Behind the times

Wow, I'm a little behind with this ol' blog!  The last 6 weeks have been a little bit nutty.   After a long year of struggle, my grandmother (Grammy H) is finally at peace.  She was the strong, stubborn, matriarch of our family.  I am so thankful for the time we had with her.  I'm most thankful that she got to know my husband and my daughter since none of my other grandparents were given that chance.  I find myself missing her and thinking of her often.  The smallest little things will bring her to my mind.  She was a shining example of what being a strong woman is all about.  She didn't have a "easy" life, but she handled it all with grace and tenacity.  She was a straight-shooter, and you never had to guess what she thought about you (or anyone else for that matter!).  She was our whiskey-drinking, card playing, cussing, praying, crocheting, brownie-baking Grammy H., and none of us would have traded her for the world.  I find great peace in knowing that she is finally reunited with Grandpa Joe & Uncle Neil (and the other two babies she lost Michael & Mary Beth that none of us got to meet) after all these years.

This isn't a great picture, but it's the last picture of Grammy H with two of her three Great Grandbabies!  (Mom has a better copy!)

One of the highlights of the last few weeks was my little BFF retreat to Kansas City with my lifelong best friend Amanda!  We hardly ever see each other any more, and we were both in dire need of a little getaway.  We hit a great weekend for weather between snow storms, and spend a couple day shopping, eating, catching a movie, and lots of catching up!  I think we need to make this a regular occurrence at least on a semi-annual basis!  Craig and Delaney had a great weekend of bonding at home, and don't worry he's already working on a little "boy's getaway" coming up here really soon!

I don't have a picture of the two of us handy, but here's a picture of our little ones last summer.  Aren't they cute?!?

Let's see, what else have we been up too?!?  Did I tell you about my DIY husband of the year.  He caught the "Home Improvement" bug and has successfully completed two wonderful projects.  The first was some serious storage shelves in our storage room.  These shelves have changed my life I tell you!  A weekend of complete clutter insanity and mess, left me with these beauties....

Amazing, right?!?

After that project was all wrapped up, he decided to build the closet in the guest room we've been talking about since we moved in.  The room is a HUGE bedroom with the required windows, so now that we have officially added a closet it's a bedroom instead of a +1.  This project took about a week start to finish, but it is sooo nice.  It will be especially helpful if we ever decide to move Delaney downstairs! 

A closet is a hard thing to photograph, but if you've even been in this room it's a big change.  He built an entire wall from the studs up, and even built a few shelves in the closet it self.  We are all about the added storage! 

At the end of February, Delaney had another "first".  She finally got her first haircut!  After months of dragging my feet, I finally decided she needed a little trim.  Most people wouldn't even realize we had it cut, but it looks and behaves so much better.  She was very excited about it before & after wards, but during she was pretty timid and stonefaced.  She somehow equated haircuts to candy, and swindled Holly out of candy before we headed to the salon and Allison out of a sucker before she even sat in the chair.  Allison has been doing my hair for the last couple years, and she does a great job so I knew Delaney was in great hands!

She would NOT smile during the cut!

We have had a couple bigger snow storms this winter, which have actually been pretty fun since Delaney has really enjoyed playing in the snow.  Even Izzy got into it a few times!  Thankfully, Craig is a good sport and will play in the snow with her.  I like the supervisor, photographer role much better! 

Have a ball, while I was freezing!

Craig has been busy at work these last few weeks.  They seem to have jobs all over the midwest, so he's had a lot of windshield time lately.  He's been coming home a little banged up too.  One week a couple weeks ago, he managed to chip the end of his elbow off while tearing down a ceiling, and then slice his calf open while tearing out some carpet.  After our favorite nurse practitioner neighbor, Dr. Katie, took a quick peak she sent us to Urgent Care for what she thought would be stitches.  If you know Craig at all, he HATES needles, so this was not a good outcome.  Luckily for him, it had been too long since he did it, so it was too late for stitches.  He got some pretty sweet steri-strips instead and a tetanus shot instead!

He knew he was off the hook for major needle usage at this time, so he was feeling pretty good!

So that's the major highlights of the last few weeks.  We are gearing up for Delaney's big 3rd birthday next week, and her party this weekend so you can expect to hear back from me much sooner this time.  Can you believe she's going to be 3!?! 

Weekend with Chase

We started off the weekend Friday night with a 65th Wedding Anniversary celebration for Craig's grandparents!  I will have to get pictures from his mom, as I managed to not take any!  After the dinner, Craig headed back to Lincoln to prepare for his boys trip down to Kansas City for the Chiefs game.  If you are at all familiar with our household football preferences, you'll know we had a rough weekend!  The Huskers lost, the Chiefs lost, the Packers lost, and it looks like we'll both be losing our first week of fantasy football (I have a last chance to take the lead tonight in the San Diego vs. Oakland game...fingers crossed!)  It was a rough weekend for football fans like us!

