Busy, busy update

Life is just moving at warp speed, so here’s an update in bullets!!

•Working on several house projects. Just got the attic finished (one side was already done when we moved in) and we got the extra room in the basement cleared out and everything put in the attic. Next up is to clean the room and paint, and makeshift an open space into a closet. We are going tonight to pick out the paint and closet stuff. Undecided on flooring, but may just use throw rugs for the time being. Next up is the garage...getting a bigger outdoor fridge and need to make some room, get rid of stuff, re-organize some of the shelves.

•Discovered our dishwasher broke after during the load we were running Monday night. We lived 5 years in a home without one, but it’s a real pain to not have one now. We keep a home warranty, so they have been out, found the problem, and we are waiting to see if they are going to order the parts or replace the unit. Either way we are looking at a couple weeks without one, so it’s back to paper plates we go. And I need to get out the bleach because it’s the height of flu season here.

•I have a meeting in a couple hours with my teen’s advisor to go over her senior year schedule, which feels crazy. When she started high school I was very pregnant with baby boy...so much bittersweet here. Hoping we can get her a few fun classes to end her year with, since she is entering the Navy right after graduation.

•We are also going prom dress shopping tonight. This is new for me because I wasn’t into it and never went to my prom (zero regrets, it’s not my jam) and I don’t do dress up at all. I also have zero clue where to shop and am floored by the prices people pay for a freaking prom dress. There is a local bridal shop that does prom stuff and you can book an appointment for a stylist to help you, so that’s what we are doing. They also had some stuff that was more modest (Plunging necklines and thigh-high skits on prom dresses?? Plus this new 2-piece crop top variety? Last time I checked these were still high schoolers...just UGH. That’s a whole separate post. But this place also had some more reasonably priced dresses, sonwe will see.

•It’s hard to be a mom of girlie-girls when you are not girlie yourself. I didn’t (and still don’t) but into the conventional need to be girlie and get a dress and worry about a date and go to prom and do All the high school things. I wasn’t typical and still am not. I didn’t have a wedding I eloped and I don’t regret it. I don’t need/want jewelry (the real, fancy kind) I don’t chase my kids at the playground wearing tight jeans and those little heeled bootie shoes. I’m much more dark and cynical that all roses and sunshine. I’m a nice person, but I guess I’m very edgy. Prickly.

•Baby boy earned himself a crib tent to keep him contained and his zip-up pjs put on backwards. He pulls his junk out of his pull-up and pees all over himself otherwise. Wish it was a phase, but it’s been months of this. Playing with his junk is like his comfort thing, and proving impossible to break him of. (He does it in his sleep!!) We have tried everything. Switching out of a diaper to pull-ups worked briefly and can sometime still help contain the leakage, onesies worked until he found a work-around, and then the zip-up one piece pjs worked until recently. He isn’t quite ready to potty train, he doesn’t get it just yet. Before it got super cold we were leaving him in a pull-up all day because he was wetting so many clothes. Regarding the crib jumping, he will be moved to a toddler bed as soon as we get the other kids shifted around and have a space for him. So we are just doing our best to contain him, and his junk.

•One of my dogs has a nasty ear infection. She is more prone to them, but by the time I noticed it was already super bad so off to the vet we went. She is on 4 different medicines, including medicated ear was, oral and ear drop antibiotics, and an antihistamine. It’s getting better, but I will still be cleaning it and doing drop for several more days.

•I just ordered a box full of new board games so we can start doing family game nights again. We have a ton of games already, but we needed something new. We got out of playing for a while because some of the older kids weren’t as in to it, but now Toddler boy has actually started wanting to sit and play games, so that’s been more fun. We played Hearing Things (thanks to watching Ellen’s Game of Games) and it was a freaking RIOT. SO MUCH LAUGHTER!!

•Planning a few fun summer “trips” and also looking at taking the girls back to NYC this winter. Trying to see if financially I can make it work out. The last time we all went and drove and packed our food for the weekend and stayed not in Manhattan, but if I am the only adult going I am not sure I am interested in driving in NY. I mean, maybe?? But if I remember, taking a greyhound was MISERABLE, so not sure what the plan should be. Flying would be great but seems like would be more expensive, but maybe not?

•Hoping that we get one good snow that we can play in before winter is over. We have lots of winter weather, but it has all been icy, or just enough snow to cause delays/early dismissals but not enough to do anything in. It took us until the end of March last year to get a real snow, so wait we shall.