Last night was so much smoother than the night before, and for that I am SO thankful!! Solly got up twice, and Dekker came up one time because he had woken up completely disoriented and couldn’t find his water bottle. It was where it always was, but he was SO exhausted and sick, poor thing, just couldn’t figure it out. Once he was settled back in, we didn’t see him for the rest of the night.

The sleep helped a TON, and while it goes against our grain completely, Brady went in to work this morning for 6:00am. It really doesn’t feel like a weekend at all, but this saves our week. Brady will have a nice short day tomorrow, and will have the day of Dekker’s Christmas program off! Woot! Let’s just keep praying that Deks is well enough to go be part of it!

Updates on the kids! They were disasters first thing this morning. Dekker cried probably ten times in the first half hour he was awake. About everything. Laela coughed. His chair moved. He didn’t like the color of his spoon. Reeeaaally reasonable stuff. Once he finally ate something, though, he perked up a bit and seemed to be in better shape.

Rowan was totally chipper in the morning. He has some snot issues, but no fever like his older siblings. He made lots of jokes, showed of a ton of new words, and told Solly that he loved him.

Laela was in the worst shape this morning. She can barely open her puffy eyes. I lay her down on the floor to change her diaper and she just closed her eyes and lay all limp. Even after breakfast, she cuddled up on the couch and proceeded to consistently cough and wiped her nose on her toys. I would remind her to cover her mouth, or use a Kleenex, and she would just bawl, worsening the situation, of course. Finally, I just put her back to bed. She was not impressed, but she also hasn’t made a sound in there for close to three hours, so I think mommy was right.

Solly has a cough :/ Which is sad. He doesn’t really want to eat or drink, but can be convinced if I can muster the patience. He is a TOTAL peach still, which is refreshing and fun, but I’m sad that he’s under the weather with the others.

Praise the Lord, Brady is home for the day, and will have a shorter day tomorrow too. Its so much nicer to have some backup when the laundry is behind, the cleaning is constant, and there are still jobs to do before Christmas arrives! I’m feeling, at least for the moment, like we might have some of this under control. Please, Lord, let it be so!

After I wrote yesterdays morning post, I received a call from the school that Dekker had thrown up during their Christmas concert practice. Apparently three kids threw up within four minutes. I called my mom, she came by to sit with the other kids, and I drove over to snag Dekker.

I found him in the office with his teacher. He was sitting on a chair with a bucket in front of him, and she was crouched down, talking with him. He had dirtied up his hoodie and his shoes, so they were bagged up for him, and his coat was on, as he was quite shivery. His teacher said he had been very brave and hadn’t even cried or gotten worked up. He was matter of fact, and just told it like it was. His main concern was that it was a special lunch day, and he was anticipating the pizza, chips, and chocolate milk that we had ordered him in advance. Of course, all of that was already in his backpack, ready to come home.

It says something pretty wonderful about the school, and his teacher, that he wasn’t panicked or scared when it all went down. Not very long ago, he would have been completely freaked out by throwing up, not to mention in front of most of his school!! He was clearly cared for very, very well, and feels safe there. That helped my mama heart a lot.

So I took him home and tucked him in on the couch for the rest of the day. All was well.

Then came the night. Solly is clearly feeling something as well, because he was up four or five times. We got about an hour of sleep between each wake up, and the few times he gave us a slightly longer stretch, Dekker came up to our room. The first time he came, he threw up and shook and struggled a little bit. He didn’t actually throw up the other times, but I think he was scared he would, since he felt so sick. So Brady and I were up about eight times last night, which is virtually unheard of. So needless to say, he and I are completely trashed today.

Its the same story for our kids. Laela is pouring snot, coughing up a storm, as she sits in one place and stares. Dekker has been sleeping on the couch for maybe an hour so far? Rowan woke up quite late into the morning (maybe 10:30-11:00) and has been napping for a couple of hours this afternoon already. Solly is the one who still physically appears healthy, but he sucks at sleeping today! All of his naps have been short and seemingly half-assed. Doesn’t he want to sleep??? Crazy kid! At least he’s happy when he’s awake and not a total zombie like the rest of us.

If you think of our family and feel like praying, we could REALLY use a better night tonight. Brady has to work for a chunk of this weekend (which is SO sad for me!) and it was going to be today, but thanks to the awful night, we bumped it to tomorrow. Working Sunday always feels so much harder than working Saturday. So please pray for a better night for him going into tomorrow, and for me to have the strength to be a fabulous mom to my little sick family when he’s not around to help. Even though we’re all somewhat ill, this is a really special time of year, and I want us to be able to enjoy it well together.

