And Then It Hit Me

Big news around the Meezy household today: we're buying a new house!  Commence freak-out.  It's not like I haven't bought a house before, but this time feels different.  I have 3,500 square feet of stuff to pack up and move to a new house, with a baby and 2 dogs in tow.  That's new to me.  Part of that "stuff" is a shuffleboard table and pool table that are currently situated upstairs and need to be disassembled, moved, and reassembled by professionals.  The quote I've gotten on just those two items was $500.  Sheeeeeesh.  Lemme think on that.

The new house is exciting for many reasons!  We're moving closer to Dutch's daycare, his doctor, my doctor, my dentist, some of our friends, my sports leagues (if I ever get well again), and most importantly - my sister!  It'll be so nice to live within walking distance of her house.  The other big plus is that the new house has a pool!  We've been talking about a pool ever since we moved into our current house almost 5 years ago, and since we didn't think it was cost-effective to install it ourselves, we finally pulled the trigger on buying a home with an existing one.  I am SO looking forward to laying out by the pool this summer.  The new house is also set up really well for entertaining.  It's a ranch-style house with most of the square footage on the first floor.  The only rooms upstairs are a guest room, a hobby room, and a full bathroom.  That's perfect for guests staying over, to have their own section of the house.  It's especially nice if those guests have kids, because the second room can be for their kiddos, so that they're nearby, but not in the same room!

It feels like it's been so long since the last time I moved, that I don't even know where to begin.  So many addresses to change, services to transfer, logistics to be planned, etc.  My excitement was slightly halted when it hit me how much work I had ahead of me in the coming weeks.  But, it'll all be worth it!  Can't wait for my little family to start the next exciting chapter of our lives.

Pretty stoked about our circular drive!

Where I'll be spending a lot of the summer

OH BOY!

I'm super excited that my bff is having her first child in May.  I'm helping to host a baby shower for her, and one of my responsibilities was the invitations.  Of course I went directly to my friend, Lauren Chism, for help with this task.  I used one of her designs for my personal baby shower invite, as mentioned here previously.  I love her work (not just for baby shower invitations), because she can really capture the theme you're trying to convey.  This design could not have been more perfect for John & Jenn:

 
I can't wait to meet their little munchkin!  Dutch and Parx will be playmates, for sure.

Like Mother, Like Son

Dutch has become a bit of a daredevil lately, wanting to climb up on everything.  My mom told me I was the same way, and she found photographic proof!  Here is Dutch at 13 months, climbing on his rocking chair:

And here I am at 13 months, climbing on a chair:

Considering he looks so much like his dad, it's nice to see that he's getting some of my traits too, even if they are troubling at times!

The Next Attempt

My herniated disk (causing severe sciatica) hadn't gotten any better over the past month, so the next attempt was an epidural cortisone injection.  It's not meant to actually remedy the herniated disk, but it should hopefully provide immediate pain relief so that I can perform exercises and stretches that might help correct the underlying problem.  It's a routine outpatient treatment, so I was happy to give it a shot in favor of a major surgery.  I checked in to the surgical center at 8am yesterday, got IV fluids around 9am, and the procedure started around 10:30.  I was put under general anesthesia, so I had no pain related to the procedure, and was happy to not be awake for it!  Meezy came to pick me up around 11:30 and I was home by noon.  Immediately following the procedure, I was tired and nauseated, but that went away within a couple of hours.  For the rest of the night, my right leg was pretty numb and heavy, so walking was a little scary.  Today, though, I'm not feeling any residual effects from the injection.  I've been told it could take up to two weeks to start feeling relief from it, so I'm anxiously crossing my fingers for that to happen.  There's no telling how long the pain will subside, or if it will even get rid of all the pain, but I'm hopeful it will at least help.  I'm so ready to attack the root of the problem without having to deal with the constant interruptions the sciatica causes my daily life.     

