Little Green Tag

The dirt on our new lot was being dug up last week as the first step to building our house. Monday was the first day of inspection. Lynn drove by the lot and saw that 2 other lots near ours had little orange and pink notices on them. Ours did not have the pretty little tags, so he got out of the truck to see what they said. Apparently, pink and orange means "did not pass inspection". I'm glad we didn't have one of those. I'm not sure of the details of why...something about the dirt not being compacted enough. I don't really care about the details. He drove by again today and saw a little green tag. Green means "go". I like green.

Bryce and Evyn's birthdays

This weekend, we celebrated Bryce and Evyn’s birthday. Earlier in the week, we celebrated their birthdays individually on their actual birthdays, which are 2 days apart. In the past, I have just combined the two just because it was easier. We decided this year, they are old enough that they need to start having their own special day. It was difficult for Bryce to understand why Evyn got presents and he didn’t. It all worked out though.

We still combined the party for them to save me time, money and sanity. We took them to Jump N Jive in Amarillo and invited a few friends and family. It was fun for the kids and easy for me. Jump n Jive is a big building full of bounce houses and air games for ALL ages. Even Zoey had a blast. Most of the time, I let the kids play and the adults switch off with Zoey. That meant I got to sit and watch it all happen.

We also fed everyone a big tray of chick-fil-a nuggets and cheap wal-mart brand fruit punch. It was absolutely the cheapest, easiest double-birthday I’ve ever been in charge of. I’m usually determined to make homemade invitations, elaborate cakes, food and decorations. And I stress myself out to the point of missing the joy of the birthdays. I’ve recently come to the realization that I don’t have to do any of that. The kids don’t care one way or the other…except they probably don’t enjoy the frazzled, irritable mommy that comes along with the Martha Stewart parties. Of course, I still couldn’t resist making the cakes. But I focused on easy instead of elaborate. This was my favorite part! I made a wii-mote cake for Bryce—very simple. And EVYN made her own cake. She loves to help me bake, and the memory of the experience will last much longer than the perfectly piped fluffy dog cupcakes I would have made.(and I still promised I would make her those on another day without anything else going on) So, she poured, measured, stirred, helped bake and iced the cake…and don’t forget the sprinkles!!(the Hannah Montanna colored cake at the top was her creation. I added a bit of frosting from the last picture to the one above it...but she then added all those yummy sprinkles) She loved doing it, and it came out delicious. And I loved the time I spent with her instead of the time I spent fussing at her because I was busy making her cake.

I’ll probably extend myself unnecessarily on occasion, but I’ll always, from now on, remember that simple can be much better.

(I have put the cake pictures on here, but if you want to see more action shots from the birthday, go to our website (www.patterson-pack.com) and go to our family photo gallery. Then look at the birthday pictures. Lots of good ones!!)

Cliche

Evyn actually asked me yesterday why the sky is blue!

Resting....Sort of

I went to the doctor yesterday, and apparently have high blood pressure. There was talk of toxemia, but I'm sure my high score is due to the fact that I have 3 kids, one of whom is 1 year old, and another who is Evyn. Most of you probably don't know Evyn like I do. She wears me out. Not only does she ask about 86,975 questions a day, but then she either argues with your answer or tells you that you obviously didn't understand her question because you are so wrong. And don't even try not to listen! One day I was just responding with 'yep' to everything she asked because I was so tired, I couldn't think. She said, "mom, you're not even listening! I told you I am 5 and you agreed. I am not 5, mom, I am 4!"
It's not the only time that's happened. Just the first time, so I remember it.
And it's not just concentrating on her conversations that wears me out. You see, she is the boss in her mind. Anyone that disagrees with her on that, namely ME, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So, my job in relation to raising her--not easy. I hope that someday she will be a great leader...just not in our house at age 4!
When the doctor said that I have high blood pressure, my thoughts were that I've got a lot going on right now, and just need to slow down. I did have to have my blood drawn, (and I won't go into the details of the elaborate pee test!) but only as a precaution. The doctor told me that if it is toxemia, I will have to be induced. Not into that!! I will do whatever I need to for the safety of the baby, but I would rather rest and prevent it, then have a baby this weekend. That would not be convenient at all!! I have said that this whole hospital birth business felt like a God thing, and now I'm wondering what would have happened had I not gone to the doctor yesterday. I know for a fact I wouldn't be resting right now.
When I told Lynn that the doctor said I need to slow down, he said,
"Oh! Like I've been telling you for months." yes, dear, but I don't have time to slow down. Well, now apparently I've been forced to. Except that today we had 2 people come look at the house we're trying to sell, which meant I spent half of the morning cleaning, and the rest out and about being out of the house and going to pre-construction meetings and picking up kids and going to karate and coming home to cook dinner...
But now I'm resting. I always feel guilty when I "rest". So, it's really not that fun. At least I have been ordered to do so, which makes it a little easier to handle. But I still sit here and think about the laundry piling up...

