A Blog for Blogging

Ashley - Living in SC with a husband, toddler & a couple pets

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My husband is getting the tub faucet/shower head/valve installed now. With any luck he can finish that + rest of the plumbing stuff and hang the drywall before the weekend is over. Then he can do the drywall finishing after work the rest of this week. He goes on his 7 off on Friday which I think will be enough time to install the floors, paint, put in the vanity/mirror/toilet/etc. and at least cut the new trim (we’re replacing the traditional trim with shaker style- should have done this room by room when we started working on the house but eventually I’d like to go back and replace it all). Then it’ll just be all the little finishing touches to finish up. Realistically I know something will come up but it seems very reasonable we could be done within 3 weeks.

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Never underestimate the power of baking soda, vinegar, and corn starch for keeping kids occupied.

My husband took Isla to the lake so Ava and I spent the morning playing with baking soda + vinegar and making oobleck. She wasn’t super into touching the oobleck but spent a lot of time covering her Doorables in it and then giving them baths. I used to set up the same stuff for Isla when she was in preschool during Covid and sometimes had to stay home with me while I worked and it would keep her busy for hours. Not sure why we ever got away from it but I think it’s going to be my new default activity when I need to get anything done. It’s a little messy but tbh I’d rather wipe off a table/floor than pick up and put away a million individual toys.

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Our smart TV’s home screen keeps showing a big image of the Teletubbies and when Ava first saw it she visibly recoiled and said “Euggh!!”. Now whenever she sees it she calls them “tubby toes” and talks about how much she doesn’t like them and how they’re creepy. 🤣

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I think we might put a computer desk in our living room like it's 1999?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to handle the internet/social media/etc with Isla now that she's in 5th grade and middle school is rapidly approaching. She's been asking for a phone for a long time, which is definitely not happening anytime soon. But she's also started asking for a laptop and wanting to use mine for various things.

I was online a lot starting from when I was a young teenager (and to a lesser extent even a little before that- I was definitely on Neopets by the time I was Isla's age) and I think there were a lot of positives to that. I used the internet to teach myself Photoshop and to discover new music and I found a really cool (and, thankfully, safe) online community that was a big part of my teenage years and I made little Microsoft Publisher "magazines" about things I liked and downloaded ROMs and did a million other things that I think had a lot of value. It definitely made me very tech savvy but more generally (and even more importantly) it made me capable of figuring things out for myself and finding answers/doing research. I want my kids to have those skills, which seem to be lacking nowadays.

On the flip side, I definitely got up to things I shouldn't have online and obviously the internet was not the safest, most positive place even back then. It seems significantly more daunting to navigate now for a million different reasons. But also these kids are going to have to figure it out at some point and I feel like it's better to ease them into it

So anyways, I think a computer (with parental controls of some sort) in the living room used only with supervision is the best way to do that. We have a desk in our bedroom we don't really use so I think I'm going to move that downstairs this weekend and start pilot testing some "computer time" on my laptop and see how that goes.

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Ava starts preschool in less than 2 weeks. She has her first day of school outfit and I just ordered her matching Frozen backpack/lunchbox/water bottle (she won't eat lunch at school but I figure to make my life easier we'll still pack her lunch the night before so it's ready to go and she can eat it in the car if we need to run errands some days). We're still working on potty training but she's mostly there, so I feel fine with that. Now I've moved onto worrying about how she's going to adjust. We've never left her with anyone that isn't my mom and even that's been very limited. Isla was in daycare since she was a baby and never had any issues so this will be new territory.

I am pretty excited about the prospect of having 3.5 hrs of kid-free time twice a week though and need to figure out how to make the most of it. My husband will have 2 of those days off (where he doesn't have to sleep in to switch to nights) so I figure we'll use those for date mornings, since date nights require a babysitter. But I also want to get into some sort of routine of getting stuff done around the house.

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Home, finally. It was a fun little trip but I’m glad to be out of the car. We met my brother, cousin + his family and aunt & pap for breakfast before we headed home. We made decent time, it took about 10 hrs instead of the 9 hrs it estimated but we stopped 3 times, including for about 30 minutes at New River Gorge. Last time I was there was almost exactly 7 years ago (July 19 vs July 20), when my mom & I road-tripped up to Pittsburgh with Isla and stopped on the way home. Luckily this time I did not have to carry Isla up the many, many stairs on the way back up. I gotta say this drive beats driving down I-95 or driving through the Midwest any day. I could be convinced to spend a weeklong vacation in the WV mountains.

Now everyone needs to get into school mode because we have to be up at 6 am tomorrow for the first time in weeks. I’m not ready.

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The day did not seem promising this morning- it started raining and thundering right before we had to leave for the shower. But by the time we got there everything had mostly cleared up so it wasn’t an issue. It was nice to see my great aunt and a couple of her kids that came out for it. My mom’s cousin’s daughter is just a couple years older than Isla and they hit it off, which was nice.

We left a little bit early (but after most of our side of the family had already left) to try to get some time in at Kennywood, even though the forecast was super iffy. We hit a ton of rain on the drive but it was clear once we got there. My brother decided to join us, which was fun (even if I am kind of irritated with him over other stuff). Isla loved the roller coasters we rode and we got to do a bunch of other rides because it was pretty dead and everything was walk on. We only ended up getting in about 2 hours before they had to close early for inclement weather though. Luckily we made it back to the car before all the rain. They gave us free tickets to come back since it was rained out too, which aren’t any good to us but we gave them to my cousin. Honestly it all kind of worked out, we didn’t get as much time as we wanted but yesterday would have been way more crowded + hotter. Also, I definitely cannot handle back to back thrill rides as well now compared to when I was younger so I don’t think I could have survived a whole day doing all the intense stuff Isla wanted to do anyways.