Stay well and healthy, friends! This “constantly being sick” thing is for the birds.

This is a very short story but I can’t not post about it. I am SO proud of Dekker. He made what I considered to be a very grown up decision yesterday, and I really wanted to brag him up a bit, and to have this in our family records so he can look back one day and see how grown up he was at the young age of five.

A couple of days ago, Dekker brought a candy cane home from school. He told me he won it for being SO good at the actions for the song they were learning. He told me everybody won, and said it was so nice that everyone had been so good at it. That alone made me melt 🙂 When does competition kick in? I hope never. I love this innocent perspective stays forever. We put the candy cane on the island and said he could have it later on. He was fine with it.

We all forgot about it until yesterday. He found it after supper, and very politely asked if he could have it as dessert. I thought about it, and hesitated for a second because of the time. It was bedtime in about a half hour. I said to him “Its pretty close to bedtime, so how about I give you a piece of it, and you can finish it up a different day?”

“Its ok if now isn’t a good time, mommy. How about we try again tomorrow?”

😮

I asked “Are you sure?” and he said “Ya, thats fine with me, mommy.” Totally. Happily.

This may seem like a small, insignificant conversation to some, but to me, it shows great maturity! He asked for candy, I agreed, but he could tell I wasn’t 100% sold, so he graciously offered that we could try again later. That is restraint. That is consideration. That is intelligence, and trust that mommy knows best. I was so impressed with him, and now I am anticipating giving him a good chunk of that candy cane when he gets home, because you’d better believe he deserves it! Though I don’t even think he knows that. I don’t think he expects it. I think he just made a good call, and I am SO proud of him.

Great job, Dekker!! Thanks for trusting me, and not being impatient about your treat. Great listing, my dear!!

Laela did NOT wake up in a puddle of vomit larger than her body today! In fact, she woke up in no vomit at all!! We’re calling that a success. She was a slow moving, sweaty mess, but she ate a decent breakfast and moved straight to the couch.

Since then, she’s perked up a bit. We read some stories, and I worked at her to keep drinking fluids. Now that both little boys are napping, and Dekker is at school, she is off the couch, playing Lego. Sort of. She’s sitting beside the Lego, anyway, and watching a bit of tv. She is liking the quiet time, as am I.

So I think she is officially on the mend! *knock on wood* That was a quick one! *knocks much much harder on aforementioned wood* Can we pleeeaaase be done being sick now until after Christmas? Dekker’s ear infection treatment is wrapped up, and no one has HFMD anymore. Please, Lord, let this be it!

When I woke up, my house was quiet. I made a bit of a plan of what to accomplish, but it was going to be pretty relaxed. I had a miraculous wave of energy and motivation yesterday, and I completed my Christmas baking! This was a big thing off my list, and even though I didn’t bake as much as I had hoped to originally, we have a sheet cake, and a double batch of homemade oreos. That plus a Ziploc bag full of shortbread and other cookies, I think we’re good for treats. So I was feeling good about the day, and thinking a few menial tasks would be simple enough to accomplish.

And then I went into Laela’s room. She was laying flat in her bed, awake, but very calm. I asked her if I had woken her, and she said “Um…ya. My bed is wet.” I looked at her sheets, and sat they were quite wet. “Wow! You must have peed a lot in the night!” I said to her. She agreed. But when I hugged her, she wasn’t wet. She was crusted over. Then I looked closer.

I’ll spare you the picture, but there was vomit everywhere. The smell started to set in then. It was insane. “Did you throw up?” I asked. Her lip quivered a little bit, then stopped, and she said she had. A very brave little girl, she was. Right away, I stripped her down and put her in fresh jammies. She’ll obviously need a bath later with fresh jammies yet again, but I just needed a temporary fix. She said she felt ok, but she was a bit shaky in her hands and on her feet. I asked if she was hungry for breakfast, and she said she was. So I sent her to the table to wait. My kids always set the table, but I wanted her to just be still.

I went into the boys room, and Rowan was still cashed out. Dekker came out to breakfast, though, and we poured Cheerios and milk.

Then Dekker offered to pray. We pray lots with our kids, and for the most part, they’re memorized prayers that the kids have picked up. I still love that they pray, because even if they can’t fully understand the idea of God and his greatness and role in our life, I think the habit is wonderful. So Dekker held Laela’s hand, and prayed “Dear Jesus, thank you for the breakfast. Let us have a good day….. and please help Laela feel better. Amen. Whoo!” That warmed my heart extra, because I think he’s really getting what praying is! He didn’t just recite a prayer. He prayed for Laela in our current circumstance, which at least so far this morning, he hadn’t witnessed me do out loud. God is good, and He is working in my family.

