I'm baaaaaaaaack...

 Or at least I am trying to be back. I do so much on Facebook, and as nice as it is for my family to see, I don't always want to go into detail on Facebook. Plus, eventually (someday) I can turn a blog into a book. :) 

Now as we are the Tennessee Mize's, and living in #HeavenSouth so much has changed. ALL for the good. 

Bailey is now in Kindergarten. She is AMAZING! Really though. Everything about her. She is smart, funny, a good friend and an all around good person. She loves school, but often comments that she wants to stay home to be with Mommy and it warms my heart. 

Tucker is in 3rd grade. When did my baby boy get so grown up. As hard as it is for me to let him get older, it warms my heart how so many people comment on what a good boy he is and how sweet he is. 

David is now the Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Brookdale Senior Living. He is such a hard worker and all of that work seems to be paying off. All of the right people seem to be aware of David and a lot of good things are happening for him. I am so proud of him. 

I decided to jump back into the world of working back in June. Then in September I decided that I am still very much needed as a stay at home mom still. I love that my kids still need me and love even more that I am fortunate enough to have the blessing of being able to stay home with them. 

All in all, life is good. We have our bumps in the road, but we always get through them together. 

"The Vertigo" and nail issues...

 Since completing the kids bathroom, it seems I have been hit hard with "The Vertigo". Twice in the last week I had an episode, and they are no fun. I'm glad it held off until the bathroom was done though. :) The first happened last Monday. I woke up and felt it coming. SO I called my good friend Erin, and asked if her daughter (who is 13) and son (Tucker's age) wanted to come hang out at my house that day and watch my kids. Fortunately, they were more than excited to do so. It was a huge relief for me. I was able to rest all day and get through the ugliness (sweating, dizziness, vomiting) with an audience of a 4 and 7 year old. The next day I did too much too soon, in true Jenn fashion, and was laid up most of the afternoon. Fortunately, after that I seemed to do well. Then Saturday evening, David and I were watching tv and it suddenly hit me again. The room started spinning and I knew I was done for. Out of nowhere I asked David to grab my water cup and "The bowl" and bring it to me upstairs, as I stumbled up the stairs. This was the first time that David had actually seen it happen, and it threw him off for sure. So, I will be making an appointment with an ENT to make sure everything is ok. David is worried that it may happen when I am out and about or driving, which would not be good.

In addition to my issues, Bailey has developed a fungus on her big toes. She has been taking antibiotics for about a month now, but still no change. It is a 6 week dose, so we will see how that goes. However, her fingernails are starting to take on a spoon shape as well, so we will be making an appointment for her to see a Dermatologist to get it all squared away.

Fortunately, David and Tucker have been super healthy. Which is good because David has been very busy at work and Tucker is starting school this week. So they both have a LOT going on! :)

Kids Bathroom Update

 My kids bathroom has looked straight out of the 90's since we moved in...

For awhile (since we moved in really) I have wanted to re do the kids bathroom. Everything in there was original to the house, which makes it all 19 years old. I decided to start small at first. All I was going to do was paint the vanity... Then, in true Jenn fashion, I decided to go big or go home. I completely re did the bathroom and I LOVE how it turned out!

This was my first time doing a full re do and I loved it. It was VERY hard work, but it was so worth it. All in all I did the following....

*Ripped up the carpet (Vomit)
     - Since the floor was half vinyl and half carpet, once I removed the carpet, the floor wasn't even. In order to make the vinyl level with the carpet they added 1/4 inch extra of subfloor. So I went to Home Depot and had them cut a 1/4 inch piece of plywood down to size for me. I secured it to the floor with a few nails then laid the flooring on top of that.

*Laid new vinyl flooring from Lowes Flooring
     -It is definitely worth spending the money on the vinyl floor cutter. I use this one from Lowes.Vinyl cutter

*Painted vanity using "Behr Premium Plus Ultra Stain Blocking Paint and Primer In One" the color I used was Chelsea Grey by Benjamin Moore
     - This whole project initially started as painting the vanity. So I had painted it using chalk paint. Then I decided that I didn't like how it turned out. So the only logical thing to do would be to re do the whole bathroom, right?! hahaha Well in my mind it was. I will say that the paint went on the cabinets really well over the chalk paint. So, that may be the way to go. Who knows...

*Painted the walls using Repose by Sherwin Williams
     - This definitely took two coats. The blue before was much darker than I had thought.

*Removed the old countertop
     -I got lucky because the old countertop was not glued on very well, it literally just lifted off with a little tug. It did some damage to the walls, but nothing a little drywall repair kit can't handle. :)

*New vanity countertop from Lowes Counter Top
     - Initially I had painted the old countertop and sink, but we decided that we didn't like the sinks painted. So, we had to buy a new countertop. We are SO glad we did, because we couldn't be happier with this one. Make sure you have a heavy duty bonding agent for this as well.

*Remove old faucets
     -Getting the old faucets off was a pain in my neck, back and arms. But I did it. Be prepared to gag when you remove the old drain pipes. They are DISGUSTING!

*New faucets from Home Depot Faucets
     - Be sure to have plumbers putty and tape on hand. They are NECESSARY!!! When we put the new counter top on, we discovered that it misaligned the drain from the pipe going to the wall. So I made a trip to Home Depot and got the necessary items to correct that. I felt like a true plumber. It involved cutting pipes and applying new fittings. It was great.

