No Stress in the Nest

So here we are, coming to you from rural Kentucky where we're living in my husband's parents basement. It's a glamorous life, but we try to stay grounded.

Aaactually, we love it here and are having a ball. Outside of the whole "we're living with my husband's parents" stigma, this whole arrangement has really been ideal! It's great to spend time with Ali and Bryan (who are also here this summer before going to dental school this fall), along with the other members of Andrew's extended family. I love not having a whole house to clean or being solely responsible for grocery shopping, meal planning or preparation. Asher is LOVING being around his grandparents. It's sweet to see, although I admit I sometimes miss being one of his two favorite people.

Andrew and I have both been able to work during the day (he works at Wing Supply and I substitute teach) while my saint of a sister-in-law watches Asher along with baby Henry. We get together with Andrew's extended family once or twice a week, attend institute Tuesdays and choir practice Wednesdays. Nights at home are usually spent playing games or watching something together, and honestly, I just love it. No stress in the nest. I know it's only temporary, but sometimes I wish it wasn't.

Here are a few pictures from Easter weekend:

All the Grandkids - Asher, Henry, Parker and Aubrey

Asher propositions Henry

Henry rejects

The whole family

Springtime on Geneva Way

As the weather has gotten nice, Asher has grown increasingly fond of the outdoors. He'll tell me "Bye!" and then scamper off to attempt forcing the back door open. It's cute. I've tried to accommodate his new love, although spending any amount of time outside leaves that earthy smell on us (you know that smell? Sort of a mix between plants and pollution?), and then we both need baths. Have I mentioned I'm a little neurotic?

At any rate, now that he's walking, I've taken to removing his shoes (seems counter intuitive, but this way he doesn't fall as much), and letting him toddle around the yard and in the driveway. This was enough to satisfy his nature fix until our neighbors across the street let their Yorkies out. Just like that, our boy was on to harder drugs.

Now anytime we leave the house, Asher yells "Doggy!" and beelines for the beloved terriers. We are blessed to have nice neighbors - Gayle and Debbie,  a mother/daughter pair who are always sweet, welcoming, and tolerant of our antics.

Here are a few pictures from our most recent excursion. Daddy had just come home from work and was able to join in the fun (aka, help wrangle Asher).

He's so happy!

...until we tell him it's time to go home.

The view from across the street. I love how the trees are just beginning to wake up.

It's been a lovely three years. We're going to miss this house and our street!

Don't Turn Around

The title of this post was designed to implant an Ace of Base song in your head, but it also refers to an important lesson Asher teaches me every day. Here are just a couple examples of what happens when I turn my back on our little man, even for a minute.

We were depending on those to keep us full and focused, but Asher had other plans.

Asher's brush with e coli. Keep playing with it baby, Mommy's gonna take a picture.

He seriously loves trying to find where I hid the toilet brush! It's sort of an unsanitary little game we like to play.

The face he makes when you try to take it away.

And here's for old time's sake:

Dream Vacation

So the contractor came and ripped out a wall. As it turns out, there's no mold, just mildew. I'm glad. It sounds a lot less scary. But I suppose Andrew has a bad mildew allergy, because being in the basement still gives him trouble. Medicine and sleeping upstairs have helped, however, and we are looking forward to the basement being cleared out, cleaned up and back to normal. In the meantime, we're still moving.

While all this was going on, we decided to take a trip to Columbus to get out of the house, use Andrew's paid time off, and find a place to live. Maybe a little trip to Ohio doesn't sound like a big deal, but we were excited! We realized this would be the first real trip we've ever taken alone together as a family. I kept imagining us splashing around in the pool together, relaxing in the hot tub, gorging ourselves on continental breakfasts, and jumping on the king size bed in slow motion.

Seriously.

We headed out last Saturday, and on the way, stopped by Lebanon to visit Andrew's cousin Josh, his wife Chelsea, and their 3 adorable little ones. It was a lot of fun! The kids played, we grilled out, made a trip to Jungle Jim's (a huge, AMAZING international food store) in Cincinnati, made some Brazilian cheese bread, relaxed and went to bed. It was a quick visit, but we loved seeing them.

The next morning we headed out early to make it to church in Columbus. I was a little nervous to go to the ward we'd likely be members of the next four years (please don't let these people be weird!), but we were blown away by how incredibly welcoming and friendly everyone was. We had planned to stay in our car and eat trail mix until check-in, but that afternoon found us eating lunch with strangers who seemed like friends. They even let Asher take a nap and filled us in on tons of housing info. Burke and Julia, if you're out there, know we are grateful for your kindness! We want to send you a fruit basket.

We spent the rest of the day hopping around town looking at lots of places with members, having dinner with more stranger friends, and checking into our hotel. We thought we would end the day with a little dip, so we pulled on our swim gear and headed to the pool like giddy school children.

The door was locked. Closed for maintenance.

Vacation dreams partially shattered, I pouted for at least an hour. Thanks for nothing, Comfort Inn. We came here because we wanted the best. If we'd have wanted some dumpy hotel with no pool we could have booked a Microtel.

Okay, just kidding. The pool really was closed, but it opened the next day so all was forgiven. Monday we saw several more places and stopped by Chic-Fil-A for lunch, where Asher had his first Play Place experience. It was so cute to watch him play with all the other kids!

Wild delight. Sorry for the blurry phone picture.

Plum tuckered out after all his running around

We headed back to Louisville Tuesday afternoon, only to leave again Wednesday for Central City. Andrew had the whole week off, so we figured it would be fun to spend Conference weekend with his family. Have I ever told you how much I love those sweet people? They really are wonderful.

We spent the next four days talking, relaxing, playing games, eating too much, and hearing from inspired leaders. Kind of a perfect weekend. 

Saturday morning in bed with Daddy. Still mesmerised by the iPhone. No, Asher doesn't sleep with us, and yes, he wears clothes.

Our sweet boy enjoying the beautiful weather

The End