myJaxon

myjaxon September 4th, 2008

I so totally have yard envy. I completely blame my father since it really is all of his fault. He loves his yard and likes to take care of it. Plus, he has an awesome backyard. Let me show you. This is his back yard: (going from left to right)

Isn’t this an amazing backyard. It’s so big I couldn’t even get it in one shot or even two, but I need to take three pictures. The last (fourth) shot was a closeup of the flowerbed he put in awhile ago. My father has just under an acre of land and pretty much all of it is unused land. The yard is split in half with a line of trees and he even has a huge garden out in one corner. There is so much room here, we could easily build Ian a huge play structure of his own and we would never have to go to the park. Talk about the parties we could have…the playdates…just the enjoyment of such a yard. Yeah, I’m envious. Because this is what I have:

Don’t get me wrong, I love my yard. We did really good considering the area we live in. But when you grow up with the yard up above and spend a long weekend enjoying it. Coming back to mine is kind of…dull.  In theory, we could put up a swing set for Ian, but it would take up a lot of space and we really don’t have that much to begin with.  At just under .25 acres, our lot is kind of small.  It works for us though.  Especially since we don’t have the time or energy to put into our yard that my father does for his.  However, it’s still a shock going from one to the other.  I’m allowed my yard envy…after all, I’ll get his someday.

• Family , Random Thoughts
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myjaxon June 9th, 2008

Yesterday, the three of us learned a very valuable lesson…always check the weather report before going swimming.  We were down at the pool testing out a new float for Ian (he wasn’t amused by it, but there were a lot of kids in the pool too) when someone noticed the sky getting dark in the west.  Since we didn’t like what we saw, we decided to get out of the pool and head home.  Before we left the area, someone noticed lightening in the distance, so we made a mad dash out of the area.  We just started back when the rain hit.  Another 100 yards and the torrential downpour began.  We sought cover up by another apartment, but after a few minutes, when it didn’t look like it was going to let up, Jesse ran for the car.

During the entire time, Ian didn’t make a sound.  He was such a champ.  We had him wrapped in a towel, since we had just gotten out of the pool, and he was sitting in his stroller (not strapped in), and he was just enjoying the ride.  Once the rain start, I threw one of the towels over the stroller to try and cover him a little, but the wind wasn’t helping and that’s when we decided to seek cover.  Ian faced the building for most of it, but he didn’t complain once.  He was such a good boy.

When Jesse pulled the car around, I had Ian in my arms (so we could run easier) and the two of us slide into the front seat.  Since we weren’t leaving the parking lot, I kept him up front so we wouldn’t be stuck in the rain any longer.  I know, it wasn’t exactly smart to ride like that, but we weren’t in the car that long.  When we got back to the apartment, we made another mad dash and got inside.

I should also mention that while Ian and I were camping up by the building, the sirens went off.  The owner of the apartment heard them and came out to investigate and found us at his door.  We talked for a moment and found out that the sirens were for a tornado warning.  Perfect, just what we needed.  As soon as we got home, we shut ourselves in the laundry room (after grabbing clothes for me and the laptop) to ascertain how long the warning was for.  Thankfully, it wasn’t for that long and we were able to come out after a few minutes.   This was when Ian decided complain a little.  We wouldn’t let him play with the furnace and he wasn’t crazy about being shut in such a small area.  I have to agree with him though. It wasn’t fun since I was wet and wanted to get out of my swimsuit.

Today, Jesse heard some interesting horror stories at work today and even out realtor, Frank, had some trouble – he had a tree in his pool and another neighbor’s tree in his front yard.  All in all, the three of us survived the experience and we’re going to make sure we check the weather report next time before we go to the pool.

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myjaxon May 21st, 2008

It finally happened…my glasses broke. They’ve been in sad repair for quite some time now, and we were going to get them replaced once we received our tax rebate check, but I don’t think we can wait anymore. Even now, I’m writing this completely by muscle memory as I can’t make out ll
It finally happened…my glasses broke. They’ve been in sad repair for quite some time now, and we were going to get them replaced once we received our tax rebate check, but I don’t think we can wait too much longer.  As it is, I’m typing this from muscle memory since I can’t make out the words as they scroll across the screen.

