What an absolutely, positively nutty couple of weeks it has been. You know when things get so bananas that it’s almost easier to just belly laugh at the chaos than cry? Yep, that’s been me. Very few tears have actually been shed, but oh my stars – I’ve definitely felt a little loony at times.
Last week, the ice kicked our tails until they were bruised. Literally Jamie’s tail was bruised due to a couple of epic wipeouts. (Insert me trying not to howl with laughter when he walked back inside covered in coffee all over his uniform after busting on the ice. His truck was parked in our driveway due to our epic timing to refinish our kitchen table in the garage one day before three rounds of ice came. Our home is full of geniuses, I swear it.)
It looks pretty though, doesn’t it? It only took an extra three days to fully dry considering our garage was approximately 25 degrees, but I digress..
Combine three different rounds of ice with salt that’s sold out throughout town, a sloped driveway that faces a direction that sees zero direct sunlight (a.k.a. no ice melting on its own while all of our neighbors on the other side of the street have clear driveways) and a ton of showings that came out of the woodworks (hellooooo being sued if someone break a limb on my driveway or walkway!), and you have a couple of whacko DeSpains banging their heads against the wall for listing their house in the dead of winter in Kansas.
When school is out and there’s nothing to do but stay home, you hang with the neighbor kids. 🙂 Last week our girls spent a good amount of time with the girls across the street, and Jamie and I love having them play with our kids. Their dad will text me and ask if they can come play, and I’m all “YES SEND THEM NOW PLEASE!” every single time. Haha. We are praying for great neighbors in Alabama because having them here in Kansas the last couple of years has been a huge blessing.
One day we whipped together some homemade sugar cookies with rainbow buttercream icing because “I wanted to do something fun with/for the girls”… a.k.a. this mama had a sweet tooth and needed an excuse to bake/devour some homemade sweets. 😉
We lowered the price on our house by $4k last week after seven weeks on the market, and for some reason that teeny tiny decrease made people come out in droves to see our house. We basically had five days where our lives revolved around showings, so we were either cleaning/staging the house or running around Manhattan trying to find something to do. Go play corn hole at Rally House? Suuuuure.
Poor Ted. His life is extremely hard. He’s obviously not loved at all.
One way my dad bonds with the girls is by enlisting their help with maintaining the fish tank and feeding the fish, even over FaceTime when there are 800 miles between us. Everything about this makes me happy!
Speaking of fish, do you remember when my dad drove the girls and me from Alabama to Kansas after I gave birth to Sadie, and he went to run an errand and CAME HOME WITH A FISH BOWL AND REAL, LIVE FISH? (Are you staying to keep these fish alive and clean this thing? You realize my husband is deployed and I have a two year old and newborn, right? RIGHT?) I was a bit floored, but Hadley thought it was the best. thing. ever. One fish croaked within a couple days, but the other lived for months. Jamie was legitimately sad when the second one died. Ahh, memories. My dad is such a jokester, but we all secretly love it.
Hadley had western day at school a couple weeks ago, and guess who didn’t give it a second thought until the day before? I was about to run out and try to find her a flannel shirt when my mom mentioned Hadley’s Sheriff Callie outfit. My MIL gifted this to her years ago, and thankfully it still fits just fine. Both Grandmas for the win! Ha!
I love these cutie pies.
We had a birthday party to attend last weekend for one of Hadley’s classmates, and it is just the most fun thing to see real friendships flourish between her and her girlfriends. They have the cutest conversations, and as her mom, it’s really neat how much joy her friends bring to her life.
New favorite activity around our house: Pushing the coffee table up against the couch and jumping around. Someone will break a bone soon, but they love this for some reason. We want a new living room set anyway, soooo whatever girls. Be kids. Have a ball. I’ll just be in the kitchen picking my battles until one of you inevitably starts crying.
Wednesday was their last day of preschool. We originally thought we were closing on this house March 9th, so we went ahead and pulled their enrollment after February. I boohoo’ed like a flipping idiot (predictable) saying goodbye to their teachers, but more than that, I’m just going to miss their school so much. Hadley has been attending since she was 21 months old, so there’s just a lot of memories, and it’s not like this school and these people (teachers and friends) will just be down the road. I hate this part of moving and am glad we don’t have to do it anymore after this because goodbyes are so ridiculously painful for me. Hate them.
For a last day of school treat, we ran by a new rolled ice cream parlor in town called Pandora. It was pricey ($6 for a standard cup with a few included toppings), so the girls and I just split one (which was plenty). They fought like cats and dogs over who the bowl was closest to, so I think as far as ice cream goes we’ll stick to the cheap stuff at Sonic so they can have their own. This was fun to try though, and I’d recommend going at least once since it’s a unique concept! Manhattan, Kansas friends, this place is over in Aggieville!
Ahh, and last but certainly not least, our new copper pan. Let me tell you about our new love affair with this kitchen item. My mom has always said that a lot of household things generally have a lifespan of seven years and then they bite the dust, and that has definitely rung true with our pots and pans that we received as a wedding gift. No matter what we’re cooking or how well the pan is sprayed, our food would stick terribly.
I grabbed a copper pan like this on a whim while browsing Marshall’s during a showing, and I cannot sing its praises enough! We plow through 3-4 dozen eggs a week in this house (gasp), so a good pan is crucial. We’ve only had it for three weeks, so I cannot yet speak to its longevity, but so far we are beyond pleased. I grabbed this picture from Amazon because it accurately shows how eggs truly just slide right off and into your plate. PHENOMENAL. Do you have any copper pans? Have they lasted? We are hand-washing it every time to try to baby it as much as possible! At its super affordable price point, we’re okay if it doesn’t last seven years. 🙂 Grab you one here!
Whoops! One more thing I’ve been meaning to share. I believe in the power of prayer and wanted to ask for it here. Jamie’s uncle was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma last month, and his daughter (Jamie’s cousin) is due with her first baby next week. It’s simply a super wild time for their family; When it rains, it pours! He’s hoping to travel from Dallas to Atlanta to meet his new granddaughter, so we’re praying he stays in good enough health to make a quick trip by car. If you’d like to read more about his story, you can find it here. Thank you for the prayers.
Let’s chat!
- Do you have a living room couch or sectional that you are obsessed with? I’d love to hear as we’ll probably start window shopping for deals after we are settled.
- Ever tried rolled ice cream?
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo