Miles & Momma Monday

Well, I didn't quite hit my goal of 3 posts last week.  But I got 2 - and that's better than the week before, so YAY for improvement.  We'll try to work on 3 again this week.

And I'll start off on an easy note - Miles & Momma Monday.  This was a little bit of an up and down weekend.  It started off a little rough.  Thursday night (hey...it was the weekend in college, so it totally counts!) Chad had a late night work function, so we had to break routine and Momma was in charge of putting him to bed.  Or I suppose, attempting to put him to bed.  What actually happened was a lot of screaming that he wanted to sleep on the couch instead of his pack & play, and when I finally gave in, he would lay down for a few minutes then get distracted by some toy or other and get up.  So I would lay him back down and try and get him to settle and he'd lay there for a few minutes then get distracted by some toy or other and get up.  So I would lay him back down....and on and on for 2 hours until Dad got home and used his magic daddy powers to get him to go to sleep.

I think I may need to invest in this book for next time...

Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Luckily, things got better - it was another Home Depot Kids Workshop Weekend.  I have come to look forward to these so much - Miles has so much fun and I probably have more fun watching the enjoyment he gets out of creating something.  And he is so proud when he shows off his creations too.  He couldn't wait to get home and show his papa (who is a semi-professional woodworker)!

After finishing there, we came home and had lunch - I had some leftover pizza, which will be important later.  Chad and I left Miles home with Grammy and Papa while we went out to look at a house (yes we're still building, but there have been some significant delays, so we're keeping our options open for the time being - more on that in a later post).

Saturday night I wasn't feeling so hot, so I went to bed early when Miles did (also because I was supposed to get up early to sing at church with a co-worker)....remember that leftover pizza I ate?  Let's just say singing didn't happen on Sunday morning.  I spent the whole day on the couch and went to bed early again (and still had to spend today working from home - in bed).  I hate when I'm sick and all Miles wants to do is play with me. :-(  Here's hoping this is just a quick bug and I can get back to lil man quickly!

So up and down, yes, but any time I get to spend with my baby boy is good time (even if he's keeping me up 2 hours past my bedtime)!  Until next time friends,

Miles & Momma Monday

It's been a minute since my last MMM post - one that was really MMM and not vaguely child-related tips - so why not?

This weekend had some prime MM time because my parents (who we are still living with...more about that in a future post) went out of town - so it was like we were living as a family of 3 again.

We started off the weekend with dinner at Red Robin.  I wasn't super hungry, so I planned on doing something light...like a salad.  Then I saw that they had poutine on the menu.  And my light dinner flew out the door.  For those of you reading who are not Canadian, poutine is a dish sent straight from heaven.  It's french fries with gravy and cheese curds.  And it's delicious!  I don't know why it's not a staple in our fat American diet.  Seems like it would fit in nicely.

Anyway, while it wasn't the best poutine I've ever had (that came from Crabby Joe's in Canada and had bbq pork added to it...mmm...I'm in major fat kid mode right now...like Homer Simpson dreaming of donuts), it was really quite delicious.
And of course, because we were at Red Robin, I got the obligatory Freckled Lemonade.  Miles doesn't drink juice yet, but he had no problem commandeering my glass in order to steal ALL of my strawberries.  Little punk.

We also spent a lot of time at our home builder's office/homesite.  There has been zero progress (perhaps even negative progress, depending on how you look at it).  We had a few conversations with a few different people and while they're behind, we at least feel somewhat reassured that it's not too far behind (for now...we'll see if that remains to be the case).
Miles loves going out to the site because it is full of construction trucks, which are his new favorite thing.  My parents bought him a new book Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker and now he's obsessed with cement trucks ("ment"), dump trucks ("truck"), excavators, and bulldozers ("boo boo boo").  So each time we went to visit, he got to watch the trucks work a little bit, which he loved.
Because we had such full days this weekend, it also meant that lil man was pretty tuckered out in the evenings (which was fine by me, because so was I, frankly).  He went to bed early every night and he was in prime cuddling mood too, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The one thing he was not this weekend, was interested in having his picture taken with momma.  So while I attempted to get more than just 2 pictures, I failed miserably.  I did write his name on a styrofoam cup though...so there's that.

My parents came back last night, so now it's back to life as we know it. I have a goal to actually complete 3 blog posts this week.  So stay tuned to see it I can accomplish that....we'll see!
Until next time friends...

Building a House...A cautionary tale

I mentioned in my life update post that we had decided to build a new home here in Tennessee.  We've been so excited about the prospect of building from scratch and getting the home we really, really want.  We had mixed reactions from friends and family to this idea.  I have a few friends who have built recently and had amazing experiences - they had so much fun with the process and would do it again in a heartbeat.  We also had some warning from family & their friends that it can be an incredibly trying and stressful process, and that some of the local builders had not so great reputations.

In the end, we decided to go with a national builder - Beazer Homes - so we don't get a whole lot of customization options - but sticking to a timeline, transparency in the process, and strict quality control are much more highly scrutinized with a national company who don't just have a local reputation to uphold, but also their reputation in all areas they are building.  In our case, Beazer has communities in 13 states, so we figured they had to be doing something right.

I had read a few negative reviews online for their communities in other states - but I always try to take those with a grain of salt.  Unhappy people are much quicker to speak up than those who are incredibly happy.  And definitely more than (what I assume are the majority of) people who are adequately satisfied.  I was also comforted by the fact that a high ranking employee responded to most, if not all, of those complaints to try and help the owners come to a resolution.  So I felt pretty confident in our decision.

We even got their social media department's attention with this cutie!
Still waiting to hear from them on that advertising deal though...






But anyway, we were excited - not only to move in, but to watch and document the building process.  We chose our model and floor plan.  The home is called the Ashford.  The floor plan we chose has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a study, walk-in pantry, bonus room, and covered porch.

This is an example of the elevation we chose, along with our chosen floor plans  -

There were no model homes of this floor plan, but we loved what we saw on paper.

Once that was finalized, we made our appointment for our wiring (we're getting a cable hook up in the garage...welcome to Tennessee), and for our exterior and interior options (setting that was a bit of a hassle, but it was worked out quickly and the actual appointment was amazing (and they really liked us.  They said the average appointment was 2 hours long and they had done one the day before that was 8 hours!  We were in and out in an hour and a half...boom)!

I was/am really excited about our choices.  We went with an exterior that is very similar to the photo above.  We both love neutrals and greys for a home color scheme, so we're sticking with that.

We were completely OBSESSED with the way the kitchen was styled in the community's model home (it was not our floor plan, but had a similar open design), so we mimicked it as much as we could. 

We did the stainless appliances, White cabinets, dark island, white/grey granite and a grey backsplash.  The difference is that we chose grey paint instead of that light green, and we chose a lighter hardwood for the floors.

So naturally, we were super excited to see everything start to come together.  We signed our contract at the end of June.  We picked out all our stuff mid-July.  Here's what our lot looked like when we signed...

And here's what our lot looks like today (more than 2 months later)...

yeah...that's not a mistake.  The only thing that's changed is the house in the background is finished and just about move-in ready.  Our house?  Is now about 2 months behind schedule and instead of December, we're looking at a February move-in.

The reason?  A road on the back-half of the development area (the complete opposite side from our lot) needs to be paved before they can begin construction on those houses.  There had been a few days of rain that set back that process (how 3 days of rain = 2 months of progress...I'm not really sure).  We tried to convince the builders that the road in question did not impact our build at all and rather than just sit around waiting to get that road paved, they may as well get started on our home and keep the momentum going.  They actually entertained us for a minute.  But as it turns out, they split the phase into 2 parts.  1A and 1B.  Building permits for 1B haven't been issued yet, and won't be until the road is done.  Guess who's house is in 1B (despite being physically located in 1A)?  Oh yes.  So even though they technically could be building our house right now, they can't.  Because, bureaucracy.  The city won't even entertain a special permit to move our lot into the 1A group (at least, that's what they told us).  

So dealing with that delay has been a major headache.  We seriously considered walking away.  Especially because, with my new job, the location is no longer ideal - it's actually kind of terrible.  We looked at a few other homes and communities.  In the end (at least for now), we've decided to stick with it.  It's a major pain in the ass, but we really do love the home we chose and it is really hard to find something that lives up to it (we did find a community we liked better - but it was in an even worse location and made zero sense whatsoever, which was a bummer).  

Luckily, they just finished a new model with our exact floor plan recently.  We were able to walk through and get a really good feel for what we would be moving into (in 6 months..........).  It helped to get us excited about the situation again and reaffirmed our decision to stick with it (for now...god only knows what will happen if they try and tell us that there's been another delay).

In the meantime, I'm hoping that I'll be able to post updates about the progress very soon and keep you all posted about our experience building a new home.  And until next time....

Edit....it is now storming...add another month to our timeline...lol.  but no, really.

A life Update - Part 1

I totally forgot to post this on Friday...oops.  So you'll get 2 posts today.   Please to enjoy...

So, prior to this week, it had been 6 months since my last post and that post was just an announcement that I was shutting down this blog.  So really, it's been 11 months since my last post with anything meaningful.  Well...but that was just a photo dump.  So my last post with real, written content was over a year ago. That's so crazy to me.  It definitely doesn't seem like it's been that long, since I sat and typed some rambling dribble about my life to whomever randomly navigated over to my little section of the Internet.

And a LOT has changed in that year.  So much so, that I need to break it up into multiple posts. Part 1 is what's been going on at Chateau Cooper in general.  Come back Monday for a Momma & Miles update (which we all know is what's way more interesting)!

