Decorating for the rest of us

I think these rambling posts get later and later each month. We spent the last week at the beach with a bunch of family and before we left I thought “what a great time to catch up on blog stuff!” Then we got there and guess what…I barely even cracked open my laptop. It was glorious.

Also, I just happened to notice that I started my ramblings exactly one year ago. Twelve months of ramblings….I wasn’t sure I would keep up with it when I started, but here I am! Sure this one is coming out in the middle of June, but whatever…better late then never. I wonder if the internet will let me title this one “May Ramblings” since I already have a post by that title (and every other month). Guess we’ll see when I hit publish.

So here we go with May, it’s kinda all over the place…

Adam graduated college! He had two graduation ceremonies, the first one was a small one just for veterans. A lot of our family came and they served dinner and it was nice. When it was Adam’s turn to walk the stage I snuck up to take picture of him, but the slow auto focus screwed me and I got crappy pics. Then I thought to myself “why the heck didn’t you just video it with your phone, dummy?”. It would have been perfect since they actually took the time to say a little about each graduate. Adam even wrote a few crazy sweet words to me, thanking me for “many years of unwavering love and support, through multiple deployments, three years of school, and the raising of two rambunctious boys.” So sweet, and I probably would have watched it everyday for the rest of my life if I had recorded it. Hindsight. This is what I got instead…

So frustrating.

We did get some pics afterwards though, here is me and my grad…

Some of the fam…

and me and my adorable niece Mallory sharing a necklace snack.

A week later Adam had the big regular gradation, or has he likes to call it, his “non-hero” graduation. Whew, that one was an ordeal. Going to an insanely packed stadium with two toddlers and NO empty seats is not for the faint of heart. Thank goodness my mom came with me or else we never would have made it our in one piece.

But we did it, and Adam graduated summa cum laude (which an actual 4.0!) all while juggling a full-time job, full-time school, super full-time toddlers and a very demanding wife. He’s such a good man and I am incredibly proud of him. He is a great example of a dedicated, hard-working, fun, and faithful man. I’ll feel incredibly blessed if our sons turn out to be anything like him.

(Try not to take it personal that I blacked out the name of his school.)

We also attended my cousin Laura Beth’s wedding. I have a smallish family, so a cousin wedding is a big deal.  Let me tell you, it was beautiful. Everything was outdoors and the weather was perfect. I just have to complement Laura on the fact that she thought of everything. Seriously, there were sunglasses on each seat at the ceremony along with fans and bottled water. For the reception there was an open bar, lots of food, a pinata, glow sticks, caricaturists, and there was even a buckets of new flip flops next to the dance floor so you didn’t have to party in heels. I got to see family that I don’t to get very often…though I have yet to meet her new husband. I think I only took one picture the whole time, but luckily I can just swipe a couple from Laura’s facebook page.

(That guy in the window? My dad, haha)

(Our first caricature…Adam is spot on!)

Before Adam and I go to bed each night we decompress by watching a TV show. We don’t get a single channel on our TV, so most things we watch are streamed through netflix or we just watch it on our laptops. You know what I love about TV these days? That you can watch a ton of episodes at once…no waiting around and only getting to watch an episode a week. Adam and I like to binge watch shows, so we watch and entire show before moving on to the next one. In the last few months we have watched Malcolm in the Middle, Downton Abby, Parks and Recreation, and now we are working our way through Parenthood. Its kind of hilarious because the family dynamics on the show remind me a lot of Adams family, and Adam is just like the character on the show that also happens to be named Adam…only my Adam is younger and less stressed.  No one is really going to get this but me so I’m not quite sure what the point is, but this is my ramblings post, so I’m rambling.

My kids watch TV shows the same way, they find a show they like and they don’t want to watch anything else. First it was Curious George, then it was this super boring documentary about rhinos, then Dinosaur Train, and now it’s Go Diego Go. Last week Netflix did something terrible….they took Diego OFF of instant watch. One morning I went to turn it on so I could cook breakfast and it just wasn’t there. Elijah is having terrible withdrawals and he pretends to be Diego all the time, swinging from vines in the living room and carrying his “rescue pack” (my purse). He did enjoy Sesame Street when I turned it on the other day, but he mostly just liked Elmo.  What is it with kids and Elmo?

I have good news about potty training! I am officially declaring Elijah potty trained. He hasn’t had an accident in months and he even gets up to use the restroom himself at night (well, most of the time…we still put him in a diaper at night just in case). Its awesome. I’m kinda in disbelief that we did it…we potty trained a toddler BOY, and it was fairly painless. Slow, but painless. Now I have even better news… Levi wants to be just like his big brother, so he has started potty training himself. He started asking to sit on the potty and he goes every time you put him on it. Every dang time. I’m not going to push my luck …I’m just going to keep letting him go at his own pace. Really don’t want to jinx myself here, but dang, the thought of having two potty trained boys is awesome. Now if I can just teach them to cook, clean, dress themselves, and never fight I will have it made. That can happen, right?

Levi is 19 months old now. He is the exact age Elijah was when I had Levi. Part of me feels a little behind not being pregnant again with kid #3… but and even bigger part of me feels relieved. I’m kind of exhausted.

For Mothers Day we went out on the lake (on a boat) with Adams mom, step-dad, and siblings. I have to admit something here….I was sure it was going to be a disaster. My boys have yet to ever wear a real life jacket (not the puddle jumper) without throwing a huge fit. And it was going to be during nap time. And even though boys my boys love boats, there was a good chance they were going to be terrified when they actually got on and it started going. But that’s not what happened…they were perfect. They never complained about their life jackets because they were so distracted by the awesomeness of the boat. It was great, and Levi even fell asleep in my arms and took his nap. That’s unheard of these days. I even made Adam change all the diapers….Happy Mothers Day to me :)

That’s about all I can think of  for May, but I do have two announcements…

Announcement one -

Week after next I will be posting my house tour. Yes, it is true…I bet y’all never thought this day would come! I’m telling you in advance because I’ve decide to make it a link party as well. This will be a link up for house tours ONLY, so if you are blogger and have a house tour I want to see it! And if you don’t have a house tour yet I want to give you a little kick in the pants to get it done. So come back Monday, June 24th at 8am (central time) to link up!

Announcement two -

Have you been inspired by one of my projects and created your own version? Sweet. Perfect. I want you to e-mail it to me. I’m putting together a post of reader projects and I need submissions! So if you have stenciled a table, organized your pantry, made something awesome with pennies, pillowified a placemat, or put your own spin on something you first saw over here then I am talking to you. I will need one or two pictures of the finished project, your name, and a sentence or so about it, and which project inspired you, and if you are a blogger a link to your post. Please e-mail all submissions to domesticimperfection at gmail dot com with the title “reader project”. If you have sent me your project before then please send it again, I wasn’t very good about keeping and organizing them. Also, I have no idea how many submissions I will get and I can’t guarantee every project will get featured. Maybe I’ll just get a few and can feature everyone, but if I get more than 30 or so I’m going t have to get choosy. Just so everyone knows beforehand.

Anyway, hope everyone is enjoying summer!