update

so it's been almost 2 months since my last blog post. basically we are in a very busy season of life and i haven't felt like blogging.

we are feverishly working on getting our house finished and on the market sometime this month. roundabout April we realized we'd never meet that goal working alone so we enlisted some help. that's when "Drywall Daryl" (as Dave affectionately refers to him) entered our lives. We were very impressed with Daryl's work on repairing the drywall in our laundry room and great room, how well he did and how he would work as late as needed to finish the job, and as a result we later contracted him to paint the great room (actually my mom offered to pay for him to paint it so she wouldn't have to help us paint anything else...haha! what a great gift!)

anyways, Daryl is a very interesting guy and we've both had a great time getting to know him and listening to his animated stories. he's a 54 year old Napolean Dynamite yet also very very similar to Dave in his attention to detail and wanting to take his time and do a job "right" the first time. his favorite subjects to speak on are his ancestors, especially dear old Sparta who reigned from Arkansas and had his wife committed to an asylum so he could marry another woman, his 90 year old smoking, drinking mother who still parties and dances out at the bars, his aunt who beat up her cheating boyfriend with a high heel, his "maxed out"  Duster muscle car, how he can tell if a "Mexican" has done the drywall in a house and "slam-banged" it, and of course his ex wife and current girlfriend who are women who can "smell money". he said when he gets home with his earnings, the women in his life will have their hands out. one of the highlights of our conversations was when he was imitating the voice of one of his female chain smoking clients and he started having a coughing fit because of course he too smokes....anyways, I could go on for hours documenting all the important life lessons we've taken away from our talks with Daryl but I must get on with the day...All in all, we feel we've made a great friend and he even offered to help us over the phone when we move to Ohio on drywall/plaster projects.

we have also hired a guy to do a lot of work outside. we realize that we have been incredibly spoiled by Daryl's stay-till-job-is-done mentality. Although this new guy is doing a fabulous job his average work day is 2-3 hours long, and that includes a 1 hour lunch break. So the exterior work is coming along rather slowly. As soon as we get a few more inside projects done I plan to go out there and make some things happen. Perhaps if I'm getting things done faster than this guy it will motivate him to work more...?

Nevertheless, our house is finally coming together. All we have left inside is hanging the ceiling fans in the great room, getting carpet laid in there, hanging the curtains and rods, putting on the baseboards, installing new doors and windows in there-which we are hiring done, and tiling the bar counter (and finding stools tall enough for it....). And then my favorite, decorating! I can not wait to move the furniture back in the great room and decide on some of the details in there.

It has been our goal for roughly 10 years to move back to Ohio and Dave start his own business and it seems like things are falling into place this year to make that happen.We are in the beginning stages of working out details with Dave's parents to purchase their home and they are planning to move next door. Perhaps I'm the only one of the 4 of us who thinks this, but I feel that we all are moving cautiously in making all these arrangements because the four of us do have such good relationships now that we would not want any hard feelings, etc. or anything to happen to jeopardize our close relationships. Just in my short life I have seen properties, money, etc. come in between family members far too many times. And I know that hard feelings can begin and then fester into something much bigger if not shared with one another.

In other news, in January, when Levi was 6 months old, I finally admitted to myself and others that I had post partum depression. I have been on a journey since then climbing out of that low place in my life where I rarely got dressed and spent most of my free time surfing the net and eating chocolate chips. Seriously. Some days my only food was choc chips. That depression eating caused me to actually gain back all and more of the weight I lost right after having Levi not to mention created terrible eating habits and sugar/caffeine/sweet addictions that I'm fighting to this day. Just this week I've decided to enroll at the local YMCA and enlist the advice of a nutrition consultant. I am trying to make lasting changes.

In January I also started seeing a therapist a couple times a month and then starting in March Dave began coming along for a little marriage counseling. This time has been very valuable to our marriage. We LOVED our pre-marriage counseling and always wanted to do something like that again so now we actually are. It seems that since we were married 8 years before having Levi we have had a lot of adjusting to do this year with getting used to having him in the picture. Feeling the need to provide for his wife and new baby Dave has kicked into high gear workaholicism and that in itself contributed to my feelings of loneliness early on last fall. Some people say I shoudl be thankful that my husband does work hard, etc. but when my love languages are acts of service and quality time that doesn't leave me feeling v ery loved when he works 12+ hours/day 6 days/week and then spends Sunday at church and then sleeping while I continue to care for Levi. ................hhhhhhhhhhhh............anyways. I think that we're slowly coming up with some solutions to make life more fun and less frustrating. And I'm thankful that we have such a great counselor and friend who is willing to listen to us argue every other week. :)

Also, last night in reading a homeschool mom's blog I was reminded of reading Created to be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl and I realized that although a lot of the things the counselor has recommended  are true I also need to change my basic attitude and think more in the mode of a Help Meet and less of  a liberated feminist needing Dave to pull his weight in this family! It is hard because it is so anti-mainstream culture and I know of absolutely no real life example of someone who really lives this way 100% of the time (but yeah, none of us are perfect...)....but it is my goal.