Delaney and I stayed up North to spend some time with Chase (& his lovely parent) who came to Tekamah to meet us in the middle.  We hadn't seen them since Okoboji, which was almost 2 months ago!  Chase has changed so much!  He is full on toddler now, running and keeping up with Delaney as best he can!  The kids had a lot of fun playing, fighting, and getting spoiled by their doting grandparents.  It's going to be so much fun watching these two grow up together!  We're all still adjusting to them not living in Tekamah, but it is fun to all shack up under one roof for a couple nights!

After nap time on Saturday, we took the kids for a walk over to visit Grammy H!

We expected a lot of kicking and fighting, but they rode so nice together in the wagon!  It was so cute, Chase would point things out to Delaney along the way and she would respond as if he was giving her a grand tour of the city!

We rolled the wagon right on into Grammy's room and gave all the residents quite the parade!  She said she was bored that day, so we gave her a little excitement with the two little ones!

Then, Papa came home from work and both the kids were sooo excited to see them!  They have trouble sharing their grandparents...good thing Papa has a lap big enough for the two of them!

Catch up

We've been running a hundred different directions lately, so here's a pit of a catch up.  All these photos are random shots over the last couple weeks!  Some day I'll get serious and do a real post with real pictures instead of these pictures from my phone!

I've been saying I'm waiting for something "good" to blog about since my last post was kind of a downer, but if I didn't keep it real I'd never have anything to write about.  Grammy H. still isn't doing well.  She isn't improving at all really, and it looks like we are headed toward hospice care...sooner rather than later.  I did slip up to visit her for a little bit Saturday night, and I'm so glad I did!  I expected far worse, but she knew me immediately, and was very appreciative for the visit.  I delivered some hand-painted artwork from Delaney, so I hope that will brighter her little room up there a little bit! 

We did have some good news last week!  Jessica got a job with Storm Lake Public Schools!  They offered her the job about 24hours after she interviewed!  This takes some of the pressure off Nick for their big move to Storm Lake!  Now, they just need to sell their house and they'll be good to go!  They've had a few showings, so let's hope the right buyer comes along soon so they don't have to spend the whole summer apart or traveling back & forth!

We were lucky enough to be part of a good friend's wedding this past weekend!  Craig's college roommate Travis got married up in Omaha & Craig was one of his groomsman.  If you know Craig, he's the life of the party and he did not disappoint this weekend!  We had lots of fun catching up with some old & new friends, and getting all dressed up!  We even had some carefree moments on the dance floor, which is exactly what a stressed out momma needs from time-to-time! I, of course, didn't take a single picture all weekend, but it was a good one!  We are still very much recovering today!  We're getting a little too old for all those late nights and drinks! 

We celebrated Mother's Day with our mothers yesterday!  We are very lucky to have our mother's here close with us, so that we could see them to celebrate!  We couldn't pull off any of this craziness without their love & support, so we are very grateful!  Two-year-old's obviously have no idea what Mother's Day means is all about, but I felt the love from Delaney anyway!  She was a tired, hot mess by the time we got home, but I wouldn't trade any of it for a second! 

Speaking of Delaney, here are some of her latest highlights!  Enjoy!

Delaney's dinnertime antics have gotten a bit nutty lately!  She's very independent, so she won't wear a bib, sit in a high chair, or use "toddler-size" silverware.  It's always "Dinner & A Show" at our house!

Little Miss D is just getting into Dress Up activities.  It's not fairy princess crowns and gowns for this girl.  With the exception of Mommy's high heels, she's all about super hero capes and hats! 

Her hair is getting so long!  She can rock the piggies with no trouble these days!  The hardest part is getting her to sit still long enough to put them in!

Our gauntlet of weekend travels, and as you can see Delaney is enjoying it!  The mere mention of grandparents, and she's bouncing off the walls!  I hate to "send her away" so much, but I love that she's getting lots of quality time with all her grandparents that love her to pieces!

Delaney has become very musical lately!  She's always singing one of her songs.  Her favorites are ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, and Rock-a-bye Baby!  She has also decided that Mommy isn't allowed to sing in the car anymore and Daddy isn't allowed to whistling!  So bossy!

My nemesis in the kitchen finally kicked the bucket last week, so I got a brand new dishwasher!  I'm such a nerd, but I was so excited...I HATED our old one!  This was supposed to be my Mother's Day gift, but Delaney (with help from Daddy) spoiled me anyway with a spa gift card! 

The farmer in Craig, couldn't resist the first shipment of fresh sweet corn at the grocery store a couple weeks ago!  It was actually pretty good considering it's so early and from a grocery store (we're used to fresh from the field corn at our house!)  As you can see, Delaney loved every last bite!

We have been trying to enjoy the beautiful spring "Summer" weather we've been having lately as much as we can!  This means that the little peanut is staying up a little later, but in the grand scheme of things it's totally worth it for moments like this! 

It is what it is...

It's been a little bit nutty around here, and honestly it's only going to get worse before it gets better.  My grandmother "Grammy H" isn't good.  She hasn't been for a while now, but it just seems to getting worse.  It's a long story, but the short version is that she's 80, she's stubborn, she's incredibly weak & can barely walk, she can hardly talk, she eats next to nothing, and her cognitive abilities are failing her.  She hasn't been diagnosed with anything, and there aren't any real answers as to why any of this is happening...it just is.  Last week, we were told she is likely a candidate for hospice care if the new medications didn't show any improvement.  So far, she's eating a little bit better, but nothing else has changed.  I haven't seen her since Easter, but it's so hard to "see" her like this.  I still remember that fiery lady telling us to get out of her kitchen at Christmas or giving me hell for dying my hair red.  She's my only remaining grandparent, and this whole situation just makes me sad.  Any spare prayers, would be greatly appreciated! 

