Hooste Happenings

I am procrastinating manual labor in a big way. Tomorrow morning we are having wood floors installed in the living room and hallway. We have saved for over a year, and I'm so excited that it's tomorrow.

I still have a few more baseboards to remove. In my defense there is a heavy entertainment center in the front of one of the walls that I can't move myself. We have piles everywhere, and furniture is kind of just shoved against walls where they are completely not functional.

I hate clutter. There is not one darn thing I can do about it until the floor guys come and I can neatly put everything back in it's place. In honor of my borderline hoarder living situation I've decided I need some Reese's peanut butter cup therapy.

Speaking of treats...I narrowly avoided diabetes this week. I found myself at Walmart during their post Valentine's day half price chocolate sale. (This should be the real holiday!) I had my cart loaded up with the deals. I can't help myself. I love snagging a bargain almost as much as I love chocolate! Thankfully, I came to my senses. It took a while of careful reflection, but I managed to talk myself into just ONE single bag of candy.

Yesterday was Jared's 32 birthday. He is one year and 3 weeks younger than me. A fact that he reminds me of year round, but with renewed gusto from Jan. 23 until Feb 15. For those 3 weeks he is technically 2 years younger than me. He loves to rub my face in it. Ah, how I never tire of hearing how young he is, and how ancient I am.

Jared wasn't feeling well, so we kept it low key at home. The kids & I decorated with streamers -- that Hadley kept pulling down and I got the opportunity to hang back up. We filled up balloons with 32 reasons why we love Jared. I was surprised that Adam came up with things that Jared has done with him in the past, sometimes over a year ago. He loved that Jared took him camping and taught him about gardening. Hadley was very insisted that hers say, "Jesus Christ, AMEN!!!!" When I asked her, "Do you like that daddy reads you stories?" Her reply again would be, "JEEEESSSSUUUSSSS Christ, Amen!" She was repeatedly so insistent that we wrote in, "Jesus Christ, Amen." I'm guessing that is her way of saying thank you for teaching me to pray. Or she could just be being a 2 year old stinker. I think we enjoyed coming up with reasons as much as Jared enjoyed reading them. We are lucky he's ours.

Adam has hit some kind of record growth spurt. He's almost up to my shoulders now, which doesn't even seem possible. He is growing up, and out of all of his shirts. I've been looking for some new stuff for him, but I'm just not into the bigger boy fashion options. Does every t-shirt need to have some variation of a skull on it? Can there not be some happy medium between garanimals and skeletons? Luckily, we had some bigger pants, but in the meantime all of his shirts are starting to look like midriffs on him.

Hadley is evolving in potty training. Some days she does great, and some days we end up cleaning a lot of messes off my little pony. She will not be bribed with toys, candy, stickers, or activities. If she wants to do it that day she will, and if she doesn't, she won't. There is only one thing more frustrating than parenting a child that is nothing like you...and that is parenting one that acts exactly like you. She's still our sweetheart, and I try to remember that one day she will decide that she wants to do it. Until then, we keep trying.