Nerves

This is a safe place, right? I'm in the tree, in the nest....

Guys? I'm freaking out. How am I supposed to get super excited about our new house when we haven't sold our current house? What if we don't sell it? What if it's Fall and the house is built and nobody bought this one and we can't close? We accepted this risk 100% when we dove headfirst into this adventure. But that doesn't completely invalidate my worries...

Lately I have been thinking about how lucky we are to be even doing this at all. How fortunate we are to have a beautiful home to sell. A safe neighborhood to live in. Family living nearby. I have been focusing on the fact that whatever is meant to be, will happen. Whether that's moving or staying. I think I'm on the brink of an important life lesson. Whatever the outcome is has yet to be identified.

I'm tired. Tired of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. Pictures of beautiful things that I want to have. Jealousy, that evil green monster. Why can't I see the beauty in what I already have? Why do I need things? After all, they are just things. I have always maintained that experiences are more valuable (um hello, best vacation excuse ever).  Perhaps this experience, in itself, will become a valuable memory for us.

What is going to happen? I don't know. What is that quote about the journey being the destination?

Life on the Market

Selling your house means that people will need to come look at it in order for them to decide to buy it. (Duh) Knowing that people could come by the house at any time means that it needs to always be sparkling clean.*

*Note to self: This would have been much easier without 2 dogs and a toddler.

Since we never know when somebody may call us and/or pop by, we have to leave the house in pristine condition every day when we go to work.  That means adding stuff to my morning routine that I didn't do before like making the bed (sorry, Mom), emptying/refilling the dishwasher (or hiding dirty dishes under the sink.....), turning on lights in the basement, opening doors, etc. etc. We also have to lock up the dogs so they don't go making friends with everybody, or, you know, scaring them away. :-/

Having people coming and going all day also means dealing with their aftermath- they turn off the lights (leaving the dogs in the pitch dark), leave the doors unlocked or open, use our bathroom and leave the toilet seat up (sooo grooosssss), sit on our furniture (I can see your butt marks!), etc.

It is also creepy coming home after a long day of multiple showings. Checking every closet and behind every shower curtain is a MUST.

But the worst part, IMO, is the agents that can be rude and unprofessional. I absolutely loathe the last minute calls, waking Abby from her nap, throwing the dogs in the car, and driving around for an hour just to find out they never even showed up.

But there have been some positives to this experience as well. For example, I never thought I could live in a sparkling clean house. Side story - I have a girlfriend from high school who lives in a gorgeous, huge house. She also has 3 boys. I have always been jealous of the fact that there is never a thing out of place at her house. It's like magic. Like even with a cleaning lady I thought my house could never look like that.  But having to put EVERYTHING back where it came from every single day, and keep things put away out of view has taught me that yes, with a little bit of effort, my house can stay that clean and surfaces that empty! Maybe this was just common sense but..... it has been so nice to come home to a clean house, crawl into a made bed at night, and have to do minimal work to keep it that way. (Am I finally becoming an adult?)

SO Anyhoo... if you live around the DC area you know that Mother Nature has been less than kind this Spring. It has pretty much been raining nonstop since we went on the market, which is super great because pretty much nobody wants to go house hunting when it's raining. I'm not freaking out (yet) (ok maybe I am a little), but this is just part of the process and we're going to have to ride it out!

Ohhh and if you made it this far, I guess I should reward you by telling you we totally went against your fan vote and picked cherry cabinets for the new house. :) 

Happy Friday everyone!!

~SG

Easter Fun

For Easter, we went up to my Mom's and had a nice little break from the craziness of getting the house on the market. We also got to meet our new niece, Julia (heart eyes)! She is, of course, perfect.

The weather was pretty nice, and Abby got to play outside with sidewalk chalk and ran around my parents' backyard like I used to do. While she was running around, I noticed our old plastic blue elephant slide from the late 80s sitting under the back deck, where it has been for oh, 20 years probably. Collecting spiders, bees, dirt, and who knows what else. Well, Abby LOVES her slide at school. I've never gotten to see her play with it so the lightbulb went on and I crawled under the deck (spiders and all!) and dragged this nasty, dirty, muddy old thing out into the daylight.

