oregon Coast to play with my college friends (more on that later), and this last weekend we all went to the Leavenworth area for a family reunion.

   Other than that, our life has revolved around trying to get our rotten child to sleep. It is my goal this week to get him to eat normally and after that, we're working on the sleeping thing. The little angel has decided that he wants to hang out in the middle of the night, not to eat or anything. I think he just misses us. It's not as sweet as it sounds. We have to get him to start sleeping more before I go back to school or else I'm going to be one cranky, tired teacher.

   Those of you without kids must be thinking, "Wow, she's a little obsessive about this whole sleeping thing! Isn't that what her last post was about? Get a life, lady!" And those of you with kids are probably nodding in sympathy as you read. At least I hope you are. I can't have the only non-sleeping child out there.

  I just wanted to let y'all know we're still alive and kicking (mostly at about 1:30am) and that there will be more exciting posts to come. Sarah, I hope you're satisfied. I posted again.

Sleepless in Skagit Valley

Since we've gotten back from my parents' house over the Fourth of July weekend, Jack has been a terrible sleeper. While we were there, he woke up several times during the night, but I just figured it was because we were away from home. Boy, was I looking forward to coming back home!

A lot of good it did me! He's still waking up every few hours for no apparent reason. He doesn't want to eat; he just wants to socialize a little. 

It may be my punishment for bragging, umm...I mean, saying that he was sleeping six to seven hours a night. Aaarrggghhh! I don't know what I'm going to do.

Of course, he's sleeping now. You know, at 10:30 in the morning. This is not working for me.

Getting it done

About a year and a half ago, Nate and I bought our house that we lovingly refer to as "the dump." And when we bought it, it really was. Initially, we worked really hard to fix her up. We ripped out carpet, refinished floors, painted inside and out, redid the trim,  and remodeled the bathroom and the kitchen. (and since we only have one bathroom, that meant we were using Nate's parent's trailer when our's was out of commission. In Februrary. It was cold.)

So  we've obviously done a lot of work, however, we have the tendency to almost complete our tasks. Right now the kitchen floor is almost done, as is the trim in several rooms. But the thing that has been bugging me the most is the hallway and connecting door frames. The people who lived here before us must have had terrible taste because they painted all of the trim the most puke-inducing shade of green. Flat, dirty, gross green. And I've been meaning to get around to painting it for over a year. It's finally happening. When I told my mom yesterday that we were going to get it done she said, "Oh, your dad will be so relieved. I'm not sure why, but he's been really stressing out that it's not finished." Thanks, Dad!

My dear MOL came up yesterday to help paint everything and the woman is a champ. (To be more accurate, I was helping her.) So, we've painted the hall and primed all the trim. She's coming up today to finish. Yea! I'll be sure to let y'all know how it goes, as if you really care about the state of my hallway. At least my dad and I will be happy it's done.

It's about time!

I should have done this a long time ago. Some of you have might have been wanting to see pictures of Jack. But most of you probably have better things to do than to hover around your computers waiting impatiently to see pictures of someone else's kid. Here they are, just in case.

TA-DA

He did it. Jack rolled over for the first time today. I'm pretty sure it was an accident, but still.

Geez, he's growing up so fast. I'm pretty sure he'll be applying for grad school next week!

Handyman...Er, Lady

As many of you know, Nate is the one in our relationship who was blessed with being "handy." Give the guy any task and he probably already knows how to do it. And if he doesn't, he can figure it out. Me, not so much. I'm lucky if I can get the attachments on my blow dryer to work correctly. 

That being said, yesterday I bought a swing for Jack. I didn't want to buy one earlier because I wasn't sure if  he'd like it and since I'm such a tight-wad, I really didn't want to waste the money if it was just going to sit there. But a friend of mine has one for her little girl and we sat Jack in that. He loved it. I still wasn't convinced. (Yep, that's how cheap I really am) When we went to my parent's house we borrowed one from a friend and again, he loved it. Still didn't buy one. Yesterday we went over to my friend's house again. Jack started fussing and I put him in the swing. He immediately shut up. I left within 15 minutes and went to Target to get one.

This morning I decided to tackle the contraption all by myself. I got out the parts and the directions, made sure I had everything and realized I needed a phillips screwdriver (yep, I even know what that is). So I had to call Nate to find out where it could be. "In the (very messy) shed," he tells me. Oh. That means I have to go outside in the torrential rain, dig around in a bunch of junk, and find it. I'll admit that I stalled the trip for a while, but when my darling son refused to be put down I gave up. Of course, once I got out there I didn't find a phillips screwdriver. What I found was a phillips attachment that's supposed to hook on to a handle. The only problem is that I can't get the current attachment off the handle. So I have to use the rusty attachment with no handle. Still undeterred, I come in and proceed to put the dang thing together. Things are going pretty well until I have to put the seat on the base. I'm supposed to slide the supporting tube into the socket on the seat. Only problem is, I see no socket. Maybe I have to unscrew something to reveal it. Nope. I'm becoming more and more frustrated as I'm trying to hook the thing together (in the wrong spot) because the swing keeps on swinging as I'm trying to steady everything long enough to get it in place. Finally, I figure it out. It was backwards. Oops! Eventually, I get it all put together, get Jack in it and he loves it. We should have gotten one of these two months ago.

Random Randomness

Haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy. Jack and I spent all last week at my parents house after going to Cade's state track meet. I wanted to be there for his graduation and his party (mostly just so I could show off my baby.) So poor Nate was at home all week without us. More importantly, without Jack. I think he almost went crazy. He joined us on Friday night in time to go to graduation on Saturday. It was thrilling, let me tell you. Hot, uncomfortable bleachers; sweaty baby; people we don't know giving boring speeches. Yeah, a great time had by all.

The good thing was Jack and I got to hang out with my family more. Even Dax was there both weekends and I'm not sure if he's going to be able to stand not seeing Jack next weekend. He likes my baby A LOT. In fact, I'm a little worried he might steal the little guy. Despite my worries about kidnapping, he really is the greatest uncle (and he's a pretty stellar brother, too). Yesterday in the mail were TWO packages from Dax: a Dunder Mifflin shirt for Jack and a Beatles album for me. Yea!

For those of you who don't know, we are big fans of the Office. In fact, we often find ourselves talking about Jim, Pam, Michael, and the rest of the gang as if they're our friends, as if they're real people. We say things like, "Did you hear what Dwight did yesterday?" It's a sickness, really. Needless to say, we're super excited about the Dunder Mifflin shirt. And I've been wanting the White Album for a long time now. It was a good day.

Now we've been home for a few days and I've been trying to get things put back together around here. "Trying" is  the operative word in that sentence. Jack has wanted me to hold him all the time. I spent over two hours today holding him on the couch because every time I tried to put him down to sleep, he woke up.  The laundry isn't done yet. Oh, well.