Back patio gets a facelift

Can you believe next week is the 4th of July? I'm hoping we can squeeze in some time at the water park or zoo before September gets here!

One of the reasons my summer fun keeps getting pushed aside is house projects. As you know, we're in the middle of trying to sell our house (and wow, I'm earning a gold star in the patience column... not! That's a different post, I suppose.), so home upgrades have sort of taken priority. In fact, we spent our first weekend of summer pouring some sweat into our back yard (figuratively, not literally, as the weather was anything but summer-y. We were freezing our butts off in the rain and wind, shivering in hoodies and gloves.)

You see, when we first moved in, our back patio was... well, it was okay. Nothing amazing by any means. It was small and it was not the way we would have done it. I won't go into my rant about it, but we'll just say it was on our list of things to fix (along with finishing our basement, painting upstairs, planting and landscaping out front, adding a fence to the backyard... the list goes on and on).

Because we weren't in love with it, and because he knew we were going to change it, and because he's pretty awesome like that, my dad put up a small pen for Dex right after I brought O home from the hospital. He knew that I wasn't going to have the time/energy/patience to chase Dex in and out of the house every time he needed to go outside, so he created what lovingly became known as Dex's "shit-pen" around the bottom of our deck so it would be as convenient as opening and closing the door. Of course, you can imagine what happened... it didn't take long for Dex's little pen to become a little (a lot) unsightly.

 

Yep, pretty ugly. Again, in our defense, we knew this would happen, and we sort of intentionally let it happen. Who wants to mow grass under stairs? 

We knew we had wanted to extend our patio so that the steps came down to concrete and so we wouldn't have to maintain a lawn under the landing and stairs, so this wasn't really a big deal until we decided to put our house on the market.

Of course, as soon as we decided we wanted to list our house, we wanted it done like, yesterday. So, we enlisted the help of (who else?) my dad, the master-planner/builder/craftsman, and my mom, Grandma and babysitter extraordinaire. In the matter of a couple of days (and hours of digging, leveling, wheeling concrete across the yard from the truck), we had this: 

 (Of course, in true Jessie-style, we underestimated the amount of rock we would need, so we were a little short for a while. I was too impatient to wait for more rock to get a picture after all our hard work. Don't worry, it's much better now.)

After living in our house for two and a half years, we've finally got the patio we wanted. Because we did all of the work ourselves, it only cost us around $400, by the time we purchased the rest of the rock and the plants we wanted. 

Sure, it's nothing amazing, but we really do love it. I've already used the back patio more in the last month than I did all last summer. The moral of my post is that you shouldn't wait until your selling your house to make it amazing... unless you're like me and you need a fire lit under your ass :)

Vanity re-do

Hello!

As promised, I'm going to begin sharing some of the projects that are keeping me busy during nap time, night time, and weekends. My goal is to share one project a week... however, it may not always be a completed project, sometimes it might be a work in progress. I would love to be able to complete one project a week, but unfortunately (even with my new part-time work schedule) there just isn't enough nap time for that kind of progress.

This project is one I had been excited about for a while; even before we decided to sell our house. When I was in my early teens, my parents bought me this cute little vanity for my bedroom. I'm not sure which birthday it was for, but I know it was before I could drive, and probably right when I started to get into hair and makeup. I'm assuming this was purchased to alleviate the issue of bathroom time between me and my brother as we would get ready for school.

Anyway, once I went to college, this vanity just sat, abandoned, in my room. It did serve as a make-shift desk in a cracker-jack college apartment for a brief time, but when Tots and I moved in together, it got packed away again.

I'm not sure what sparked my excitement for this project, but right before we decided to sell our house, I got the strongest urge to get this vanity out and re-fresh it. I began to dream of clean, shiny white lines, and a cute patterned cushion. When I randomly stumbled upon the perfect fabric, I knew it was fate.

Hopefully this is obvious, but the picture on the left is the before. I just wasn't feeling the silver tiger patterned cushion anymore :).

What do you think? I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This is one of the more simple projects I've done recently, but I think it's a good example of how high impact a can (or 4) of spray paint and a yard of fabric can be.

Obviously, I don't have a little girl of my own, and my bedroom is much too small to fit this extra piece of furniture, so now that it's finished, I will be selling it. I'm sad to see it go, but in the name of moving, it's time to cut the emotional ties and downsize!

Catching up

It’s unbelievable to me that June is already half gone.  It’s been at least two weeks since I’ve posted anything, and I don’t even have the nagging, guilty feeling I usually get if I go longer than a week without updating.  That tells me that this time has flown by at a pace I’m almost unaware of.

I didn’t post a whole lot about my 5k progress.  Don’t worry.  I’m still training, and still hating almost every minute of it (with the exception of the walking breaks).  I did have to take last week off due to a minor back/neck issue, but I’m back at it again this week.  On that note, does anyone else ever get a stabbing pain between their neck and shoulder on the right side?  It’s almost like someone or something is pinching me really hard on a pressure point.

According to my resolutions, June is supposed to be the month that I make my house feel a little more like “us.”  However, we’ve actually made the decision to put our house on the market and move to the town where Tots works (he commutes about 40 minutes each morning and evening).  We didn’t see this coming in January, but it’s where we’re at now.  If you’ve never bought or sold a house before (this is a first for us in the selling department), let me tell you that it’s an all-consuming process.  In fact, anybody who knows me or has had to be around me for the last month can probably attest to this.  So, that means you’re going to get to read about all of the projects we’ve worked on to get the house ready to sell, instead.  Deal? 

This also means I've got a fire lit under me, and that I need to finish all of my half-started projects in the garage (and basement, and spare bedroom, and closet...).  I'll be posting those, too.  I've already got a couple stockpiled, I just have to get around to taking pictures.

I’m a little disappointed to not be doing the home projects I had initially planned, but I hope you’ll find these valuable too.

5k May: Week 6

Well, May is almost over and I've only blogged about my 5k training once!  Oops.  I think about it every time I go for a run, but I've had other things that have been on my mind lately.  Important things, like drunk parenting and my dog with an over-developed sense of self importance.  My intentions have been good, but as usual, my follow-through is lacking.


Currently, I'm in week 6 of my C25K training.  Week 6 day 1 is 5 min jogging/3 min walking/8 min jogging/3 min walking/5 min jogging.  Day 2 jumps up to 10 min jogging/3 min walking/10 min jogging.  Needless to say, I've not yet reached day 2. 

It's interesting to me how much your environment and conditions can effect your running.  I started out running indoors on a track (I didn't want to run on a treadmill, and it was still winter-like conditions here in northeastern Nebraska).  It was a great start; challenging, but I was always able to finish my workouts.  As the weather got nicer, I started running outside.  Why is it so much harder to do that?! 

I've been stuck on day 1 of week 6 for a week now.  I was able to finish it the first couple of times, but it was a struggle.  The last two times I've done it, I actually had to stop half-way through my 8 minute jog to catch my breath.  Most recently, I've been having a sharp pinching on my right shoulder, close to my neck.  I'm not sure what it is, but it usually goes away after about a minute and a half of walking.  I think it's just something I have to push through.

Do you run?  What kinds of pains or road blocks have you encountered?

Dexter Mayhem: all in a day's work.

For those of you who haven’t met my semi-loyal companion (he only likes me when I’m feeding him, scratching his belly, or pregnant), I think it’s probably time to get you more familiar with Dexter, the self-appointed CEO of the Hurricane Household.

As CEO, his duties include (but of course, are not limited to):

• Greeting all guests with a goofy grin and excessive jumping/body-wagging

• Sharing his toys with O

• Answering tough questions like “whosagooboy?” and “Who the hell ate the whole roll of toilet paper?” with a passive eyebrow-raise and leisurely departure of the room

• Eating rolls of toilet paper (as indicated in previous duty)

• Enforcing security:
• Barking at neighbor children for using our segment of the road
• Barking at the mailman as he delivers our mail
• Barking at scary commercials on tv
• Barking when our garage door opens (typically indicating that it is someone who lives here or has our security code)
• Barking at any and all decorative door items including but not limited to: 
• wreaths
• signs
• sashes
• bells
• floral arrangements (especially those damn floral arrangements... oh, how he hates those flowers)

• Ensuring proper noise levels at night (He snores.  Louder than some humans)

• Post-meal kitchen clean up (although he's now on a restricted diet for his allergies, so we do our best to not leave anything for him to clean up, which, if you've ever lived with a toddler, you know is impossible)

• Kid clean up specializing in facial and forelimb areas

• Stealth-farting (and not-so-stealth farting) and leaving the room, spurring “who farted?” arguments among all speaking inhabitants

• Ensuring daily tug-of-war and ball-playing quotas are met

• Lightening the mood and cheering up all Hurricane Household members with silly antics including but not limited to:
• Licking face
• Chasing imaginary fly
• Jumping up and down (literally, all four paws off the floor at once)
• Wagging entire body in circles around said person’s feet, rendering them immobile until proper cheering has occurred

• Scaring away varmints within the perimeter of the Hurricane Household, including but not limited to:
• Cats
• Raccoons
• Opossums
• Stray children

In addition to these duties, he’s also held accountable for the following:

• Being the reason we can’t have nice things

• Being the reason we house our toilet paper rolls on the vanity or the toilet tank like a frat house

• Being the reason O can’t have a pacifier outside of his crib

• Keeping us guessing as to his medical condition (constantly itching/balding/licking, through various food changes, medicines, lotions, sprays and voo-doo magic)

As you can tell, this job is no walk in the park (or pee on a fire hydrant), but he handles it with the grace of a rhinoceros and the expertise that only he can bring to the table.