Laela ate maybe a quarter of her usual breakfast, but was very thirsty. I convinced her after a cup of milk to drink water. I tried to explain to her to take little sips, but she’s three, and was thirsty. So she chugged.

As I’m sure you can imagine, as I was coming up the stairs from throwing her bedding in the laundry, she had thrown up again. Because I know you’re dying to know, it was mostly water! It appeared that she was keeping her cereal down pretty well! Also, she had managed to barf before making it to the carpet, and because she had barfed on her feet, she hadn’t moved from her spot. She simply said, “I threw up again, on the floor. My feet are dirty, too.” She was so calm, which I found really impressive! When all was cleaned up, I lay a blanket down on top of my beloved living room carpet, and asked her what she wanted to do, whether it be to play, to sit on the couch, to read stories, etc. She went to the blanket and knelt down on it. She set her water bottle beside her and smiled at me. “Come sit with me?” She agreed that I could make a cup of coffee first, and then we sat and had something of a tea party.

The mood lifted, but she was still determined to just sit on the floor. Wearing her new necklace seemed to make her feel a bit better about herself. Isn’t it funny how early that starts? How feeling a tad put together makes you feel a bit more stable?

We read book after book. These pictures came after reading “Baby Happy, Baby Sad.” Apparently these are the saddest and happiest faces they can make. Laela’s sad face is pretty bang on, I’d say.

Rowan finally woke up mid-morning. Laela agreed that I could go get him, so I headed in. He was standing and happy. I asked him if he was sick today. “Nooooo.” What about healthy? “Yay!” He understands so much, which makes things like this a bit easier! I pulled Ro out of bed and started his diaper change. Laela wandered in, as she always does when I get Rowan.

*whispers* Hi, Wowan.
*whispers* Hi.
*whispers* I’m sick today.
*whispers* Uh ohhhh…
*whispers* See my necklace?
*whispers* Wow! Pitty!

Its probably my favorite interaction I’ve ever witnessed between those two. Rowan understood so much, and they both just whispered and visited. I loved it!

Ro ate breakfast while we continued with our day. Laela started saying that her throat hurt, which I believe, because throwing up has that effect. She obediently drank little sips of water and she needed to, but opted to move to the couch. I got her the sickie blanket and a fresh smaller blanket to snuggle, like she has in bed. Once again, she was insistent that I sit by her. I had to deny her the one time, as both Solly and Rowan needed some assistance at the table with yogurt. She understood. When I did make it back to her, I sat beside her and stroked her hair, and this is what I hear.

“Mommy is a princess. Mommy and Laela are beautiful princesses. I love everybody. I love Daddy. I love Mommy. I love Dekker. I love Wowan. I love baby Solly. I love myself. I love everybody, and everybody loves me too. I just want to be nice.”

She isn’t wrong about being nice. Laela has not milked her sickness at all. She is a champ! When Dekker asked to play Lego, Laela had said she didn’t want to play Lego today. I told her that was more than fine, and she could just cuddle up. When I said to Dekker that he could pull out the Lego once his links her tidied, Laela insisted on getting out of her cocoon on the couch to help. Once it was done, she went back to the couch. Again, from her, “I just want to be nice.”

Laela occasionally switches to laying on the floor, and then back to the couch in the blankets. I think she’s trying to regulate her temperature. She has a very mild fever, and I can tell she’s unwell, but she is amazingly self aware! I’m so pleasantly surprised by how calm she has been through all of this!

After eating a tiny bit at lunch, she is back to the couch. Its definitely a tv day around here, but I’m not being too hard on myself about that. She needs to zone and rest her achy body. Even when she’s more upbeat and chipper, she’s a bit shaky, so I can tell she’s weak and likely aching a bit. She is such a strong little girl.

All of this being said, I am SO thankful for the amount of things I accomplished yesterday and the day before. At the end of both days, I was so annoyed at how tired I felt, and how little I had to show for my efforts, but looking at my list now, just about all of the big jobs are crossed off! Thank you Lord for the burst of energy you gave me yesterday evening! I’m not sure what today would have looked like if I had a longer, looming list!

Please keep us in your prayers, if you feel so inclined. This has been the sweetest sick day I could have imagined, and while I’ve actually loved certain aspects of it, I don’t desire that everyone else starts barfing right away here.