The first thing that happened is my Mom's dogs freaked out because WTF is that. The second thing that happened is I had to crawl under the remains of a collapsed storage tent (that fell down in the heavy snow) to get the hose, which had been placed there for safe keeping. Finally, I was able to spray the slide off but the old elephant needed a little more elbow grease. I scrubbed it not once, but TWICE with a scrub brush and dish soap, until it was clean enough that I wasn't totally grossed out about Abby playing with it.  As I was drying it off, Abby was playing with her Dad and I heard her ask "Pease?" "What do you want, Abby?" "Pease? Slide?"

Needless to say, the slide was a HUGE hit. It still needs more TLC but the part Abby was playing on was fine.  On Easter Sunday, we went to the sunrise service at church and my Mom cooked brunch for our family and some close friends. Abby even had her own little Easter Egg hunt! My sister brought out my Dad's super nice camera, and got some great pictures. Here's a little snapshot of our springy Easter weekend!!

Proof that I attended the weekend's festivities 

My Mom filled the eggs with puffs and crunchies (baby snacks) so they were slightly healthier ;)

Shortly after Uncle Alex taught her how to smash the crunchies under her shoes. Thanks, Uncle Alex. You can see my Mom scolding him right behind me. 

So we're building a house...

So there is only one reason I am writing this post and that's because I need you guys to help me choose what color cabinets we go with, but then I realized I owe quite a bit of explanation as to how I got to the point where I am picking out cabinet colors so let me re-wind slightly and get you sort of up to speed on what is going on....

So yeah. We decided to move. We had a location in mind, and upon looking at all of our options we decided to build a house. It's crazy exciting and crazy expensive. (Damn... where are the emojis, Blogger???)

Why are you moving?
1. Location. My 25 mile commute will now be 10 miles. Unfortunately, Joey's will still be really (really) long. But hey, at least one of us will have a short commute amirite?

2. Location. The school district in our new place is highly rated and much more so than the schools in our current location.

3. Location. It's a little less river and a little more mountain (and low flying airplane), but we'll be surrounded by wineries, horse country, and all kinds of new and fun things to explore.

There are other reasons too but this is a public blog so I don't want to go talking about my house when I'm trying to sell it!!!

What are you sad about leaving behind?
1. Being able to walk to Nana's house.

2. Abby's daycare. I LOVE it. I will be writing rave reviews and recommending it to everyone and I will probably cry on her last day.

3. Our doctors offices, favorite local haunts, uber rides, etc.

Getting the house ready to sell has been an eye-opening experience in itself. Polishing up the old girl made me realize how nice she really is. And how we've been neglecting her. We vowed to never make this mistake again. Advice: Every 6 months or so (heck, at least once per year), you should take a look at your house and think what you would need to do in order to sell it. Do you need to fix that broken drywall? Get rid of that nasty old carpet? Re-decorate the living room? AND DO IT. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Joey has also become extremely handy over the years. He has become quite the skilled carpenter/plumber/electrician. Definitely going to keep him around for a while ;) He has been doing a great job getting us ship shape and I have been struggling with clearing out 5 years of junk and staging our rooms so they are Pinterest-worthy.

So enough about the old house, what about the new one?

Well I honestly don't want to get into crazy specifics yet.  There is this whole thing that I haven't really talked about where if we don't sell the old house, we don't get the new house. That's the most terrifying thing about this whole process.  Besides potentially losing money, the embarrassment will probably kill me. "So, I thought you were moving? You did a gigantic Facebook post about it." "Uhh... it didn't work out............"  But hey, you don't get anywhere in life by not taking risks. This was a huge one and I will admit, it has been kind of fun. Mostly a pain in the ass, though. ;)

So, back to the main purpose of the post:

In order for the builders to break ground on the new house, they need to know what color cabinets we want. (OK, they need to know a lot of other things too.) But I am having a serious dilemma because which direction do I want to go??? White cabinets are super trendy right now, they are gorgeous, clean, and look beautiful with the contrast of a dark wood floor.  Dark cabinets also look classy, they are timeless, and look expensive next to a nice granite counter top. There are also other options like light browns, black, etc. SO, WHAT DO I DO?? Dearest blog-readers...... now I get to find out just how many of you there still are........ please take my poll located at the top right of my blog!!!