pre-construction meeting

We went over the plans for the house today to make any final changes before they start building. I have moments when I just don't believe it. It doesn't seem real yet. Apparently they will start preparing the land within the next few days. you know I'll be there like everyday! Maybe once the frame is up it will seem more real. Lynn and I have done multiple remodeling jobs and had every intention of taking before and after pictures, as well as everything in between. Did we do it? Nope. Maybe when we're not actually doing the work it will be easier to record the process. that doesn't mean I'll necessarily get the photos on here, but I'll certainly try.
We did walk through the model home again with our plans in hand to compare and contrast with our future home. I noticed new things I'd never seen before. It's fun to picture where I will put things. That craft room is still my favorite! We also got to see how big the back yard is. All I care about is if it's big enough for a trampoline, pool and swing set once we get our 15 foot back porch and Lynn's shop in the yard. It will be. Plenty of room to run and giggle.
We also made sure that 3 beds would fit in the girls' room, and made plans for the furniture in the Master bedroom. By the time this house is built, I will have walked through the model home enough times to walk through ours with my eyes closed.

Exciting News

Well, it's exciting for me and my family. We have begun the process of building a new house. We will be doubling the square footage and adding a bedroom. the girls will all still be sharing a room, but we will have a separate playroom which will open up quite a bit of space in the room they will sleep in. I also get my CRAFT ROOM!! I've dreamed about having a separate area for my expensive little hobbies for a very long time. Lynn will get his office. We're all happy about that. As much as I love having a cluttered desk in the living room...

Anyway, we have just begun the process, but our new house will be here before we know it. We also have to sell the house we're living in before we can actually pay for the new one, but I'm sure it will happen with perfect timing. Getting the house ready to sell and thinking of a new one has kept me distracted from the fact that I am expecting a baby in less than a month. So, we have a lot going on. This is a particularly busy time, but it does make the end of the pregnancy go by more swiftly.

We had originally discussed building a house by ourselves. Lynn could do all of the building, and we could hire people to do parts he doesn't want to do. It would probably save us money, but it would also take years to accomplish--at least in my opinion, it would. This way is a lot easier and doesn't take away from the time we have as a family. So, we prayed and looked and priced and questioned and compared...and decided to go with Betenbough. The lot we are getting is on the bigger end of the price range spectrum as well as across from nothing. that nothing should someday become a park where our kids could play as we watch from our large front porch.

Last week we picked out all of our tile, counter tops, cabinets, brick, carpet, etc...Even though it took 3 hours, it was less painful than I expected. The fact that we can always change the things we don't like (aside from the brick)made the decisions a lot easier. Honestly, I think it took less thinking for each decision than it does sometimes for me to decide what to eat at a new restaurant. This week we will sign more papers (only the beginning of that, I'm sure) for them to begin the actual building. The house should be finished in April, around Easter.

I'm sure I will have a lot more to say about it. You may even be subjected to photos of the whole process. If you want to go look at a virtual tour of the model home, you can go to the betenbough website (www.betenbough.com) and look for the Jina home. The inside is the same floor plan, only flipped with the garage on the other side. The front porch is different on the house we will get, but it gives us a better view of the kids playing across the street.

Zoey has a new and quite unusual behavior for a 13 month old. She is enamored with pen and paper. She loves to draw or color, but really just holding the two together will suffice. As a matter of fact, I was rather annoyed at her determination to hold them the other day. She was obviously tired and wanted to be held, which I was fine with at that moment. However, she was also obsessed with carrying her pen and paper at that very moment. This caused somewhat of a problem since her paper was actually a legal-sized notepad and could not easily be removed from my face area while she rested her head on my shoulder. Try cleaning a kitchen with a toddler in your arms, a huge notepad on one side of your face and a pen on the other. All while 9 months pregnant. The situation gave supermom a whole new meaning. So, I gently removed the paper from her chubby little hand, which threw her into hysterics! Maybe she will sit quietly next to me and draw...um, think again, mom! Not anywhere in Zoey's plans for the day. This fight went on for quite sometime until I gave in and just stood there holding her with that frustrated, exhausted look you can all imagine...paper on one side, pen on the other. She won that battle.

It made me think that she may someday become a wonderful writer. Her Granddad is not only an award winning/published play write, but he has been writing hilariously for as long as I can remember. (see his blog linked off to the side as Wm the Great)I know there are other accomplished writers in my family tree, but I don't know the exact details of their talents. I used to be able to write before all of my offspring sucked my brains out.
I just hope she doesn't start carrying a computer around, since that's what we all use to write now. That could get hairy.