Off to get the stuffies out of the laundry…

Dekker’s school recently put together some big hampers filled with all kinds of festive things, and sold tickets to raffle them off. They ranged from wrapping paper to decor to toys and games. We were all given a book of tickets to sell, and in true Hailey fashion, I did not sell them. My mom happily bought a few, and I bought the rest, so I wouldn’t totally neglect the project. Its not that I’m disinterested. Not at all! I just don’t want to constantly ask people to buy stuff from my kids that they don’t really want or need. Being that I have a small handful of children, this will not be the one and only fundraiser we’re ever part of. So I bought them. Not a big deal.

And I won!! Hahaha! I had to laugh! Apparently it paid off to be a tad lazy and not get out there and sell those tickets, because I won! The school called yesterday, and I was told I had one a hamper. She didn’t know which one off hand, but I should come collect it when I dropped Dekker off at school next.

I ran into Kim at the school this morning when I dropped Dekker off, I mentioned to her that I was going to go to the main office and ask where to pick up my prize. One of the staff members was arriving right then and told me to just go with her. So I did.

And I am SO pleased to have won the basket that had caught my eye among them. The baking basket!!! It contained the following items:

A polar bear cookie jar
A small cake stand
Snowflake oven mitts, pot holders, and towels
Two cake mixes
One cookie mix
One muffin tin
One cookie sheet
Sprinkles
One icing tub
One baking powder
Maple Butter
Caramel Butter
Coffee art stencils
Assorted cookie cutters
A rolling pin
Measuring spoons
four scrapers
Two lifters
Two whisks
Six packs of cupcake liners
Frozen cupcake toppers

There was only one weird thing in there, which was utensil in the shape of a devil. I actually had to kind of laugh. Not the most festive of contributions, but thats cool, haha! To each their own! I had a nice time disassembling it and putting things where they go. Its nice to win once in a while 🙂

Thanks to the sweet kiddos for putting together this loaded basket of fun for us!! Perhaps I’ll whip up that cookie mix and hoard them in our new cookie jar!

Today was filled with pep talks for me, from me. They went like this:

You’re not even going away this Christmas, you don’t have to have everything totally organized by any deadline.

Your kids don’t even eat that many sweets, so you don’t have to bake a thousand different things.

Don’t even think about laundry. Christmas isn’t that close.

People at church won’t feel burned if the Christmas picture isn’t in an envelope. Skip that step.

Don’t try to clean off the island yet. You need to keep the things there that you’re going to forget.

You will find childcare for the spans of time that you need them. Don’t panic. Leave that one for tomorrow.

There were a lot more pep talks that were equally as pathetic. I made a serious effort to be organized and ahead of the game this year, and as always happens, I have less than two weeks until Christmas, and here I am, scrambling and behind. It drives me nuts. I don’t feel like my list of things to do is unreasonable or even really large, but our day to do is busy with little people, among other things, and its hard to sit down and accomplish a task. It just is. But I’m trying.

I tried to make good choices today. I wanted to get things done without panicking like a basket case and frightening my kids. So I didn’t rush to get up for the day. I took some time to putz away on my phone and wake up well. Then I surfaced, fed the three big kids, and Solly slept. I washed my two dresses I recently purchased from Value Village, so I’m ready when I need to be fancy, and hung them to dry. I made a latte. I made a feeble attempt to exercise but let me tell you! I am NOT in shape, and wasn’t a fan of it, hahaha! In our bi-level, we have three half-flights of stairs. I ran, jogged, and finally lagged up and down them until I couldn’t anymore, which was about ten runs each way, so I guess twenty? But actually ten, I think. Anyway, I didn’t much care for it. Lol! Either way, I attempted to do something positive for my body today.

My kids weren’t in the best shape they’ve ever been in, but they like to help with tasks, which is nice. So I had some help with dishes and cleaning up the floor after breakfast. I was encouraged more than once, “If you need help, just call us!”

I spent the kids lunch time at the island, addressing a few envelopes to send out Christmas pictures, and writing a few cards that are long overdue. Once I’m done this post, I will do some writing and organizing for tonight’s music practice in anticipation of our Christmas Eve service. After that, I may even put on real clothes and brush my teeth. Maybe the kids would be happier if I blessed them in that way…

All things considered, I feel like my “work day” has been a bit of a flop :/ I did a lot of thinking, and my kids are alive, so those are both wins, hahaha! But otherwise, I have laundry to put away, dishes to put away, floors to clean, gifts to wrap, cookies to bake, winter tires to somehow arrange to be installed, mail to send, and a family to continue to maintain, since thats not exactly a one-time task.