Thank you all and have a lovely day.

~SG

Nobody Blogs Anymore

I was just glancing down my list on The Old Reader, and I counted over 30 blogs that have gone inactive. I enjoy reading people's thoughts and ideas and it makes me sad that nobody really takes the time (or has the time!) to write anymore. And who am I to blame them? Half of my posts start off with "I haven't written for a while..."

In the age of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (which I still do not understand), the need for instant gratification, constantly refreshing information, and being able to provide real-time updates on our lives has pretty much killed the blog.

I started off with my own blog to keep my family up to date with what I was doing. It also became useful when I was pregnant with Abby and during her first year to write down weekly/monthly updates which I'm sure I will look back on in the future. I hope to continue writing, however sporadically, because I think it's fun and it will be cool to look back on in the years to come.

I don't know the future of my blog, or anyone else's. But if you are still out there, HI! And thanks for following along!!

This concludes my random thought for the day.

~SG

Making Waves

Let me just say that I have started this post 300 times over the past few years. At the risk of offending my friends who sell products via this method, I want to point out something about it that I recently became aware of.

If you don't know about Multi-Level Marketing then you legit live under a rock. Beauty products, Jewelry, Health/Fitness products, etc. You see it all over your Facebook. You probably have people contacting you that you haven't spoken to in YEARS asking how you've been and oh btw, do you want to join my group and try my products? Of course it takes major balls to reach out to people like that (it's essentially cold calling, so good on you) and it is also time consuming outside your real job (which, all of them have despite the claims that you can "work from home!"). Don't get me wrong, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I got sucked in once too, which is why I'm writing this.

I, too, fell into the trap of "get healthy, make money!". I joined, paid, and after that I realized the products weren't working for me. They were making me physically sick. And I had to keep consuming them in order to make money! I also was not aware that I was signed up for automatic refills and additionally, I had to pay a fee each month! WTF! I ended up severing my ties with that company and apparently screwing over the girl who was directly up the line from me in the process. I felt terrible and it was incredibly awkward for a while.

When I joined, I was invited to join a secret Facebook group of members in this same company (I'm trying to be vague here to protect these people!) and for some reason, I never left the group. It is a group of ~130 women all who report (in some way, shape or form) to the leader who is a ~30 year old single mom. She is constantly sharing her tips on how to get more business (and more money for her, obviously) and one day recently she shared her income.

She said that after working for this company for 3 years, with 130 people working for her, she was taking home $3500 a month. Now, don't get me wrong. That is SUPER impressive for what she and her people are selling. But, if you do the math, it comes out to $42,000 per year. And that's BEFORE TAXES.

I was just shocked (and maybe I am just dumb) that she works SO HARD (allegedly) and has all these people working for her and making money for her; she's always talking about living her dream and being a stay-at-home-mom, and she makes $42K pre-taxes. Ouch. I guess it really depends on your definition of "living the dream", doesn't it? Maybe if you live in the middle of nowhere that salary would be okay. But anywhere I have lived you'd be pretty screwed.

Why am I sharing this? Because it's easy to get sucked into the game. As a Mom myself, I know how tempting it is to be a stay-at-home-mom and these companies LOVE to prey on new moms that are dying to quit their jobs and be with their babies- if only they could afford it! These Multi-Level Marketing companies claim to be the answer but unless you want to be eating table scraps (or moving to the sticks), I suggest you keep your day job.

Do I still love and support my friends who sell products via MLM? Of course. You are all bad asses and I HOPE that you become the exception to the rule and make a million dollars. I truly do. I'm sure the self-help literature that you are required to read will tell you that I am seeing the glass as half empty, but I am just reminding you that there is something in the glass already. Better be careful not to spill it. 