Tomorrow we’re getting breakfast with everyone and heading home. Hopefully we’ll make it home before Isla’s bedtime or the first day of school might be a little rough 😬

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Well today was kind of a letdown.

Pittsburgh is getting a lot of that smoke from the wildfires in Canada, it was worse today than yesterday. They basically advised everyone to stay inside so Kennywood was closed. Instead we went to the mall and an arcade/mini golf place, which was fun, but not on the same level as an amusement park.

They’re saying rain tomorrow should push a lot of the smoke out so maybe if it rains enough to improve the air quality but not enough to rain everything out, Kennywood will be open and we can go in the evening after the baby shower. Otherwise the only other option would be going early and staying for just a few hours on Sunday before we drive home. But considering how long it took me to get up here, not sure it’s the best idea to leave late since Isla starts school Monday.

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Our 9 hour road trip turned into 12 hours 😩. We lost a full hour due to one area of random traffic in the middle of nowhere, lost maybe another hour with stops and idk where the other hour went. I hate making bad time so that annoyed me but otherwise it was an easy drive. I grew up making that drive multiple times a year but it’s been years since I’ve been up here so it was kind of nice to drive through the mountains. Isla was very impressed by the scenery, I think on the way home we’ll stop at one of the overlooks in WV.

It does feel weirdly nostalgic but bittersweet being here. Even though I didn’t grow up here, it was such a constant in my life because all my mom’s family was here and we usually visited 3-4 times a year. We moved from St. Louis to Charleston when I was 10 and rarely went back to St. Louis after that so in a way it’s been the most consistent place in my life. And since we were mostly here for holidays or summers or special occasions, there are so many strong memories tied to people and places here. It’s always kind of felt like home, in a way that was uncomplicated and just happy. So it’s weird to be back but staying in a hotel instead of with family, with my grandma gone and my aunt and pap now living in SC and everything different. I’m excited to show Isla places I grew up going to but there’s also a big part of me that wishes I was still the 10 year old in this situation.

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Not off to the best start this morning 🙃

I almost never drink hot coffee anymore but we’re out of Stok so it was my only option. When I do drink hot coffee I add so much milk that it cools it off right away so I can drink it. Except today I forgot to add milk for some reason and took a giant sip while it was hot as hell, so I had to spit it out all over the kitchen because it was hurting my mouth and now I’m pretty sure I have a 3rd degree burn on my tongue so that’s fun.

[merinnan]

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What a great morning to wake up as a South Carolinian.

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For once I don’t feel like I have a to do list I either need to focus on or feel guilty for ignoring.

The bathroom is on hiatus because my husband is working. The goal was to get the tub/shower/fixtures installed + hang drywall and do all the drywall finishing before my husband went back to work Friday night. All we got done was installing the tub 🙃. He won’t have much of a chance to work on it for almost 2 weeks and there isn’t anything I can do in the mean time so it is what it is.

Isla and I leave for Pittsburgh on Wednesday. It’s about a 9 hour drive but we’re driving up with my aunt & pap in separate cars but we’ll coordinate stops. My pap is 87 years old though so who knows, maybe it’ll take us 12 hours with bathroom breaks. I need to pack but laundry is done and since it’s just Isla and I that should be easy enough. This will be the longest I’m away from Ava since she was born but I am super excited to get some time with just Isla. I love the toddler years for a lot of reasons but the big kid years are pretty fun too.

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I guess print media is officially dead. Our local mugshot paper publishes its final print issue tomorrow 🪦 🤣

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My husband never opens/handles his mail and it drives me insane. I’ve moved the same pile of mail around the living room/kitchen like 5 times. I handed it to him directly today. And he still hasn’t opened any of it!! It’s probably stuff that can be thrown away but jfc just open it!!

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This bathroom project is starting to feel never ending. Everything is just taking way longer than expected and little things keep popping up that take extra time. For example, yesterday my husband framed out the recess for the medicine cabinet but in the process found that both the sink vent pipe and water pipes are in the way and will need rerouted. So we checked one thing off the to do list only to add 2 more things. Currently there's a giant hole in the dining room ceiling + Ava's closet because he had to cut into those areas to access some of the plumbing, so all that will need drywall work when he's done.

I am at least grateful my husband knows how to do all this stuff or is capable of learning how because I would have thrown in the towel and put the house up for sale as is by this point if it was all down to me.

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We took the kids to the State Museum because they do $1 admission on the first Sunday of the month. So that filled the afternoon and was pretty fun/interesting for $3 (Ava was free). Grilled out for dinner (shrimp, steak & veggie kabobs) and we might have time to dry fit the tub before Ava goes to sleep. Kind of stressing we haven’t gotten more done in the bathroom this weekend but we don’t have any other plans for the rest of the week until my husband goes back to work. The kids haven’t had much screen time this weekend so I’ll feel less bad if we need to play the “movie marathon” card to get some stuff done later this week. I guess I should also watch some “how to tile a floor” videos before we get to that step in this process.

Isla and I go to Pittsburgh in a week and a half so I also need to get ready for that. And we need to do all her back to school before we leave, since we’re literally getting home the night before school starts.