super-monster

Honestly, this Halloween sucked. We decided to dress Jake up as Superman, but he decided he wanted to be a monster. Seriously, I think he cried the entire weekend. He's going through a phase where he screams absolute bloody murder at bedtime. As soon as we even walk through his bedroom door his body goes rigid and he tries to squirm out of my arms. It's HORRIBLE every night and drives us nuts!!!

I think you'll find his costume...obviously last-minute.

Here is my awesome Jack Skellington pumpkin. Carved it alllll by myself, while watching Hocus Pocus with my mom and sister.

Here's a sneak preview of our counter top! Britton actually installed it this weekend but we didn't take a picture of the final product yet.

And here is our CARPET! It is so nice.

We will be moving in to the duplex this coming weekend, the 13th. Finally!!!

Pants Optional

Jake was born with really weird nails on his big toes. I cut one of them too short, thinking I would fix the issue.

Instead, he got a nasty in-grown toe nail that got infected and oozed brown puss. Antibiotics, soaking it in neosporin non-stop for 2 weeks, and still no better. We won a trip to the podiatrist where Jake got his toe nail ripped off. Believe me, I have seen some nasty things. That was one of the worst.

Here he is, showing off his bandaged foot.

Pumpkee

On Saturday we squished into the car with my mom and dad and headed out to the Country Mercantile in Pasco. I was so excited for this trip to the pumpkin patch. Jake is really excited about pumpkins and goes around saying "pumpkee" whenever he sees one. It is adorable. We had a lot of fun...we went at 9:30 in the morning so there would be no chance of running into the beast that comes out around nap time, so it was rather cold. We had a great time and got ripped off paying for kiddie rides that Jake was more confused about than excited.

Mommy and Jakey in the pumpkin patch. I sure love this little guy.

This place was practically run by John Deere tractors. This was an old one they had on display and we couldn't help but put Jake on it for a photo-op. He loved it.

When we first got off the hay ride and into the pumpkin patch Jake was a little confused and scared. So Britton ran around rubbing all the pumpkins and saying "pumpkin" really loud. After a few seconds Jake got excited and started copying his Daddy.

We are getting reeeeeeally close to moving in to the duplex. The carpet goes in November 5th and we are NOT moving that date back. Britton is so worn out from working on it non-stop and both of us are very excited to FINALLY move in to our own home! It will be so nice when it is finished. He has worked so hard on it.

Here's a sneak preview of our new kitchen cabinets...I'll be sure to post final pictures when we're all done!

Oops

I haven't blogged in a long time.

Nursing school does that to you.

Here's the update:

August.

• hung out
• went to the beach
• started school at the end (nasty)
• sister michelle visited from byu (yay)
• i can't remember anything else

September

• haven't uploaded any pictures yet, and barely taken any for that matter
• drove to provo for football game, huskies lost (bummer)
• saw the kradolfers for first time in over a year (too short of a visit--not even a day)
• sister jamie visited from seattle (yay)
• bought a new (used) car, 2009 chevy impala (don't tell dave ramsey)
• still not moved in to our duplex. britton works his tail off to get it ready.
• saw 4 babies come in to the world in OB clinical so far
• Jake has 2 in-grown infected toe nails. minor surgery in october to fix them (that's going to suck)
• i got food poisoning and barfed like there was no tomorrow

the end. maybe i'll post again at Christmas. (maybe)

duplex update and 18 months old!

We Edlers have been pretty busy! Britton goes to work every morning, getting up at 5 and getting home at 6 Monday through Thursday. He eats dinner with us and then drives over to our duplex to work on it just about every night. Fridays and Saturdays he's there from morning until late at night. He's exhausted, and I'm exhausted. It's just me and Jake and no Daddy. Not easy for anyone. Here's some pictures of our side of the duplex, for those who are curious. The other side is just about done, our renter moves in on about August 9.

This is a picture of our kitchen. It's sideways because I'm too lazy to go back and change it. The fridge is newer, we're keeping it. The floor is laminate and I think brand new, so we're keeping that too. It goes in to the little dining room. We're getting a new stove, new countertops, a new sink and adding a dishwasher and garbage disposal. The dishwasher in the picture is one of those mobile ones or whatever you call it and it's super nasty. No way we're keeping it. We're keeping the 1950's cabinets for now, they're not too bad and cabinets are expensive.

This is a picture of the common wall (wall shared with the other half of the duplex) in our living room. There was ugly paneling on it and when Britton ripped it off the original wall was in bad shape. He also put a hole in the wall to see what kind of insulation it had. There was barely any so...

He tore down the sheet rock and ripped out the thin, gross insulation that was there.

This is the other side of the living room. Britton ripped out the carpet (we're getting new carpet in a couple of weeks) and this lovely red tile was underneath it. That staircase goes down to our unfinished basement. And the little hallway goes to the 2 bedrooms and bathroom.

Our side definitely has a looooong way to go. Britton is still convinced we can be ready before I start school, but August 23 is coming up quick. Too quick. August 5 the windows we ordered are coming in, and Britton and his brother will be installing them. That's the next giant project. We'll see how quick they can do it...they need to do it really quick because our renter will be moving in 4 days later...Stress!!!!!!!

So me and Jake have been having a lot of fun together. He turned 18 months on July 22. I can't believe how fast this year and a half has gone. Here's some fun facts about my little man.