Love you all,

SG

18 Month Update

Well, 2016 wasn't off to a great start but things are slowly looking up. After a relaxing and timely vacation to Disney World (and our first Disney Cruise!), it has been back to work and life. With everything that happened in January, I had not worked a full week since before Christmas. So coming back from vacation to full weeks of work in February has been difficult. We have enjoyed several celebrations like Jason and Lydia's engagement party and Corinne's baby shower and are looking forward to meeting Baby Davis very soon!! While we wait, I thought I would give you an 18 month update on my own baby, who is in full toddler-mode and is quickly turning into a little girl.

Caught with her hand in the cookie jar dog bowl.

How many? 18 months on February 13th. A whole year and a half of Abby!

At the Pediatrician for her 18 month check up!

Stats: 25 lb 14 oz (85%), 33.25 in. (89%). They say if you double a 2 year old's height, it is a good indicator of how tall they are going to be. Good news for Abby as she is on her way to being taller than 5'5. 

I turn my back for 1 minute and there are stickers on the dog.

Diaper Size: I think she is going to be in size 4s until she is done with diapers. I don't see her weighing more than 37 pounds before she is potty trained!!! Speaking of potty training... we got her a Mickey Mouse potty... it's going well.

Clothes Size: She is wearing 18 months and I am starting to buy 24 month and/or 2T for the spring/summer. I am so used to jumping up to the next size so quickly but her growth has slowed down now that she's almost 2. UGH I can't believe I just said that!

Making Valentines with Aunt Lydia

Eating: Abby's school tells us she is one of their best eaters. Hahaha. I don't know if I should be proud or not. She has started to refuse foods at random times. For example, she won't eat meat right now. Wtf.... I'm glad she likes eggs/cheese/yogurt. She drinks milk (of various %s), water, apple juice, and if you want to see something funny, give her orange juice. One of her favorite foods is "sraw sraws" (strawberries) and she will try just about anything as long as it's on my plate/I am in the middle of eating it...

Sleeping: Abby is a pretty good sleeper. No matter what time she goes to bed, she will be up between 5 and 6. So I try to get her down around 7pm. She still uses the paci and I'm looking for ways to ditch it. She also likes to wake up in the middle of the night and yell until someone comes in and re-tucks her in. So, I'd like for that to stop.

Teeth: She has a ton of teeth and is not very good at brushing them. I try, but it usually ends with her chewing on the toothbrush and trying to run away with it :(

Eye Color: Still very gray. I'm pretty sure she got her eyes from my Dad.

Milestones:
Walking- Abby is a champ at walking and borderline running. She is quick! 

Talking- I tried counting her words the other day and I got to 45 and quit. She's on-pace for that milestone so I'm not too worried about keeping an exact list. Her favorite thing right now is telling me "Hot. Don't touch". 

Firsts:

First cruise! Disney Cruise Line is highly recommended if you would like to take children on a cruise, especially young ones. Major bonuses on DCL vs other cruise lines: Swim Dipe-friendly splash area (babies in swim diapers are not allowed in cruise ship pools), Bathtubs in EVERY stateroom, Child-friendly activities, Character meets, Accommodating restaurants/servers (the first night she threw a FIT at dinner and we were able to get our food super fast and outta there, with dessert to-go!), Child Care (excellent, safe, clean) and tons of adult-only places to go on the ship!

Interests:
All things Mickey Mouse...er... "Mimi", Minnie (also Mimi), Donald Duck (Duck), Goofy (Fifi), Daisy (Dizzy), Pluto (??-she has a word for Pluto that sounds nothing like Pluto), Toodles (Oh Too!), etc.

What's Next?

Abby is getting to the age where people start asking when the next Gish baby will come along. And to tell you the truth, I don't know. We had a plan. But it all went out the window when I started my new job. And now, I don't know. As a planner, you'd think that would give me extreme anxiety but instead I feel at peace because there is no pressure. For now, we are just focused on the excitement of Abby's cousin who will arrive any day!!!

Congratulations Uncle Al and Aunt Cori <3

Cheers to a New Year

So, here we are kissing 2015 goodbye and I haven't posted hardly anything since Abby turned one. There are a couple reasons for that.

1. I started a new job. My time as a part-time work-at-home Mom came to a close and I was offered an awesome new job. I jumped at the chance for more dollars in my pocket and a shorter commute. I have been there a month and I am really enjoying the work! But there is not very much time for blogging ;). Abby also went back to "school" as well. She is really enjoying her new school and her new friends.