While the glasses are over three years old, they weren’t doing too bad until Ian got his hands on them.  He was an infant and grabbing new things was how he learned.  Unfortunately, he still hasn’t gotten it through his head that my glasses are MINE and not HIS.  While  he wasn’t the one who napped him, he did help with the problem.  I was messing with the frames because they weren’t feeling right and viola…off comes to bow.

Heaven help me…I’ll be with a toddler all day and barely able to see.

• Ian , Random Thoughts
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myjaxon March 16th, 2008

As a lot of people are aweare, we’ve been house hunting for about a month now. Each time I look at a house, I try to imagine what we would have where and what we would do to the place. I know Jesse and our Realtor may think I’m crazy about setting up each house as we see it, but that is what is going to make it a home and if I can’t envision us living there, then why would we buy it? Either way, as we’ve gone through the houses, the same things keep coming up. Things I want to do in order to make it ours. That includes how to decorate the individual rooms, anything we need to buy for the house, or anything we need to build. Here’s what I want to do to our new home, wherever that may end up:

• Ian’s bedroom: Yes he is going to get his own bedroom. He needs to get out of ours. I’m not really sure what I want to do yet, but I do know that he’s going to need his own shelves, something with baskets to more easily store his toys, and a paint job. At one house, I noticed that hte owners had painter their child’s room in two colors – the walls were a green and the trim was yellow. I wouldn’t use the same colors as they did, but it did give me an idea of what I could do with Ian’s room.
• Jesse’s office: He wants his own room where he can escape. At the moment, the plan is to build a room in the basement of whatever house we get. We would prefer an unfinished basement so we can pick where the office would be and finish the basement ourselves, but we’re not being that picky about it.
• Basement: The house has to have a basement. For one, it’s additional space that doesn’t get included in the square footage of a house; and two, it’s an area that we can build to suit our needs. Currently, the plan for the basement is to divide it into three sections: Jesse’s office, laundry & storage room, and the the rest of the area to be used as a family/play room. Someplace for all the DVDs, video games, and most of Ian’s bigger toys.
• Kitchen: I like the cook, so the kitchen has be to function and have plenty of room. At the moment, I can’t really say what would need to be done since it would depend on the house we buy.
• Washer & Dryer: Must have. According to our Realtor, we can always ask to include the washer and dryer in with the rest of the appliances, but if we don’t end up with any, then that’s fine. I can make do with a laundromat for a couple of weeks, but we would end up buying new machines fairly quickly. When we do get the machines, I want to spend some money on them. I’m not saying we’re going to get top of the line, but I don’t want a pair of cheaps ones as well. Something in between that will do big loads (I would rather do one load of laundry than multiples) and is energy efficient as well.
• Dining Room Table: I want a dining table. We currently do not have anything. When we eat dinner, it’s either sitting on the couch in the living room or standing up in the kitchen (depending on what we’re having). I want to be able to sit down to a meal with Jesse and Ian at a real table.
• New Furniture: I’m sure this one is way down on the priority list, but I would really love to get new furniture. Something that is ours and not dug out of the trash or given to us by someone else. I’m not saying our current furniture is bad, but it’s not all that comfortable. The couches are great considering they only cost us $200 for the both of them, but after sitting on them for too long, you end up with a sore butt.
• Wired: Jesse wants to wire the entire house up with ethernet (in some form) plus have wireless throughout the entire house.

I’m sure I’ll continue to add to this list, but that’s all I can think of right now. At the moment, we do have a house we’re interested in. Nothing has happened with it yet, we just saw it yesterday and we want to see it two more times before making an offer. But if I had to go on my gut instinct, something tells me we will be making an offer within the next week. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

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myjaxon March 2nd, 2008

• Ian
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