When the good news brings bad news

So our fridge died, and yes a big part of me was SO EXCITED.  I wanted the darn thing to break for purely selfish reasons.  It's so freaking small, and feeding a family of four out of that tiny little box is near impossible when you cook the way I do.   Everything from bread dough to Kefir is communing a little to closely, which is probably why the box isn't working.  The milk is souring, the kefir is digesting and the bread dough is fermenting a little to fast for me to keep up with it.  So what does this mean for my precious family?  The things I planned on buying this month for our food will have to put on hold until the next shipment / butcher date which come around every 1-3 months depending on the company.  Unless I can bust my butt and pull in an extra $300 this month (which you can bet I'm gonna try and do).  You see, I have this master plan for my family that I have been painstakingly working on for MONTHS.  We're cutting out the middle man.  Saving money by buying directly from Bulk distributors and small local farms.  Say goodbye to Whole Paycheck, Trader Joes, Schnucks and Shop n' Save.  Everything from Dried goods and Beef to Milk and eggs will be purchased without the local grocery stores insane prices, and be of better quality.  
Unfortunately all my research might have to wait another couple of months to bear any fruit.  The money I was stashing away now belongs to Home Depot.  The sucky part is?  We don't even get the fridge for another two-three weeks.   And the massive amount of work that has to be done before it gets here, seriously cuts into my money making opportunities.   We have to move a floor vent, take down a partial wall, strip wallpaper, float a wall and paint all before the fridge can get put in.   Thus I'm officially going into hyper drive and most likely won't be posting anything for a while.  Unless I decide to cut out sleep.  Fear not, I will take pictures and post when I get the chance. Wish me luck!

Gidget goes under!

 Annie made a major leap in the water today.  Not sure what happened but all the sudden, she was under water swimming around.  I was ready to start crying I couldn't believe it.  No bubble, no water wings, no raft.  Just Annie and her goggles under the water.   Now, the tricky part is she can't hold her head above water on her own, so I need to be right there, but we are so close to having an independent swimmer!

After the pool, she wanted to go straight into the bath tub to "practice."

Back to work

 Our Girls a still crammed into my little quarantine coop.  Try as we might, we just haven't made much progress.

Texas got to work this weekend breaking down the old coop to start the reconfiguration process.  

This is going to take a while.

In other news, our Refrigerator has decided to quit on us so guess what?  I GET A NEW FRIDGE!!!  We're still trying to find the best deal, but if I can find just one more coupon for Lowes we'll have ourselves a full size fridge!    I can't tell you how exciting this is. Living out of our mini fridge has definitely been eye open and we've learned some great lessons, but I am so ready for a normal refrigerator.

Goodbye mini fridge.

The awesomeness of Annie

The girls

 Annie and her cousins Sadie and Ruby are extremely close.

 Annie and Sadie play barbie, wrestle and run together.

 Then there's Ruby who loves to play house and be a fashion model. 

Together they are a tangled mess of giggles, screams and shrills.

Happy Baby

Over the last few weeks, Elsie has cheered up quite a bit.  She only screams when out in public, in the car or at home every other third hour.  This is improvement. This is monumental improvement.  I am slowly introducing green foods into my diet and I can't tell you how amazing a piece of broccoli tastes after three months of no green foods.  I eventually hope to have a baby that doesn't feel the need the test out her vocal range while enclosed in a small space operated by a rather tired stressed mom.  Till then I will enjoy each moment of silence and every smile.

Looking like a mom

I have been slowly squirreling away money over the last few months to buy a new outfit for me and some shorts for Annie.  All Excited I took off early in the morning to go shopping.  It was not a pleasant shopping experience.  Elsie cried the whole time, trying on clothes was traumatic and nine times out of ten whatever I tried on didn't fit or looked terrible on me.   But somehow I managed to find one good outfit for me and a few shorts Annie.  I was so excited to wear my new clothes and show Texas.  An outfit that hadn't been spit up on or stained during any sort of home renovation project.  I wasn't squeezing myself into a pre-baby weight pair of pants or drowning in maternity clothes.  I felt so good.  Then, kid free I go meet Texas.  His response?  "You look like a nice mom today." ??? I wanted to cry.  I love Texas, but when it comes to complimenting me he falls terribly short.  He tried to fix it by saying I looked like a really nice soccer mom and I got confused do I cry or laugh?  I didn't want to look like a mom.  Thank goodness he's able to make me laugh no matter what the situation, or I'm not sure my incredibly hormonal self would have made it through the night.