So a few highlights - I had pneumonia in October, which occurred as a result of my continuing to work through a cold, which had turned into the flu.  Apparently, it is important to rest when you're sick...or something.

We took a trip to Tennessee in October.  We visited the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel, went trick-or-treating at the zoo, went to the aquarium, a children's museum, and a petting farm.  We had a great time, but basically reaffirmed that we would never move to Tennessee.

I made a big investment in my Jamberry business and decided to attend the Regional Jamberry Conference in Columbus, OH.  I learned that in some dueling piano bars, the waiters will take their shirts off and dance on the pianos.

Despite never wanting to shoot or own a gun, my husband convinced me to go to the range with him one day.  While there, the instructor on duty convinced me to try it.  Turns out, I'm sort of a natural.  By the end of the session, he had invited me to join his competitive shooting team.  He did not invite Chad (teehee).  I politely declined, but was excited to have a new skill.  By the end of the year, Chad and I both got our CPLs - though I still have no desire to actually carry anything.

In January, I lost my great aunt, Sr. Kathleen.  We had been very close when I was younger - she was really like a 3rd grandmother to me, but she developed alzheimer's and we lost touch at the end of her life.  I feel very guilty that I did not continue to write and send Christmas cards each year.  I'm sure she would have liked to be remembered, even if she didn't remember me.  I thought about her all the time, but I still feel like I didn't do enough.  My most fond memory of her was staying at her apartment and reading the Warm Fuzzy tale.  After we had read the story, we made our own warm fuzzies then went around and gave them to the other residents.  She always told me that the rule of fuzzies was that they must always come with a hug.  So we passed out these fuzzies and hugs and it made all of our nights.  So for her funeral, I made up a bunch of warm fuzzies and gave them to the other attendees, along with the required hug.  I feel like she would have appreciated that.

In the time since my last post, I attended 3 Tigers games and TigersFest (which was a disaster and could be another post all on its own, so I'll spare you that).  This season is not turning out well, but I love my boys and I will anxiously await a big turnaround next year.

So now for the big stuff.  Remember how a few paragraphs ago, I said we had reaffirmed our desire to NEVER move to Tennessee?  Well....

In May, Chad was recommended and hired for a new job.  The catch?  The job is in Tennessee and he started 2 weeks later.  Woah.  We had been casually discussing the possibility of making a move to Tennessee in the future to be closer to family, but our goal was to get there before Miles started kindergarten...not anytime soon.  But it was an opportunity we could not pass up, so of course, he took it.  And we started prepping for a huge move, and put our house on the market.

One of the big questions was what would I do for work?  We figured if we sold the house quick enough, we'd be OK for  a little while on one income, but I'd need to hit the ground running once I got there.  Well...luck was apparently on our side.  When I called my boss to give my 2 weeks' notice, I mentioned that I would be willing to stay on and continue to work remotely.  Maybe it was just good timing (2 high level employees had also quit that day), but she agreed.  I mean...could it have gotten any better than that?!

About 24 hours after our house went on the market we got an offer.  It was a terrible offer, but in the end, we decided to accept it.  The money we made off of it would cover most (if not all) of a down payment on a new house and we wouldn't have to worry about the mortgage.  The closing process took entirely too long and we almost backed out a few times, but in the end, we got it done and we were no longer homeowners - which was awesome.

We had hoped that once we got settled in, we would find a new house and be out of my parents (who had graciously let us stay with them until we found other arrangements) in a couple of months.  Well, our first weekend in town we found the perfect house.  Only problem?  It wasn't built yet.  We have wanted to build since we got married, so we jumped at the opportunity.  This means that we're staying where we are for a little longer than we had hoped...but if it means getting into an amazing house - it will be worth it!  Our expected move-in date is December...hopefully we'll be in our new home by Christmas!

About 2 weeks into our new life in Tennessee, I got a call from an employment recruiter for a local company.  They had a few departments looking for Business Analysts and he thought I would be a good fit (I didn't apply for this company...this guy found me on LinkedIn and reached out on his own).  I went to two interviews and got 2 job offers.  Holy Crap.  I had an ideal work situation...working from home at a job I knew and did well.  But this was an opportunity that would allow me tremendous potential for growth (something I didn't have at my current job) and a big salary bump.  I couldn't, realistically, pass it up.  I felt awful - because my company had made a lot of special accomodations to let me keep working.  But...this was the best decision for my family and my career so I had to do it.  I also agreed to stay on as an as-needed contractor with my (former) company for 2 months during the transition in case they had something that they just couldn't do without me.  They haven't called yet... :-)  But I'm loving my new job and I'm so excited about everything I'm going to learn here.  

And now...I think that's just about it.  You're caught up with more information than you ever wanted to know.  So until Monday....