Vegas 2013

Meezy and I gave ourselves a much deserved mini-Spring Break this year.  We went to Vegas with his brother and wife from Wednesday night to Saturday night.  Dutch stayed with my parents, so we knew we had nothing to worry about and that he'd get some awesome bonding time with his Oma and Opa.  I was lucky enough to get daily pictures sent to me from my Mom, because she knew I'd be missing my kiddo like crazy.  Here are the ones she sent:

  very happy at breakfast time

enjoying some strawberries, pasta, and green beans

early morning bottle with his Opa

LOVING the outdoors 

tuckered out from all the fun

As far as the trip went, besides a minor snafu with our shuttle from the airport to the hotel, everything was awesome!  We love Vegas because the atmosphere is just so fun and you have no responsibilities or obligations.  You can pretty much live carefree for a few days.  Seth, Katie, and Meezy spent a lot of time playing craps.  The casinos have these machines where you can play without having to be at a table.  It's more relaxed and personal and there are no dealers.  Since the drinks were a-flowing, Seth and Meezy made sure it was a lively time.  Some of the funniest moments from the trip took place around that craps machine.  ("Trouble just rolled up." "Who's the shooter?  Who's the shooter?  Oh, I'm the shooter.").   Katie and I sat back and enjoyed the show.

We enjoyed some yummy meals while we were there.  We ate at Hash House A Go Go (known for their ridiculously large portion sizes), Grand Lux Cafe, I Heart Burgers, Lagasse's Stadium, and Tao Asian Bistro (Crunchy Spicy Yellowtail roll was delicious).  

Tao dinner date

On our last day there, we stopped by the Fashion Show Mall to kill some time.  As you might've guessed, there was a fashion show going on!  It was pretty cool because the stage and runway emerged from the ground.  

huge glass enclosure is normally underground

We were happy to show Seth and Katie why we like Vegas so much since Seth had never been and Katie had only gone once about 6 years ago.  It wasn't necessary, but they got us a very sweet thank you card and a stockpile of goodies, in addition to paying for a couple of our meals.  The nicest part was how thoughtful their thank you gift was - they had heard us talking a couple days prior about how Meezy only loved chocolate candy and I only loved hard candy like sweettarts and skittles.  What do you know - that's exactly what they got us.  I didn't even know they were paying attention!  It may not sound like much, but I value when someone takes the time to put some thought into their gift.  It meant a lot to us! 

Magic

Since our house is on the market, we're constantly tweaking things here and there that we feel give off a bad impression.  With dogs in the household, it's inevitable they are going to take a toll on furniture, walls, carpet, etc.  A few unlucky recipients of their craziness were the banisters along our staircase.  When we put up a doggy gate to prevent them from going upstairs, they would scratch at the nearby banisters in protest.  Since we have put the gate in multiple locations over time, many of the banisters got damaged.  I hated how they looked, but I didn't know how to correct the problem.  Do we sand and re-stain?  Do we paint them?  Both of those options sounded really time-consuming.  Thank goodness I stumbled across Old English Scratch Cover when I was at Home Depot.  It's like magic in a bottle!  They have one for light woods and one for dark woods.  Check out the voodoo it performed on my banisters:

Are you kidding me?  I seriously can not believe the improvement. What a super cheap ($5) and easy way to make those look new again.  I might go back and buy the bottle for dark woods to see if it can help with all the scratches in our coffee table, courtesy of the dogs.  If this is any indication, it most certainly will!

Try New Places

For February, our resolution was to try a new place at least once a week. (We're not doing one new years resolution for the whole year - we're doing different resolutions each month).  We accomplished that goal, with mixed results!  Here is where we went, with our reviews:

1. Miguelito's, Hurst - We met Meezy's brother and wife at the movies in Hurst and decided to try this place out afterwards.  The hot sauce was alright, the queso was nothing special, and they messed up my sister-in-law's order.  The food tasted fine, but it wasn't good enough to bring me back for a return visit.

