Life Goes On

Nothing new has really changed lately. We are continuing to fix up our little home. We got the kitchen painted a couple weeks ago after some disastrous attempts at wallpaper. Wallpaper is not my first choice, but after you know how much I paid for it you will understand. I bought 8 double rolls for $2. Not $2 each, all 8 rolls for only $2. Talk about an amazing deal. They are prepasted too. I couldn't pass them up. The kitchen needed some color so we went for it. Bad idea. While the wallpaper was good, I think anyways, we didn't know what we were doing. We kept trying to put it up and always messed it up. We either cut each piece too small or too big, in which case we tried to slice the edges off resulting in the paper ripping, or the paper would be the right size but would have wrinkles all over it. Nothing we did would work. My mom always used a towel and a putty knife to smooth out edges. Her wallpapering skills are flawless. Mine and Nick's certainly are. We finally gave up after several failed attempts and went for paint instead. I thought we were saving money. The paint went surprisingly great. While it turned out to be more purpley than the blue I wanted, it looks really good. The kitchen has some character now! We are really pleased with it. We tried to finish painting the ceilings but got frustrated with that again, so it's still not all done. It's very hard painting the entire ceiling of your house. It starts to hurt after awhile, not to mention all the paint specks falling into your face and hair. Ick. That project is to be continued.

Jayden is saying more and more words. While he isn't speaking a ton yet, he is certainly trying. He says a lot more than we know, he knows exactly what he is saying, we just don't always understand it. He says "Get it!" when we throw his toy ball around, he says "Sit down." when we ask him to get into his highchair for a meal. Nick said he waved bye to me as I was leaving one day and said "Bye bye Mama!" He is so cute when we bring out his shoes to go somewhere, he plops down on the floor in front of us. We didn't even teach him that, he just started doing it. He loves to put our shoes on his little feet and walk around in them. Or trip around, I guess I should say! He is full of sentences and words but these are just a few that we can actually hear out of all the baby language he still uses. In time his speaking will be clearer. I feel bad sometimes when I hear about other babies his age practically getting ready to graduate college it seems. But Jayden is perfect and smart and growing in his own special way.



I will have been at the fitness center for 3 years this September. I'm so thrilled. I love it here. I was offered a full time position starting when our construction is complete in May 2011. I said I would love to, but I'm not sure I will be able to. If I work full time, Nick and I would never see each other. I would no sooner get home from work when he would be getting ready to leave for his work. We did that before Jayden was born and it stunk, we hated it. It's not good for a marriage. So I will either have to decline the extra hours or we might try to get Nick on a day schedule so we can all be home together in the evenings. That would mean Jayden would have to go to daycare. At this point, I'm ready to send him. He doesn't play with any kids other than at the church Nursery on Sundays. That's not enough. He needs to learn to share and play. I think being around other kids would help his shyness and even his speaking skills. Nick doesn't think he will be able to switch to days, his Chef wants him on evenings for his skill and maturity. We always say Nick has to "babysit" the other workers and that is no lie. Oh well, we have several months still to try to convince Chef.

We got a dog. And then took it back. Crazy 3 days, that was. Nick and I decided we were ready to have a dog. We found a little Chihuahua on Craigslist. He was 9 months old and already house trained. When we got there to look at him, we discovered he was from a breeder. The lady never mentioned that to us. We thought he was just a family dog that needed rehomed. Turns out the "rehoming" fee was actually a regular breeder-customer sale. I wasn't too pleased about that. But she was nice, knowledgable, and her dogs looked in great shape. She still said the dog was house trained because her children always brought the dogs into her house to play. We went ahead and took him. He was a darling. We named him Bailey. Jayden just adored him. Turns out the dog wasn't house trained. He peed on everything when we turned our backs and he was so afraid of us. Now I realize Chihuahuas are a shy breed, especially when they are in a stranger's home. We gave him a chance and when he still never warmed up to us and was still trying to pee on our furniture (and pooped in the living room at night) we decided he wasn't the dog for us. Luckily the breeder lady took him back. We were very disappointed that she told us he was housetrained when he really wasn't. If it weren't for that, we could have dealt with the shyness. But when you combine a shy, terrified dog and a sharp "NO!!!!" when he lifts his leg on stuff, it was a bad thing. Any fright he already had was made worse when he got in trouble for peeing. I'm sure he is happy to be back home now. I'm positive if the right person comes along that has the patience for that kind of behavior, he will make a great pet. Not us though.

Speaking of pets, my kitten Mischo went to get neutered last week. Yay! Vets are really trying to make it affordable to spay and neuter pets. It was only $40! That's cheap! That's the surgery, pain meds, and 1 night boarding for the animal to recover. Woo hoo!