More house stuff....and a busted up van :(

AJ and I went by the house today, after visiting the repair shop. We are waiting for them to start framing the house any day now. Ohhh, it's getting so exciting to see the progress. Since the last pics, they have back filled in the dirt, poured the garage and basement floor. They have poured the steps leading into the basement. They have filled in the area with dirt that is going to be the porch. They are putting up 4 other houses right now. The last one was getting the roof put on today. We're thinking they are going to start the framing of the house tomorrow. I can't wait. Here are some pics from today..







Now that you've seen the happy part, time for the :::sniff, sniff::: part. I was at the bank last Friday before going out of town. I had to pick up some paperwork to fax to the mortgage company. Anyway, I was backing out of a parking spot and felt "THUMP" I got out of the car fully prepared to appologize when the man was shouting "You hit me!!" I looked and HIS car was embedded in the side of MY car!! The whole back side (not the back of the van, but the side of the van towards the back) of my van was smooshed. Thankfully, the baby and I were alright. That's what really matters but it just burned my gizzard that this man kept saying it was my fault. I told him not to move the car until the police showed up because I wanted the officer to see how the cars were placed. Unfortunately the officer could not place blame, or write a ticket being it was private property. Seriously, when the officer told the man to move his car "strait out of the side" of my van, the whole van rocked back and forth. He nailed me. It's really heart breaking. Sooo, my little girl will have to go into the shop on Sept. 25 to be fixed. I seriously hate driving a busted up vehicle but I guess there could be worse things to contend with really. I did ask the officer if my insurance company would be able to obtain pics of the accident. He said yes. I made the statement that the pics would tell the whole story and he said "yes ma'am it will, but I can't do anything because it's private property. Anyway, here are some pics of my smooshed van.





Pretty sad huh??? Hopefully she'll get everything fixed up and looking like new again soon enough. Everyone, just be careful out there!!! Love you all!!

Little Feet

You know, it's the little things in this life that just make my heart melt!! We were outside playing in the "wa wa" this afternoon and AJ was running up and down the walkway. I noticed the little wet marks his feet were leaving and my heart just swelled right up. How is it you can love a little person ::this:: much???? Oh, thank you God for this huge blessing you have allowed to come into my life.....

OH.MY.GOODNESS!!!!!

OK ladies. I just had to post this one. A friend sent this to me and I just can't stop looking at it! Jason was thoroughly grossed out. (hehe) From here on out the dishwasher will remained locked AT.ALL.TIMES!!!! Poor baby boy. I hope none of you (or myself) EVER have to deal with this!!!

They poured the walls today!!!

I had to be out of our house on 8/14 so they could do a "Tour of Realtors" through my home. I packed the dog and baby up and just drove around a while. We drove out to the lot and I got sooo excited. They had the forms up to pour the walls for the basement!!!! :o) I was so happy. I drove out there tonight after work and the forms are already down. Our basement is in! They'll start throwing this thing up in no time now. It was midnight when I went out there so I didn't take pics but I will post more soon. I can't believe it's really happening!! It's so exciting!!

(Jason took pics so I'm posting those today. I went out last night (8/17/07) and there wasn't anything new. Hope you enjoy. Our basement is now poured. Sump pump and plumbing for the rough in bath are all in. It's so exciting. I can't wait to see if they've done anything new today!!)






The top three are pics of the front of the house. The two car garage is to the right and my country front porch is going on the left. I'm hoping to put some fans out there but we shall see. The last 2 are of the back of the house. Note the double entranceway into the basement. My man fought for that and won!!! Yeah dad!! It's going to be so much easier getting furniture in there now




This is a side view


These two are of the inside. The first one has the sump pump and the rough in for the third bath and the last is where the main support beam is going to go.

My First Mei Tie

I DID IT!! Took me 3 hours but I stuck with it and made my first Mei Tie. What is that you ask?? Well, it is a carrier so I can carry AJ either on my front or on my back. I already use a ring sling with him and it makes it so much easier to have both hands but he's starting to get too heavy for that.


With this carrier, I can put him on my back while I'm cooking. He likes to be in the action but I don't like him near the hot stove and all. Plus when we go out, I can just throw him on my back and be done. I took a set of practice pics with Pooh Bear last night. I suppose I'll get brave and actually put my child in it at some point today. AJ found the cover fabric that I used. We were standing in Wal-Mart and he starts screaming "BAWS BAWS BAWS" (balls) I had to buy it for him. His dad likes it too. Jason likes to wear AJ while we clean. ( The wet spot on one of the straps is from where I peed myself I was so excited!! Actually it is a wet spot from the iron)

Retired High-chair

Well ladies and gents. It is official. AJ is becoming more and more independant as the days go on. Let me explain. AJ has really been giving me fits lately when I put him in his high-chair for dinner. Don't know why, he just has. Tonight I put him in my chair for a second so I could get his plate ready. He had pork chops, corn and grapes. He was going to have apple sauce but I gave it to science to make antibiotics. (blech, I just bought it too) Anyway, before I could put him in his high-chair, he started eating off of his plate. I picked him up to put him in his high-chair and the child FREAKED!! He went berzerk! I asked Jason to get his little booster seat that we take with us to restaraunts and Jason hooked it up to a regular chair and I want you to know my little monster sat at the dinner table with us, folded his hands in prayer and then ate like a champ!!! He just wanted to sit with the family and eat like mommy and daddy do. Jason said "It's time to retire the high-chair and use it for the next one." I almost cried at the dinner table.