I KNOW that what needs to get done will get done. And in reality, I still have time! I just thought I’d be further ahead than this :/ Maybe one day, years down the road, it’ll be mid-December, and I’ll be bored, because everything will be ready! Something tells me I’m a solid thirty years away from that feeling, hahaha! I can’t complain about that 🙂

With a fairly busy evening yesterday, Solly hadn’t had his best, fullest day for food, so he was up a number of times in the night. Seriously, guys, reflux babies do NOT sleep as well as others! But I understand it, after experiencing it with Rowan, and we know its just for a time. Ro is a great sleeper now! But Solly is not. So we were up a lot. This morning, he woke up a 8:00am for milk, but the rest of the house was quiet, so we fed him in bed, drank coffee, and watched “The Good Wife” for a while. When we did surface finally, we got the kids breakfast and let them loose to play. They were in rougher moods that usual, but I figure they were likely still tired from the big family gathering last night. It was a LOT of stimulation, hahaha!

In the early afternoon, we packed up and headed to Kims house for her youngest son’s second birthday. There were lots of kids to play with, treats to eat, presents to open, and conversation to be had. It was a really lovely couple of hours, where we got to chat with some of her friends that I don’t know as well, and for the kids to meet new kids. Unfortunately, Solly was shot and was pretty hands on almost the entire time. Lucky for him, he’s still super cute, even when he’s squirming and fussy. But it wasn’t quite 3:00pm wen we decided to bow out. We’re not usually the first to leave anything, but it was just time. Solly was tired, and specifically Dekker and Laela were struggling with their attitudes still.

We ended up at my parents for supper! We ate leftover tacos from the night before, and caught up on a visit. I don’t think our family has actually been over there for a visit in weeks (not counting yesterday, of course), so the kids dove into the toys and spread out to enjoy themselves. It didn’t last especially long, though. My poor big kids were having SUCH a hard time with their moods. I ended up sticking them both in time outs, and I told them that if someone was rude or selfish or had a bad attitude one more time, we would leave. And this one magical time, it registered. Those kids shared like I have never seen them share. I didn’t have to interfere in their conversations and remind them to share. They just did it, smoothly. Not especially happily, but without outwardly complaining or crying. It was smoother, finally.

We got home just shortly after their bedtime and they were finished. I always find it hard when we’ve had so many nice things happen in one day, and they’re still in crappy moods, but I also realize that they’re tired, and its hard when the day is ending and they’re over stimulated and feelings all the feels, so to speak. They are now all down, and only one of them is crying. And its not even me! Though I’m not far off, lol! I’m tired. Time for a soak and some Netflix.

I don’t know why it happened, but I made a hair appointment for this morning at 9:00am. I say again, I don’t know why. I was in DESPERATE need of a hair refresh, but the time slot makes no sense. Yet I booked it in advance, so obviously I did it on purpose. Aaaaanyway, I was not looking forward to the early morning wakeup call. I was looking forward to it even less when Brady’s alarm went off an hour earlier than I had set mine for, but he redeemed it by saying it was intentional, and he wanted to have a little coffee date with me. He made some coffee and watched a show in bed, and then he came and hung out with me while I did my makeup. It was really nice.

I had so much fun getting my hair done. I always do. I have the BEST hair girl. The BEST. I rarely go in with no idea of what to do with my hair, but I was getting twitchy and bored, so I told her my woes, and threw some ideas at her, and I really like what we came up with!

She added a bunch of foils of this beautiful soft pink all through it. She cut it shorter in the back so if I straighten it, it’ll be all asymmetrical. And then she curled it, which I feel like is the biggest win. I wish I could make it look so flowy and gorgeous myself, but it sure is pretty today, so I’m thankful. I really really love it.

I ran a couple of other small errands, and made it home around 2:00. We had our first family gathering this evening at my parents house, and it was starting between 4:00-4:30. Brady and I finished getting ready while the little boys napped and the bigger kids played Lego, and then we played Heads Up and secretly ate cake. It was a pretty great afternoon.

The kids got dressed really cute for the evening, but no one was really in any shape to take a picture. However, once coats were on and we were in the entrance, they all opted to snuggle in with Solly on the floor for a pic, lol!

So its not exactly the Christmas picture I was hoping for, but they’re pretty stinking cute so I shouldn’t complain. At least Solly is happy, hahaha!

