why i hate two story houses.

i spent half of my childhood growing up in a two story home.
the summer before 6th grade my parents bought a two story house. i was pretty excited at the time, because i didn’t know any better. also because MY room in our old house was the old “storage room” that my dad had converted to a bedroom by building a closet and a wall. it was approximately the size of a shoebox (a toddler shoe box), and my new room was HUGE.
but with an upstairs room, came something i hadn’t quite conquered (or you wouldn’t think i had, judging by the number of times i fell down them)... STAIRS.
my mom used to get so mad at me for coming down the stairs in shoes that weren’t tied or (years later), strappy heels that weren’t strapped. i can’t even begin to count the number of times i fell down those stairs. it’s honestly astonishing that i never hurt myself.
the ONLY good thing about the stairs at my parents home is that they have a landing in the middle that breaks them up, so it’s not one straight shot if you do fall. the most stairs you could fall down is like 6.
fast forward to having kids and house hunting. a one story house was a MUST when we were house hunting in the woodlands. my pretty little daughter might be the clumsiest thing you’ve ever met and i just wasn’t going to take the risk of adding that obstacle in her life 😂. sweet thing walks into walls like it’s her j-o-b... never looking where she’s going. needless to say, we found our one story, and it was great.
fast forward again to house hunting in bakersfield. our choices were feeeewwww and far between. the one story homes we found were either in dire need for updating, too small, or too expensive. so here we are... living in a two story house.
it’s a beautiful brand new home. and i’ve been on pins and needles waiting for the first fall. i just had knots in my stomach thinking about my kids falling down those steps. presley actually is really good about holding the hand rails, and eli never climbs up or down alone. but you turn your attention to something for one minute and you never know what could happen.

and it did happen.






except, it wasn’t one of my kids.





it was me.




i fell down the stairs.





stop laughing.




i really hurt myself good. i was carrying eli, walking down the stairs, and my foot slipped right from underneath me and i landed really really hard on my back. my head flew back and hit the edge of a step and we slid down to the bottom. eli started crying, so i was sure we were both really hurt. i was carrying him on my hip and his left leg was behind me.
i was finally able to get us up, and, praise God, we are both ok.

4 hours later i’ve got the nastiest purple, red, and black bruise on my back left cheek, and my head is still throbbing. i was dizzy when i first stood up after falling, but it subsided pretty quick, and now it’s just a bad headache.

eli is fine, he was up running around in no time. i think it just really scared him. this whole thing could’ve been so much worse. i’m so thankful it wasn’t!

so, i’m basically a mess. welcome to my two story life.  💁🏼‍♀️

sunday night ramblings

nothing much to share today, but i need something to do before i fall asleep... so here goes.

1. i tried out a new grocery store, vons. it’s the same as randall’s in houston or tom thumb in dallas. and i had high hopes. i saw in my sales papers that lunchables were on sale for 88 cents! 💁🏼‍♀️
vons is actually the closest grocery store to my house so i made a special trip for lunchables.
but....of course. they weren’t sold out of 88 cent lunchables. no. that would be terrible luck. no, no, they just don’t SELL LUNCHABLES IN THAT VONS. is this real life?! what kind of town am i living in that grocery stores don’t sell lunchables? AHEM, lunchables that are ADVERTISED as on sale in the sales papers! 😡

2. speaking of groceries, milk here costs like $3.50/gallon. coincidentally about the same price as a gallon of gas. ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

3. i still haven’t remembered to bring my reusable bags to the grocery store one time.

randy and i took the kids to the park in our neighborhood yesterday and they LOVED it. they wore themselves out running and climbing. i see many more trips there in the next couple years!

yes, that boy up there is eli. i know it’s hard to recognize him without that fuzz sticking up all over his head 😭 randy took him for his first barbershop visit, and now he looks like a BOY and not my baby! 

today we tried out another church, had a diner breakfast, and cleaned out/organized the garage! if all goes well, this will be the first house we will actually be able to park both cars in! 🙌🏼

also... sorry, not sorry, that every picture of my kids they have dirty faces. 🤷🏼‍♀️ just that season of life. 

when you realize you aren’t in texas anymore.

i know i would hit me eventually... but i didn’t know when or where.

i found a walmart neighborhood market about 5 minutes from my house, and i decided to take the kids for a little grocery shopping. all went well, until it comes time to checkout and i forgot my reusable bags... again. now, you might think this might be the “a-ha moment”, when it really hit me that i wasn’t in texas anymore... but i do recall a time when we were living in dallas that they decided to give the ol “charge-ten-cents-for-every-plastic-grocery-bag-you-use” law a try. if i remember right, it didn’t stick, but that’s beside the point. i only had 2 bags full of groceries, so 20¢ ain’t no thang.

anyway, after grocery shopping with my two perfect and well behaved children, momma needed a coke zero (my only vice. ok, maybe not my only vice. but, BY FAR, my biggest.), so off to sonic we went. and since it was lunchtime, i thought i’d go ahead and grab that, too. and y’all, that’s when it happened. i really wasn’t feeling anything on the menu at this point (*side note- why did they take frito pies away?! 😩), but  i just went with the #11 chicken strip dinner because it’s never let me down, and also, that single onion ring just gets me every time.

so the girl brings out my order and asks if i want sauce... “ketchup, please!”
“that’s the only sauce i didn’t bring out, let me go grab you some!”

ok, that’s fishy. but whatever. ketchup is like condiment #1 as far as i’m concerned, maybe californians aren’t as into it. i’ll let it slide. (and no, this isn’t the moment either.)

so then i realize presley’s drink is wrong, and also i need some gravy for my tenders.
“also, this was supposed to be a lemonade, and can i please get some gravy?”