We have also learned in the last week that my sister and her family (Nick & Chase) will be relocating to Storm Lake, Iowa, so that Nick can take a new job.  This is a great opportunity for Nick, but we are all sad to see them go.  This move will double the distance between us...boo!  They don't want to move, nobody wants them to leave, but it's what they need to do.  It is what it is...  The good news is that there are some potential teaching job openings for Jess, and Chase isn't old enough to realize too much what is going on around him.  I'm just going to have to get a lot better at "Skyping"!    Say a little prayer that they get their house sold quickly and Jess gets one of those open jobs, and are able to make a good fresh start over there! 

We have a lot of activities/outings/events coming in the next few months.  ALL of it will be fun, but the timing is slightly overwhelming for a Type-A person like me!  We will be coming & going a lot.  Poor Delaney will be shuffled between home, daycare, & grandparents.  I'm worrying a lot about all of it with regards to her sleeping, potty training, behavior, etc.  I'm preparing for the worst & hoping for the best.  Everyone says "kids adapt", so I'm hoping they are right!  We also were surprised with a trip to Vancouver in June through my work!  It was an incentive trip for our office and the boys had other trips planned at the same time, so it was offered to me!  Aside from some new clothes (which we honestly needed anyway), it's expense free for us!  Talk about luck...we couldn't have dreamed about a trip like this at this point in our lives, so we are beyond excited & grateful!  Aside from one meeting, it's a vacation full of fun activities (think deep sea Salmon Fishing (for Craig) and Sea Safaris) and fancy dinners.  Of course, if you know me at all you know I'm freaking out about leaving Delaney behind for 5 nights, the plane crashing, and all things of that nature.  That coupled with all the other stress in life right now is starting to catch up with me a bit. 

I'm typically not one to have trouble sleeping at night, but lately that has been awful!   I've never been one to handle stress well, but thankfully so far this hasn't triggered any migraine headaches (knock on wood!)  I'd take sleep deprivation over migraines any day of the week!  My mind gets the best of me in the wee hours, and I have a lot of trouble shutting it off.  My doctor gave me some "help" last week, so I'm starting to get caught up--although last night sucked!  I'm also trying to make a bigger effort to get to the gym, as that's supposed to help with stress too (not to mention, I'm still struggling to lose some of this weight, so something's gotta give!).  I am trying to get in the habit of going first thing in the morning at 6 a.m., so I can be home before Craig needs to leave.  It was getting harder and harder to go over lunch between conference calls & meetings.  This is also my only "kid-free" time to run errands, so it was hard to give that up.  I also have a lot of excuses of why not to go to the gym by 8 p.m. when Delaney goes to bed, so I'm hoping the mornings will work out.  Let's just hope I don't turn into a raging zombie!   

We have a lot on our plates, but we are hanging in! 

Stressful catch-up

We have been busy with a lot of stress here lately!  We have had everything from sickness, to lack of sleep, to horrible tax return news over the last few weeks!  Thankful, we have this little face to keep up focused on what's important in life...even if she's a little stinker!  With everything going on, I haven't taken many pictures lately.  These are all from my phone, so bear with me...





Delaney is still working the minor kinks out of potty training.  We are way past the point of no return, and she is still doing remarkably well considering she isn't even 2 yet!  If we could just get her more confident with the whole process, especially at daycare, and understanding the different levels of "needing to go" we'd be set!  She is still having her moments of "Terrible-Two-ness" too, but I think that's just the way it's going to be for a while!   Good thing we love her so much!






I mentioned we've been dealing with some sickness here lately.  Thankfully, the worst of it hasn't hit our household, although we've all been dealing with some symptoms that just don't seem to want to go away. Baby Chase has had RSV for a couple weeks and he's been teething, so he's been a pretty sick little boy.  Luckily, he's such a happy kid so it hasn't been completely unbearable for all of them.  It appears as though the worst is over for him, and he's on the road to recovery!  We went and visited him this weekend just to see for ourselves, and he's still the happy little cutie that we know and love!  The worst has been my grandmother.  Long story, short, she had emergency surgery last Tuesday to repair a bleeding ulcer and remover her gallbladder.  After months of virtually starving and dehydrating herself (because she's so stubborn and didn't want to burden anyone), the symptoms got bad enough to warrant a trip to the ER, which ultimately led to the surgery.  She is also hopefully past the worst of it, and on the long road to recovery!  We visited her at the hospital in Omaha Saturday morning, and she's was much better overall than I was expecting!  She's a tough old lady!














So after an exhausting and much needed trip home for the weekend to visit everyone and catch up, we are home and trying to get and stay healthy.  We are also gearing up for a big birthday coming up in two weeks!  It's hard to believe our little peanut is going to be 2!  More details to follow...