2. We found out a close family member is very sick. And I have not been sure what to say, or not say, about it. I strongly dislike when people post vague or confusing statuses on Facebook that seemingly beg for attention. So that's not what I'm doing here. I'm being vague out of respect for the privacy of that person and if you would like to e-mail me I would be glad to fill you in on what is going on! It has thrown our family for a loop to say the least, so the thought of blogging has been difficult. Because what do I say? Or not say? Ugh.

Looking on the bright side: It HAS been a wonderful year, full of awesome things like getting to work from home for 6 MONTHS, spend 2 weeks at the shore with my baby (and my Mom!), traveling to Disney twice, getting a super new job, and more recently, a new ride! My brother and his wife are also expecting their first baby in March, and Joey's brother Jason was recently engaged to his long time girlfriend, Lydia. 

As the year draws to a close, I have a new found appreciation for all of the people in my life. I would like to wish each and every one of you a happy new year. I truly wish the best for each of you out there reading this- no matter how I know you or what we may have been through in the past. I'm certainly not perfect and have made my share of mistakes, but a new year is always chance to start fresh so I invite you to do the same! 

So: enjoy your holiday, hug your loved ones, and toast to health, happiness, and good fortune in 2016!

Cheers!

Love,

Sarah

13 months on the 13th

Monthly updates from here on out are not promised. But since I had the time I thought I'd update and say holy cow, they turn into toddlers fast. I definitely thought I'd have a good 6 months before I felt like she was really a "toddler". Nope. The tantrums came on fast. The frustration with not being able to communicate combined with growing/teething is really rough.

Some positives- she gave up the bottle REALLY easy. And we're 100% done with formula. Whole milk does the trick and her stomach is used to it now. That did take a couple of weeks though.  It also took a couple of weeks for her to drink milk out of the sippy cup.  I was convinced she'd be 3 and taking calcium supplements.... but alas after trying just about EVERYTHING (yogurt, ovaltine, death stares) she actually drank it.  I had mixed in some ovaltine and then over the next couple of days I gradually lessened the amount of ovaltine until she was drinking straight milk. I'm SO glad we got that taken care of before our upcoming Disney trip!! (<-more on this later)

I also took her to her first dentist appointment and she did great! Even got to pick out her own toothbrush.

She's still working on learning to walk. She can and will stand on her own but is still chicken about taking any steps unassisted. And if I try to put her down in the middle of the floor her legs turn to jello. I guess she will walk when she's ready... We've been baby-proofing like crazy in the mean time though.

She still says "dog" and variations of that but that's it. Again, I'm not expecting mountains to move in one month's time.

So really, nothing new to report other than a few more tantrums. She's still overall a very happy baby and easy to please.  Eating at restaurants is a little more complicated now, but as long as we are shoving food in her mouth she stays relatively quiet..... ;)

I'm hoping to get more posts up this Fall (we'll see).. starting with a sneak peek of Abby's 1 year photos we took on the beach on her birthday. I don't have them yet... so I stole one for you but never fear.. there will be TONS more!!!

12 Months: The Last of the Monthly Posts

Better late than never, right?? With our two week beach vacation, I was already a week behind in getting the 12 month update done. I also wanted to wait until Abby's 12 month appointment. And then life got in the way.  This morning I put my 12 (and a half) month old into her white onesie and stuck on her last sticker.  How bittersweet. I guess I could continue to do monthly pictures but... I'm kind of glad that I'm out of stickers ;)

Our trip to the beach was awesome. Relaxing, tons of me-time (thanks Mom!), family-time, BIRTHDAY TIME, and new things for Abby to experience and explore. I am excited to get her 2nd year off to a great start- beginning (of course) with another trip to Disney which is on the horizon!!!!


How many?
12 whole months! (and a couple weeks... sorry this is late!) 1 YEAR OLD!