.......







and then... the words that keep ringing in my ears....
“gravy?! we don’t have gravy, lady. they took that off the menu a long time ago!”

i was honestly at a loss for words.
“what?? no gravy? that’s crazy! i’m from texas, we always have gravy! lots of gravy! i just moved here and i didn’t realize... oh wow. ok...”

then she laughed and started to walk away. and then she whipped back around and said, “what made you want to move HERE?” with the nastiest look on her face.

in that moment i just felt lik screaming, “i know right?! this place doesn’t even have GRAVY for goodness sake!”

but i didn’t. i just laughed. and died a little on the inside.
and then i had to eat my sweet little tenders with ketchup. which is fine. it’s all fine. good. great. totally fine. #imisstexas

oh, and also...

never in my life did i think i’d be able to see mountains from my kitchen window! #definitelynotintexasanymore

these were taken in my neighborhood 😍😍😍

sunday, sunday

a LOT has changed in 7 days.

my house is no longer being considered for an episode of hoarders.
don’t get me wrong, it’s still a mess (as am i), but everything is mostly where it should be.
i am hoping to get everything how i want it before we have our next house guests (my parents!) at the end of February... and also so i can get pictures to show y’all!

i have to say, today was the first day since September that actually felt normal for us as a family.
we all woke up under the roof of our own home, we went to church, watched football, and i even cooked dinner 💁🏼‍♀️ we were just all together, and it wasn’t anything special... but it was actually really special at the same time.
it was a good, good day.

my favorite thing that happened today was when we picked eli up from the nursery at church.
we walked in and where was eli? was he playing? no. was his teacher holding him? nope.
picture the smallest couch you’ve ever seen... now picture my kid relaxing across it like he just got home from a long day of work... with a paci in his mouth, and leftover goldfish laying on his pants.
i’m dying just remembering it, and i’m kicking myself so hard for not taking a picture.
randy compared the look to the one and only al bundy. spot on.

anyway. that’s all i’ve got for now. i’ve got to continue my normalcy and finish this episode of black mirror on the couch with randy!

oh! and you’re welcome for these pictures of my perfectly crazy, messy faced kids. 

we made it...

...but it wasn’t easy.

y’all. i’ve officially been awake since 2:30am california time, and it’s creeping up on 11pm. yikes. whatever the word is that means more exhausted than exhausted, i’m that... i’m just too exhausted to think of it.

3.5 hour plane rides are about 2.5 hours more than i can handle. throw in the crankiest threenager, and a baby who can’t hold his bowels, and, well... ugh.
presley was actually pretty well behaved, considering we woke her up at 4:30am. she threw a feeeeww little fits (her bow fell off, she dropped her peanuts, her seat belt was too tight, her brother touched her headphones, etc etc.), but ended up falling asleep for a good 45 min.
eli... well let me just start with a reminder that his eyes were swollen and full of nasty green oozy fluid. and he is hardly able to breathe through his nose, for like the 3rd straight MONTH. but in true Eli fashion, he was the happiest baby you’d ever seen ( even through the 3 poops, 2 of which exploded all over him AND  my sister (TWO! she got bombed twice!... bless her.)). he was a complete wiggle worm then entire trip, but somehow we kept him occupied.
after we made it off the plane, we waited on the world’s longest shuttle (congrats, budget rental car, for that terrible accolade), and finally got our four pieces of luggage, giant double stroller, two huge car seats, diaper bag, purses, and babies outta there.
our two hour drive to bakersfield was nice... driving through the mountains just puts me in awe. God, y’all. he made those!
anyway, we made it to our new home and walking in felt like i was on an episode of hoarders. you see, when the movers unpack for us, they just unpack. they don’t put away. they unpack to whatever surface is near... whether it be the floor, table, counter, or whatever. so basically everything we own is sitting on a surface somewhere in this house. just imagine everything single item in your kitchen... every fork, bowl, cereal box, spice, straw, pot, cake pan, toothpick, dishwasher pod, trash bag, every. single. item. sitting on your kitchen counters, island, table, window sill, floor. and then think about every other room and all of those items. oh and also! sometimes(a lot of times) those items are not even in the correct room.... think highchair legs(not the rest, just the legs) in Presley’s room, or christmas wrapping paper in Eli’s room. what’s the word for beyond overwhelmed? yeah, i’m that. times infinity.
but my sister is here! and i mostly wanted to write this update to let the world know that today would have been impossible without her. really really impossible. she saved me. and my kids. and i would be a mess without her. except i’m already a mess. but i’d probably be in the fetal position rocking back and forth somewhere in LAX airport if it wasn’t for her. she is THE best.

that’s all i can manage tonight.  please keep praying for us... because Lord knows we need it.
feels good to be back under the same roof with my husband and our babies tonight, all together, at last.