If you build it

So we got it up...finally, after two weekends (one being a 3-day weekend). With two kids, don't EVER try to do anything that you expect to only take a weekend or less. It just doesn't work. If one isn't trying to "help" by banging the hammer on the soft pine wood that you are trying to put up, the other one is fussing because he wants to be held...no wait...he wants to be put down...no wait...he wants to be held but squirm all over...oh, now it is time to eat again...now it is time to nap (but only for 1/2 hour which is just enough time to get rolling on the thing and then need to stop)...ugh...that was my memorial day weekend.

I will confess, the day we got the most done is the day my hubbys friend and fiance came over to help. It was amazing how much two guys can get hammered out...with direction of course!

So we finished it up this past weekend. We didn't get to the swingset part, it rained on Monday, but we got it up and the swings up on Sunday this past weekend!! We have a borrowed childs swing that we set up and put JW in it...he dozed right off!! Hmmm, this will be good. We got the slide up Memorial day weekend and was able to have Miss J slide down...too fun! We don't have the sandbox done (we have a turtle sandbox that we might put under the fort for now...sandbox covers are NOT cheap!!) and we still have to find a tarp for the roof. I really wanted to wood shingle it, but DH talked me out of it worried the weight of it wouldn't hold on the "bracing" we had up to make it a mega roof, so then we priced tarps for the mega roof...yeah, again, not cheap. So we are going back and forth if we just make it a smaller normal size with a tarp or shingles (probably same price either way), or leave the extra bracing up there for the mega tarp and drop some extra $$ on the mega tarp. Ugh...

So the cost of this has gotten above what we budgeted!! Isn't that how projects go? Not that much, I mean we still saved a butt load compared to what we would have paid for a comparable size and quality one through a big box store. Probably half as much...if not more. But we worked, hard!! Not for the light headed, not for the novice. The plans were long and strung out, very detailed, but long. You had to read every detail otherwise you might miss the fact that you were supposed to turn the 4x4 to the left to drill the next holes when the visual drawings showed "front view" and "left view" making you think it was the side to the left of the front, not that you had to turn it to the left which would make it the right side of the front...see what I mean. So we did have a few scrap pieces where we didn't read the ALL the directions and when we went to put it together wondered why the pieces didn't fit!! Ahhh, that will be a lesson to you!

But it is up, durable, pretty, and I am glad it is over with!! I do have pictures...but because our home computer has been down for a few weeks, I can't download my pics off my camera...so bear with me and I will post the final product once we get them downloaded!

Other than that...I need a good night sleep. I mean, it is better than when JW was a few months old, but he still wakes up a couple times a night because he rolls over and loses his binky and then can't get back over. Not like he needs to eat or anything, I get up, roll him over, often flip him back the the top of the bed, and put his binky back in...then I am back to sleep. But still, that is disrupted sleep. And I am such a light sleeper anyway, so even the blustery winds we had Sunday night woke me up. Then, if it isn't the weather or JW, it is Miss J, getting up at 4am and coming into our room. It is funny because I hear her crack her door, then close it behind her (not sure why she does this, but she always closes the door behind her...I will like that when she is older), so I know she is on her way to our room, then she wants to come into bed. I tell her she has to go back to her bed and she whines just enough for me to give in...at 4am I am not in any mood to fight especially when I have already been up 3-times with JW. But then in the next half hour I usually lug her back to her bed...so I am up again.

Girl...I need to get a full night sleep!!! It doesn't help with my eating habits, it doesn't help with my energy to exercise, it doesn't help when I get home at night to not want to just sit/lay down on the couch at 8pm and fall asleep!!

So why don't I let JW cry it out...I forget. I am so custom to getting up and putting his bink back in that by the time I open his door and remember it it too late. Or, I am afraid he will wake up Miss J, or that he will get so worked up that he will then be wide awake and not fall back to sleep for anything...when I know that it is probably the best thing for me to do because it will only take a few nights and he will lull himself back to sleep when he wakes up! We did it with Miss J, I just have to be diligent enough to do it with him.

Other than that...kids are healthy (Amen!!), family for the most part are healthy (Amen!) - DH's grandma was just diagnosed with lung cancer, but hopefully it is very treatable - we have our playset up now I am trying to set up a playdate for my mommy friends to let the kids play while mommys have some afternoon sangrias!! Can't wait.