7 Ways Being a New Parents is Like Being Drunk

I am in the middle of baby-stravaganza (Babypalooza? Babpocalypse?).  Is it just me, or has half of the population either had a child within the last month, or is expecting one in the next couple of months?  I’m so happy for all of my friends and family members, (have I mentioned I'm about to be a proud aunt again-- twice?!) but I feel like someone needs to warn them about what they're in for.  And no-- this is no What to Expect When You're Expecting.  Congratulations, everyone!  Now, get ready for the ride of your life!

I've alluded to the fact that I've slowed down my party habits here.  If you're wondering why, it pretty much boils down to the fact that I feel like I’m living in a frat house already.  Maybe you’ve seen the funny memes or ecards that say something to that effect, but if this is a new theory to you, go ahead and read about it here.

You might laugh (especially if you don't have kids), but it's true.  You'll find out someday; consider yourself warned.  What nobody told me was that for the first nine months of that little one's life, it feels like you're the drunk person.  Don't believe me?  Here are 7 Ways Being a New Parents is Like Being Drunk.

1. You can fall asleep/pass out anywhere.  The bus, the doctor's office, the bathroom, the kitchen table... all you need is to sit still longer than two minutes.  It's no different than passing out in your Friday morning history class.

2. You stumble around the house at all hours of the night.  It's 2 am, what are you doing up?  Heading to the fridge for another bottle!  Tripping over bouncy seats and teddy bears all the way, stubbing your toe on the pack & play you left out for daytime naps in the living room.

3. You do dumb things.  Car keys in the fridge.  Cell phone in the mailbox.  I can't even remember all the stupid stuff I did in the first month I brought O home... I vaguely remember using diaper cream as hand lotion.  When you're responsible for the life of another human being, you've got more important things to think about than whether you paid your phone bill or if you got the gas nozzle out of your tank and back onto the pump.

4. Your speech is slurred. Lack of sleep coupled with "sshhhh shhh shhh"ing a baby for hours will do that to you.

5. You have no regard for how you look.  You want to care.  You want to put the effort forth.  But you also want cereal, and right now you're out of milk, so the bitches at the grocery store can deal with your pajama pants and haphazard ponytail today.

6. You've got the drunchies.  It's 3am and dang, what you wouldn't give for a Big Mac or some nachos, man! 

7. You're highly emotional.  "What did she SAY TO ME?!" Just like a cat fight at the bar or the drunk girl sobbing in the corner, it doesn't take much to spark an emotional reaction right now. 

Parents, what do you think?  Did I miss anything?  Congratulations to all of my friends bringing home their new bundles of joy!  You will sleep again some day :)

5k May

It’s taken me over half the month, but I’m finally going to start writing about my 5k “training.”  If you recall from my resolutions, this is the month I had planned to complete my first 5k.  Although training began back in March for me, I want to share my progress with you this month.

 Let me start by telling you that I’m the furthest thing from a runner imaginable.  You know that lady who runs every day and signs up for at least one marathon every year (and enjoys it)?  Yep, not me.  You know that lady who signs up for a marathon and ends up walking ¾ of it, only to struggle, gasping for air across the finish line?  Also not me.  I’m the woman my family would end up searching for hours after the last runner has finished, only to be found in the fetal position off to the side of the road, barely a mile from the starting point.  I’m that kind of a non-runner.  So, when my friend asked me to run a 5k with her, naturally, I said yes (because apparently I’m a glutton for punishment).

I had been hearing a lot about the Couch to 5k app, so I thought that was a good place to start.  If you’re not familiar, it’s an app that takes a “beginner” runner, and trains them over a course of 8 weeks to ultimately be able to run a 5k.

Week one starts with alternating 1 minute of running with 90 seconds of walking.  Week two gradually moves up to 90 seconds of jogging and 2 minutes of walking.  It continues to slowly increase the time you spend running, and decrease the time you spend walking.  Easy, right?  That’s what I thought… until I got to week five.  Day one is ok; it’s five minutes of running and three minutes of walking, three times.  On day two, they surprise you with eight minutes of running, five minutes of walking, and eight minutes of running.  Oh jeez, wasn’t expecting that.  It was tough, but I got through it.  On day three, though, they slap you in the face with a 20 minute run.  WTFrack, C25K app?  What the hell about the fact that I need an app entitled COUCH to 5k would lead you to believe that I’m capable of running for TWENTY flipping minutes?!  On week 5?!

So, in a nutshell, that’s how it’s going.  Not great, but I’m going to keep going.  We’ll see what week 6 brings.

What about you, do you run?  If so, for the love of God, why?!  Can someone honestly tell me it gets better, and that maybe it becomes enjoyable?