* New Shower head, handle, bath faucet and plug Shower Head, Handle and Faucet 
     -David did this job. It was the last thing we did, and I was spent on learning new things. Since he had recently changed the one in the master bathroom (that's a great story by the way, but I will save it for another post), I asked him to do this one as well.

*Removed old toilet (even more vomit than the old carpet blech)
     -This is SO much easier than you would think. It always seemed so intimidating to me, but it was actually one of the easiest things I did. Now, getting the old wax ring off was DISGUSTING! I wore a mask (or two) and heavy duty gloves. It was brutal, but I did it.

*Installed new toilet Toilet
     -Easy peasy. Just be sure to follow the directions EXACTLY!

*New light fixture Light
     -Removing the old "Hollywood" light fixture was easy once I got it unglued from the wall. :/ The new light fixture went on just as it would anywhere. Nothing too much of note here.

*Framed the mirror using this Pinterest post for a guide Framed Mirror I painted the frame using the color Solitude by Benjamin Moore
     -This was more difficult than I thought. I think the best way to go about it is to cute the pieces, then paint them. Then apply it to the mirror a piece at a time. Then you can caulk the corners and touch up the paint as needed. I used a clear caulk along the inside edge to make sure it is adhered to the mirror.

*Replaced old shower rod with a new curved rod Curtain Rod
     -The old rod was just that, old. So we decided to modernize with a new curved rod.

*Placed new 1/4 round where carpet was
     -I have done this before with a nail gun, but this time I was able to manage it with just a hammer and nails. It took a little more strength, but it was easy. Then I caulked the base boards and painted them.

*Painted base boards and ceiling white

In addition to all of that, I also replaced the water lines up to the faucet with new flexible lines. The only reason I did this was because the old ones were rusting. If your water lines show no sign of rust or leaking, I would leave them alone. I also removed all of the old towel and toilet rack and replaced them with new ones.

I could not be happier with the end result....

Phew.... Too much to really update

 My goodness!! It seems I have dropped the ball a bit on my blogging. I really need to get better at it, especially with all of the fun stuff thst is happening. So here is a quick recap...

June 26-30: David and I flew out to TN while Grandma and Grandpa Mize watched Tucker and Bailey. David and I were able to spend our days in TN, with our Realtor looking st homes for sale. We looked at over 30 homes, and, of course, we wound up liking the last home we looked at. Ha ha ha Actually, it was between 2 homes. We felt really good about both, so we made an offer on the first one and told oursrlves that if our offer wasn't accepted, then it wasn't right for us. It was very quickly not accepted, so dee quickly jumped on the other home.
July 1: David and I celebrated our 8th anniversary! I still love him more every day. :)
July 2: We signed an accepted offer, and started the process of buying a home. So crazy!!!!
July 21: The movers came and started packing all of our belongings.
July 22: The movers finished socking all of our stuff and loading the truck. Our cars were picked up and pretty much everything we eon was driven away on a HUGE semi truck.
July 24-27: We went camping with the Mize family at Beverly Beach. So much fun!
July 27-30: The kids and I spent some time in Salem with friends, and back in Tigard I with family.
July 30- Aug 4: We were in Vegas for a Boehrer family reunion. Crazy fun up in there. :)
August 4: One of the BIGGEST days of our life! We flew to Nashville as a family and from the airport we did a final walk through on our house and then went and signed on our house. It was not as grueling a process as I thought it would be.
Aug 4-7: We spent in a hotel and running a bazillion errands a day.
August 7: WE MOVED INTO OUR FIRST HOME AS HOMEOWNERS!

Since then it has been nothing but unpacking, getting to know the area, cleaning, and David working. It has been so awesome!! The whole process of purchasing a home has been amazingly smooth for us. I have heard nightmare stories of what people have gone through. I won't say that it didn't come with some annoyances or bumps, but for the most part it was great. We hit the jackpot with our realtor and our lender. We feel so lucky and blessed.
We have a lot of renovations that we want to make to the hous,  but for now we are just loving living in our own home and getting to know our neighbors. :)

Little League Days with the Seattle Mariners

 We had the fun opportunity to go to a Mariners game with Tucker's tball team. Lucky for us, some of our best friends have a kid on the team also, so we got to sit by them. We and ad such a great day. Before the game started we got to go walk the field and see tsh stadium from the players perspective. It was interesting because didn't feel as big as we thought it would. They had the grass roped off and of course Bailey was itching every minute of the walk to run out onto the grass. Ha ha ha To make a great day even better, the Mariners won, and Tucker was so excited to have spent the day having fun with his teammates. I wish I would have taken pictures of all of the boys together. They were so dang cute! I don't think they watched much of the game, but they had fun. :) 

Memorial Day

 

This year for Memorial Day we decided to try and teach Tucker the reason that we celebrate Memorial Day. We want both he and Bailey to know thst it is more than just a day thst Daddy is off and we get to hang out. So we decided to take them to a local cemetery and try and make it a visual thing. Surprisingly the kids loved being there. They loved all of the fountains, the flags in the graves and the beautiful flowers. Since it was Memorial Day there were a number if Veterans there. So we stopped and talked to some of them. Tucker was really shy, but he listened to what they had to say. I am hoping that as we make it a tradition to do this every Memorial Day that my kids will always know and remember the sacrifices that were made by thousands of men and women to allow us the freedoms we enjoy today.