Stats?
I waited until her 12 month appointment to post this because she hadn't been to the Dr. since 9 months and I had no idea about her stats other than I know she has grown a ton!  She weighs 23 lbs 4 oz (89%) and is 30 in tall (75%). Her head is also bigger than 93% of kids her age but hey, her Dad has a big head so I'm not too surprised ;).  Her Doctor is happy with her growth and said she looks great!

Diaper Size?
Still in a size 4, where she will be for a looong time (this range goes from 22 to 37 lbs!).

Clothes size?
Solid 12 month size.  Her legs always grow faster than her top, so I'm starting to break out some of the 18 month stuff. I think we will be in 12-18 and 18 month for a while. (Or maybe I'm just hoping because we have two vacations coming up and I want to order special clothes for her...)

Eating?
Abby is a total experienced veteran when it comes to finger feeding. I have no idea how we got here, but I remember being so scared for her to eat big kid food. I was afraid she'd be allergic to something (she's since tried peanut butter, eggs, fish, etc.) or choke on something (she did, and she survived). We are working on weaning off the formula and bottle- and her Doctor encouraged us to get on that ASAP at her appointment. We have been working on switching to cow's milk.  Actually, I switched and she never noticed. GOODBYE, FORMULA. The only problem is that she doesn't really like to drink milk out of anything but a bottle. We are down to 1 bottle per day and she hasn't really noticed getting rid of the others, so... it's only a matter of time.  It makes me sad to see her becoming such a big girl, but I know these are necessary changes!!

Here's an idea of what she's eating these days (more for my own information later down the road):
Breakfast is usually some cheerios and banana, or some eggs and toast.  She also likes pancakes, various fruit (especially strawberries), turkey sausage, etc. Lunch is some kind of sandwich- faves are peanut butter or grilled cheese, a veggie (LOVES broccoli and cauliflower), a fruit (grapes or berries) or a "snack" like goldfish or puffs.  Dinner is usually whatever we are eating, unless we are eating something totally weird/unhealthy.  Last night we had fresh fish, rice, and salad so Abby had fish, rice, and a bunch of veggies chopped up to the right size. We also went to Dairy Queen for dessert and she had a few bites of my sundae ;).

Sleeping?
Always my good sleeper, Abby sleeps mostly through the nights. Some nights are weird or sometimes she wakes up at 5am crying because she is cold or lost her paci. For the most part, she does great sleeping in her crib at night time. She also takes two naps per day- one around 9am and the other around 2pm.

Teeth?
12 teeth! 6 on the top and 6 on the bottom. 4 front and 2 molars on each. We try to "brush" teeth every night before bed. Some days it goes better than others...

Eye color? One year later, they are still blue/grey and change to blue/gray/green based on what she is wearing. I'm still watching them to see what happens!

Milestones?
The big milestones of walking and talking hit around one year.  So far, Abby can pull to stand, cruise around, and stand unassisted, but she's kind of a chicken and sits down/crawls to get from A to B. She will walk soon, I think.

Talking: She still says "Dog"/"Doc" and enjoys pointing out everything that is a "Doc". Going to the Zoo was entertaining, since every animal was a dog. The seagulls at the beach were also dogs. ;) She's starting to babble differently so I'm guessing as soon as she gets walking down she will start talking more. But that's just a guess... I have no idea.

Other fun things:

Favorite Animal: Dog (Duh)

Favorite Color: Blue (Always gravitates toward blue things!!)

Favorite Books: Pat the Bunny (she has it memorized), Sally at the Seashore, Hide and Seek Harry at the Beach, and her board books about Mickey Mouse, Disney Princesses, etc.

Favorite TV Shows (Bad Mommy): Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates (def my kid)

Mom's Corner
Well it's been a year and now that I have had an entire year to reflect, I think I can say that the first 3 months were the hardest (for me). You are still healing and the baby is still so fragile and everything is stressful.  As the baby gets bigger, so does your confidence and eventually, you'll find yourself taking her for a walk at 7am at the beach because she woke up SUPER early and there are 12 people in the house and you don't want to wake them up- and you end up at Bill's Pancake House and you take her to breakfast BY YOURSELF with no diaper bag, nothing for her to play with, not even a sippy cup to drink out of. And you survive!!!!! (<-True story.)