We had a really nice gathering with the family we have in the area. It equalled out to twelve adults and twelve kids, so it was a bit of a mad house, but everyone did awesome. Lots of visiting and catching up and looking back on how much these gatherings have changed since they began years ago. We were meeting for a Christmas gathering before any of us had kids. Times have certainly changed!

As often happens, almost all of the guests left at once, so it was pretty chaotic for twenty minutes or so, but there were lots of hugs, quick exchanges of gifts and Christmas cards, and “same time next years.” And then out into the freezing cold night we went!

Now, everyone is tucked in, and I’m SO ready for a soak. Everyone knows I’m pretty dependant on my soaks in the tub, but its even more so on days like this!!!

I hope you’re all soaking in your tubs! Happy Saturday.

When we built our house, we made a few decisions to cut some costs. Nothing riveting, really. Brady did a chunk of the work himself. We found our own deals that were sometimes cheaper than our builders standard costs. We didn’t finish the basement. We chose laminate over hardwood. Laminate over granite. Stuff like that. Another place that we cut costs was the garage. We didn’t finish the inside at all. Its just a shell. We figured that getting the vehicle out of the wind would already be better than nothing (we’d never had a garage before) and we decided that we’d slowly get the inside finished and heated over the next couple of seasons. Lots of things were higher on our priority list. The basement being the most important thing. Then the deck and yard, fence, driveway, etc. Then the garage.

I understand that these were OUR decisions. I am NOT passing the buck. But man, I wish we had been given a heads up about this floor plan specifically.

We love the layout of our home, and we love having our room over the garage. That was a huge selling feature for us. But people shouldn’t be allowed to leave the garage unfinished in this house, because we are less than a week into the cold weather and our bedroom is ice cold. Like its unreasonably frigid in there. No lie. It heats up a little bit more when we have the house temperature set around 24C, and even then, only when the furnace is actually running. Last night, we were soaking in the tub, and we could actually see where all of the screws were in the studs behind the bathroom walls because they were so dang cold, and the bathroom was humid. There were spots of frost on the wall. It is that cold up there.

Had we known any of this in advance, we would likely have asked that the garage be insulated and covered with poly at least. We may have even bit the bullet and installed the garage heater. OR, we may have still declined, but done the work gradually over summer and early fall. Now, here we are, two weeks before Christmas, buying materials and trying to find time to finish our garage amidst all of our holiday festivities. I won’t lie. I’m pretty annoyed by the whole thing. Praise the Lord we have a great friend in our supply guy and he’s giving us a lovely deal on the materials. It hurts a bit less when we were very much saving that money to finish our basement.

One other thing I wish I had known about the garage was the opener. When we built a custom home, we sort of expected a list of several thousand decisions to make, and it wasn’t like that. We got our say on cabinets, flooring, paint, finishing, lighting, etc., but we had to get special permission to actually get to change our appliances, plumbing fixtures, etc. Because we have never built a house before, and we didn’t get that crazy list we expected, we missed a few things. Its bound to happen, of course, as you always are learning, and there will always be things you do differently the next time. We ended up with a fairly standard garage door opener, which is fine. It was likely the best value for cost, and in most homes, it likely wouldn’t make a huge difference whether it was standard or fancier. But we sleep above the garage, and that sucker is LOUD. In our research, a virtually silent opener would only have been a few hundred dollars more. In the mortgage, we would have absolutely taken that into to consideration and asked for the quieter one, but now, shelling out the several hundred dollars for a new opener seems foolish. However, it wakes the baby who sleeps in our room, which is unpopular for everyone. So once again, I find myself wishing these things had been considered when we built.

I know these things were on us to think about, but having never lived in a house like this before, we would have seriously benefitted from a heads up. We are VERY happy with our builder, as they went above and beyond in pretty much everything. If we were to ever build again, we would likely build almost the exact same house, and we would go with the same builder again, without question. But we did learn some valuable things. We can swing the project financially, but its all coming out of our basement fund, which stings more than just a little :/ But we’ll get there. Just not quite as quickly as we had hoped.

Wish us luck on these chilly days! Pray we find a miraculously free (and perhaps slightly warmer?) day that suits for us to finish up the inside of our garage. If it has to wait until after Christmas, that will be a long time to be sleeping with a heating pad and a million blankets!

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

PS: Consider these things if you’re looking to build/buy a modified bi-level! We would HIGHLY recommend this floor plan, but we would also HIGHLY recommend finishing the garage in the process!