2. Becks Prime, Dallas -  This restaurant is a cool concept.  You order from a walk-up counter, and the food is made quickly, but it is high quality and not cheap!  For just Meezy and I, I think our total was $30 something dollars. You can get steak, seafood, burgers, chicken sandwiches, etc.  It's a fast food feel, but the food is gourmet.  I like this concept because we wouldn't have brought our baby to a steak restaurant, but we felt totally comfortable bringing him here and could get the same caliber of food while spending less time waiting for it.  Meezy ordered the Bill's Burger and I got the grilled chicken sandwich - both were really good.  We also ordered the wood-fired queso and it was delicious.  All of the employees were very friendly and it was a great experience.  Our only complaint was that the time at the register took too long, either because they were slow on the registers, or they just needed more employees manning them.  They hadn't been open for long when we visited, so maybe this kink has been worked out.  Either way, we'd go back!

3. Fujiyama Sushi, Carrollton - I was watching an episode of Shark Tank and one of the entrepreneurs was pitching an idea related to sushi restaurants.  That kicked off a sushi craving in my brain, and I thought about it for the next couple of days.  Meezy found this local sushi restaurant, so we decided to give it a shot.  We took Dutch there, but he started to act fussy once we got inside.  We decided to order our food to go instead of dining in, and the waitstaff and sushi chefs were very sweet while we waited.  They brought us a couple of oranges cut up and some vanilla crackers.  That helped keep Dutch occupied.  When we unpacked our containers at home, we realized that they had included an entire extra container of sushi!  I don't know if this was by accident or just an act of generosity, but we were certainly happy about it.  Here's what we got for $40 (after tip):

 
Everything was delicious and there was no way the two of us could eat it all.  I'm embarrassed to say, but we actually had to throw some of it out!  I would definitely return.

4. Signature Sport Wings, Carrollton - Meezy had a craving for pizza, so we decided to try out a local buffet that also specialized in wings.  We went for lunch one day while Dutch was in daycare.  The all-you-can-eat price during lunch was $8.99/person.  When we walked inside, we were quite surprised at the size of the buffet, but not in a good way.  It was a tiny area with very few dishes.  There was only one pizza on the buffet.  There were a few different varieties of wings, and then french fries, chicken fingers, pepperoni rolls, catfish, and onion rings.  The food was not good, except for the pepperoni rolls.  I was quite disappointed, especially for the price we paid!  Definitely never going back.  We had to drive over to Sonic for some dessert afterward because we were not full after eating there! 

While I'm giving reviews, I want to mention a couple of businesses that kicked ass this month:

The red light on my Dyson started flashing every time I tried to vacuum, and the roller brush would stop spinning.  My vacuum isn't covered under warranty because I bought it refurbished from Amazon, but I called Dyson anyway.  They tried to troubleshoot over the phone, but we couldn't get a resolution.  They referred me to a local Dyson repair shop (I35 & W Belt Line Rd).  I didn't figure it'd be cheap to get looked at, but surely it would be cheaper than buying a new one!  The guys there were so nice.  They told me they'd look at it and try to troubleshoot without doing anything that would cost me.  I left it with them and they called me after a couple of hours saying they had cleared a blockage from the extension arm and removed a sensor on the front panel that might've caused the light to flash red (when it really didn't need to).  I went to pick it up and they didn't charge me anything!  I was shocked.  I know they didn't have to replace any parts, but I figured they would at least have some sort of diagnostic fee just for looking at the vacuum.  Nope! 

A while ago, Riley chewed through the leather strap on my beloved Michael Kors tote.  I called a local MK store and they referred me to Deno's of Highland Park.  They assured me they could fix it, and I braced myself for what the cost would be.  Much to my surprise, it was a very pleasant number.  Only $15.  Whew!  I paid a pretty penny for that tote, so it was refreshing to hear that it could be salvaged and for just  a small amount.  I also brought some heels there to get new tips put on.  I was very pleased with their work.  Here's the before and after:

      

You can hardly notice the repair!  You would definitely have to look very closely to see that it has been stitched together again.  Great job!