Oh how I have missed you!

Hi friends! It's been soooo long since my last post...I know I only have 5 amazing followers right now but I do apologize for not writing in so long. I have always promised to keep it real so to be honest, I've been in a funk lately and I think I was just running myself on empty! I work in child protection (which I LOVE!) but it is a very hard job and sometimes it really pulls at my heart strings and as much as I try to "leave work at work," I'm not always successful! So anyways, the last few weeks have been tough at work so every second I have when I'm not at work, I have been hugging my lady bug so tight and spending that quality time with my cute little family! Chris has been really busy at work too so the little time that we do have, we've been taking full advantage of! I am feeling much better this week...more rejuvenated and ready to rock and roll on my little blog love! I have SO MUCH to share with you guys (and yes, I remembered to take pictures this time!) I promise to get lots of pictures up and share with you all the things that have been changing in our home! Both the hubs and I are so excited about all the things that are changing and we are going full throttle now as we are just so anxious to get everything done! We were at a little bit of a halt because we I really, really, REALLY wanted to take a wall out in our upstairs living room to open things up but sadly, after lots of research and multiple trips up to the attic, we have decided that it will be FAR TOO MUCH work than it is probably worth...here's why: our little ranch style home was built in the 1950's and that is when the homes were being built much, MUCH different than they are now...now a days you can pretty much take out any wall in a house without it effecting any other walls but the wall that I so desperately wanted to take out just happens to be a load bearing wall (boo to the hoo!) which means that we would have to break up the concrete in the basement and pour new footings to accommodate the extra weight which = major halt on the basement getting finished which = one very, very sad mama! So...after a long debate, we have decided to skip the demolition upstairs for now and focus on getting that basement done...it's not a completely done deal however because on the list of things to do is also re-shingling our roof and once they are up there, they are going to see if there's any way they can add some more structural design which means that we could perhaps take the wall out at a later time (yesssssssss, there is still hope!) And if not, it's okay because I have to keep reminding myself that as much as we LOVE our house, it's not our "forever home" because we want to have 3 or 4 little buggy's and there just isn't enough room for a big family where we're at now. I was only upset for like an hour and then I got over it! We have been working hard on getting all of our trim painted upstairs and we picked out new paint colors for the kitchen and upstairs living room/hallway! We have picked out new furniture for upstairs because all our furniture that we currently have upstairs (which is far too "large scale" will be going downstairs once finished) and I picked out all new bedding/paint/accessories for buggy's "big girl" room makeover! I am not afraid to admit that I have decorator's ADD right now so I am just writing things down and putting together "room boards" with paint swatches, pictures of furniture, fabrics, etc...I'm a "big picture" kind of gal and I need to see it all put together before I'm ready to spend the big bucks!
So anyways, we have been busy little bees and I can't wait to show you guys all the changes! I hope you all are having a good week so far...I now the Fordham fam is...we are LOVING this spring weather and we have been enjoying family walks every evening and snuggling in with all the windows open at night...so refreshing! I have to get back to "my real job" now but I missed my blog so much so I needed to write a post today...it always makes me feel better to get my thoughts out! Before I leave for the day, I wanted to share this picture with you from a couple of weeks ago when my brother was home...(he's the one with the tatoo.)

We got a hotel room for something different to do and with a little help from the men in the family, we were able to get Zach in the pool and he LOVED it! Then we went from the pool to the hot tub and he loved that even more...my mom then called the staff in Duluth immediately that next Monday morning to request that they start pool therapy since he loved it so much and he kept commenting on how much more loose he felt! I can't tell you how nice it was to do something "normal" with him...I still pray literally every day for him to be healed physically and mentally...I would give almost anything in the world to just have a "normal" conversation with my brother...I think that's what kills me the most...not being able to talk like we used to. He's one of my very best friends and I love him more than life! So please, keep on praying for Zach...to finish strong and to overcome all of this!
And one more pic of me with my two loves...you should have seen buggy in her bikini...OH MY GOSH, SO CUTE :)

Have a happy Tuesday!

xoxo, Amanda