• He just started saying some "words": Woooo-ow for wow; uh-uh for uh-oh; he's finally starting to call me mama; whas is dat for what is that; and every dog he sees is a variation of the word gunther, my parents dog...usually da-da, but different then the da-da he says for daddy.
• he's going through a phase where he doesn't want to eat anything. I don't know if he's not hungry or just being super picky. But it's frustrating for both of us.
• he LOVES playing in the water, especially with his cousins.
• if someone gets out a cell phone, he squaks until you let him have it, then he pretends to talk on it
• he dances if you tell him to, or if music is playing
• he can do "wheels on the bus"
• if he kisses you on the lips you better watch out, sometimes it ends with a bite.
• his first day of nursery he walked right in and never looked back!

with Britton's cell phone. This kid is high tech.

Yogurt. One of the few things he will eat. Unfortunately when he does he demands to feed himself and things get a little messy.

He thinks it's pretty hilarious when I put 2 binkies in my mouth and give him kisses.

This has been a wonderful summer with Jake. I love being a stay at home mom and I'm dreading going back to school and having to leave him so much. I love my little guy. He's such a blast!

So rich we bought 2 houses

That's right, 2 houses. Jealous? Jealous? You should be.

Just kidding. But really, we bought a duplex. The second front door is behind the giant ugly bush on the left. We'll be living in one side and renting out the other. It's in Richland, which isn't very cool, but our goal is to be out of this house and living in Kennewick before Jake starts kindergarten. We'll see if that happens. All we know is it's a very good investment. I've heard someone say at some point in my life, that you should find a couple who is where you want to be financially, and do what they do. Britton's older sister and her husband bought a duplex when they were first married about 18 years ago. It is now paid off and paying the mortgage on their current house. The rental market in the Tri-Cities is at 99% capacity. People are basically begging for a place to rent. This duplex is going to be a lot of work. It's a fixer-upper for sure. But Britton has already been hard at work and we plan on having it ready for renters by August 1st. We will probably be able to move in to our side a couple of weeks after that, hopefully before I go back to school on the 23rd (yuck).

In the mean time, Jake and I have been enjoying playing and doing summer things. Except for earlier this week when all 3 of us got a nasty stomach virus. Jake only barfed a couple times in his crib (which we didn't find until after his morning nap, even though he did it the night before). But Britton and I almost died. Really. We both agreed that we'd never had such a terrible bout of the stomach flu before. It was awful, and it took like 5 days for our appetites to come back.

Jake playing with his cousin Emma. Anything she does, he follows. He loves that girl.

Nostalgic Post

Over Memorial Day Weekend Britton, Jake and I were able to head down to my stomping grounds in Northern California. It was a busy few days, with lots and lots of driving. We stayed in Chico with Britton's brother and his wife and 2 girls. Thanks to them for the food and place to sleep, and for helping with little Jake!We left on Thursday at 8pm, hoping Jake would sleep through the night as we chugged caffeine and drove, drove, drove. We brought along Britton's Mom and niece, 8 year old Lindsey. Jake did a great job, eventually falling asleep after the excitement of being in the car with a bunch of people waaaay past his bedtime wore off.

We arrived in Chico at approximately 6:30am, Friday morning.

The purpose of the trip was to attend my dear friend Jordan's wedding.

Me and Jordan were best pals from 7th grade on. Lots of memories. I seriously spent nearly every weekend from 7th grade through high school with Jordan. Nostalgic is the only word to describe what it was like showing up at her house, 5 years after high school, 4 years since seeing her at my wedding reception, with my husband and toddler. Jordan was my best friend, my partner in stealing traffic cones, my punk rock concert buddy, my playing in the park at midnight pal, my eating at Denny's at 1 in the morning go to girl...the list could go on and on. Life would have been pretty boring without Jordan.

Jordan married the boy we had a crush on our freshman year of high school. Taylor. He was a senior. We were awkward freshman. He was in a band. We were awkward freshman. Fast forward 4 years and they meet up in San Diego. Taylor is graduating from UC San Diego. Jordan is a not-so-awkward freshman at San Diego State. Sparks fly...fast forward 4 years and I'm sitting at their wedding.

Congratulations to Jordan and Taylor

A trip to Cottonwood wouldn't be complete without visiting my old street. I grew up on a street called Pheasant Drive. We lived in a house on 2 acres. The front acre was a walnut orchard, the back yard was grass and grass and grass with some trees. It was beautiful. It was the perfect place to grow up and it will always have a special place in my heart. I learned how to play baseball in the backyard, basketball in the drive way. I learned how to work in the orchard. We had a swimming pool...memories of night swimming are some of my favorite. I loved that house. Loved it. After visiting Pheasant Drive and standing at the end of my old driveway with memories flooding my thoughts, I prayed that in the next life, we will be ableto re-visit our childhood and see-up close the memories we made there.

On Sunday morning, the day of the wedding, we took Jake to church and left after the first hour so he could take a nap. He slept for 3 hours and woke up with a temperature of 101. It spiked to 103, and Britton and I left for the wedding feeling like terrible parents, but knowing he was in good hands with his Aunt and Grandma. By the time we got back, he was refusing to eat and would only take milk in a bottle. He was burning hot and couldn't sleep, so at 3am we packed up the car and hoped he would sleep better while we were driving. Thankfully, he did. We were back in Kennewick by about 2pm, took Jake to a walk in clinic where we were told he had strep throat and tonsillitis. Poor little guy. He's doing much better. We splurged a little bit on Tuesday, and got him a couple of things to cheer him up...

an unfinished car...and a Lightening McQueen chair. Pretty stylin'.