AJ is a copy cat from the word go right now. He wants to do everything mommy and daddy do whether it's put something in the trash, brush our teeth with a big toothbrush, or eat at the dinner table. He's so smart!!! His vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. I almost fell over the other day when I told him to put his foot in his shorts hole so we could get ready to go and HE DID!!!! I thought it was a fluke so I asked him to put his other foot in....AND HE DID!!!! It's such a blessing and so amazing to watch this child grow from day to day. I'm going to make a section to put all of the words he says soon. My all time favorite though is when I walk through the front door and the sweet sound of "MAMA MAMA MAMA" is ringing through the foyer. I just love that little man.

How many teeth do you need anyway???!!!

Good Grief!!! Just this past week AJ has popped his 9th, 10th, and 11th tooth. He popped the 9th Aug 3, I found it when we got to TN and were in the restaurant with the in-laws. He popped the 10th on Aug 7th, I found it on the way home from TN. I just found the 11th tooth today. They are all the top molars. No wonder he's been so pissy/fussy/clingy. I kept thinking it was going to be his bottom sides that were going to come in. The sides of his gums are all white and shiny. It never dawned on me that the top molars were coming in. I thought they were the last to show?? I dunno. Infant Motrin/teething tabs, here I come baby!!!!

Eruption Sequence of Deciduous Teeth (Baby Teeth / Primary Teeth)
in months after birth


central lateral
incisor incisor canine 1st molar 2nd molar
Upper 8 9 18-20 14-16 22-24
Lower 6 7 16-18 12-14 20-22



If you're looking at this pic, he's got the top 4 middle, bottom 4 middle and then he's got the top last 2 on the right side of his mouth (the left side of this pic) and then he's got the next to the last on the top left of his mouth. My poor grumpy angel. This may explain why he was up from 2230-0300 this morning thinking it was daylight. He's NEVER done this before. I thought Jason might have slipped him something while I was at work. Anyway, just thought I'd let y'all know. :o)

Comments

Just real quick, I edited the comment section so anyone can leave them now. I didn't realize there was a special setting for that. Sorry. Now anyone and everyone can leave a comment. Hope that helps!!

So much going on!!!!

Before going into the details of the last week, I would like to lift one of my sisters from church up in prayer. I'm asking that you all lift her and her husband, as well as the drunk driver that hit her on 340 on the way to pick her husband up from the train station, up in prayer. Maryann is in Winchester Hospital tonight. I just found the e-mail when I got in from work. She apparently was in and out of consciousness but from the sounds of it might have (praise God) come out of this with only a concussion and bruises. I'm sure she'll feel like a Mac truck hit her come tomorrow but the drunk drivers around here are horrible. I was almost in a really bad wreck a few weeks ago (see a few posts back) by a drunk driver. I admit people in the hospital all the time for driving drunk or getting hit by someone who was drunk. This really has got to stop. Thank you for the prayers.

Onto the weeks events.....

OK, I'll start with news of the lot first. As I said in the last post, they finally broke ground on July 31. As of August 2nd they were digging out for the footers. The first 5 pics are the digging out of the basement.







These pics are the men digging out the footers. There was about 15 men digging out the bottom of the basement. It's so exciting!!!





All that to say, we're firing our Realtor!!! We notified her today. We sent out a certified letter with a list of reasons why. I am really disappointed because she seemed so sweet when we invited her into our home that first evening. We're not sure if we want to go For Sale By Owner again or if we're going to go ahead with another realtor as well a different company all together. First it took a few phone calls to even get her to print off flyer's for the house and then a few more to get her to put them on the signs in the yard. She said she would have the signs up by a Fri, but she didn't get them out there until the following Wed. She wouldn't have done that had we not stayed on top of it. Then she gives us all of the wrong dates that our house will be listed in the realtor books. The biggest thing was that we scheduled an open house with her for Sat. Aug 4th. Jason tried to reach her all week just to verify the plans. We have e-mail confirmation from her about the date, but she never will answer her phone. It goes straight to voicemail. EVERY TIME. Anyway, Jason finally gets someone in the Martinsburg office on Fri. morning (we were on the way to TN) and she says that our Realtor was on vacation and she didn't know anything about an open house. EXCUSE ME???? I spent 2 days terminally cleaning that house. I cleaned every nook and cranny so that house would look like a model home for the people coming through it during the open house. Even had 2 little girls from the church come over Thurs. to help with AJ so I could clean and have everything packed and ready to go by Fri. morning. Anyway, She said that she would call our realtor and find out what was going on and she would call us by 2pm. Jason called her back at 1:30 and this woman said that our realtor was having a family emergency and would call us later that night to explain. (Even if she was having a family emergency, shouldn't the open house been advertised anyway? How long in advance did this emergency happen???) Anyway, of course she didn't call. The only call we received was from her assistant approx 50min prior to the proposed start time of the open house. Jason and I both were livid. I don't know if you guys know how much these guys get paid for selling one stinking house but it's freaking ridiculous!!! I am not going to pay her for a job she didn't do. When the assistant called the house Saturday to leave a message, she said that our realtor would call us either Mon. or Tues to reschedule (as if). Of course, she never called. My thing is, what if Jason and I just assumed this woman was going to do her job??? We wouldn't have known anything wasn't going on until we returned home Tuesday night. Plus while we had it FSBO we showed the house approx 5-6 times. She's had the house the same amount of time and hasn't shown it not even once. Another realtor showed it once but not our realtor!! It's so frustrating. I found a saying that I really just fell in love with tonight and I'm going to use it as I close this post. I will write about the TN vacation in a day or two. I'm getting tired. It is 1:30 in the morning right now. Everyone is snoozing but me. Time to join my two men..... Now for my new mantra....

If God has led me to it...God will get me through it!!

(Don't you just love it?!?!?!?)