Feeding the Birds

So yesterday they had a parakeet building where you could go in and feed the birds. It was so much fun. Jt was a little shy, but Liam had no fear. 

Liam's face is the best in this photo. 

Virginia is for lovers

We made it. 

The boys did so well on the plane. And the college student sitting next to Jt handled it like a champ. There was only mild screaming. 

Last night we played and played. 

Then today we went to the Reston Zoo. 

It was nice and not nearly has exhausting as the national zoo. 

<3 hugs from NoVa. (Northern Virginia)

East Coast Trip

This summer Over a 6 week period, Brian will be gone for 4 of them. At one point he will only be home for 3 hours before he has to leave again. 

So I'm also leaving. There isn't a lot going on in the summer, and I don't want to be home alone with the boys for all that time. I wasn't built to be a wife with a traveling husband. 

The boys and I will fly into DC and spend a week with Brian's  parents. From there, we'll fly up to Maine to visit with my family for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure when I'm returning just because of funds and flights, but it will be sometime in July. 

I'm excited, sad, and nervous all at the same time. I'm super excited to see all of Brian's family and get to hang out with our friends back in Maryland and Virginia. We miss them a lot. I'm am equally excited to be in Maine with my family. We're going to spend time with my grandparents, go strawberry picking and eat lots of Houlton Farms Dairy. (Ice cream). 

We're really going to miss our friends in here. And I'm going to miss the sun. Maine doesn't really get sun. 

I'll be back in Texas some time in mid-July. So for those of you in the county reading this- which is probably just my mom- I would love to get together and hang out. 

I felt the need to write all of this out so there wasn't any rumors as to why I was leaving Texas for a month with my two babies, and with out my husband. 

Please pray for us. 

Pray for Brian's Heath and safety. He needs to be healthy for all these trips and just one full week of teenagers is exhausting. 

Pray for the boys. That they handle all of the transitions well. JT is a social butterfly and will miss his friends. Especially in Maine. 

Pray for my sanity. Brian's is the yin to my yang, Joel to my Ethan, Damon to my Affleck, (too much Gilmore girls). I don't do well with out him, which is pathetic and feel free to gag, but it's true.

Thank you💕 

It's time to move.

The house that Brian and I were interested in didnt work out. which is totally ok. It was best for both parties. Plus My student loans are reporting incorrectly to the credit agencies.   👍🏻 so it's good we went though the process of applying for a loan. But buying a house really isn't a option right now. (Unless we win the lottery💰💸💵)

However, I found this gem last week.

It's currently leaking water into our cabinets. Which by the way is in a TOTALLY different room from the original mold we found in October. 

We told our Maintenance department Saturday and of course nobody has even showed up to look at it never mind a plan to fix it. 

I'm about to mama  bear this situation and black out, because I can also smell the nasty moisture in the air once our AC kicks on.  

So, we need to move. Moving to another apartment complex sounds terrible to me. Plus we have a very small budget. We'd love to rent a house. 

Pray with us. 

Pray we can find something with in our budget, quickly, that is also safe for us to be in. Also for you Texans keep your eyes and ears open. Or if you have previous experience in an apartment complex and it's not killing you slowly- let me know. 

💕 thank you 

Casa Colligan

We're finally healthy from the stomach flu. 

Thank you for all who gave food and such, it was all very appreciated. 

As you know we have mold. Which is why we catch EVERYTHING.  Well a very long story short we have put a contract on a house. We still don't have a loan, we aren't sure if we can get out of our lease with out paying. We're some where between trusting and stupidity. 

If this happens we want to do "casa Colligan" once a month. Where the young life and Woodcreek kids can come and hang out. Video games, music, play outside and eat. Just to escape and hang out. 

Pray with us. Just asking for Gods will. And if this all happens it will be a Miracle . 

Birthday Boys

I can't believe the boys are 3 and 1. My sweet babies are growing up. Liam is trying so hard to walk. And JT is slamming the door out of anger......

Last week we celebrated their birthdays. I didn't want to have a big party because 1. We have no money and 2. We don't know enough people. So we just had some very special people over for pizza and cookies and we played. It was perfect. 

Valentine's Day

I'n sorry that I didn't really post in Jan. I was having a pitty party about missing my friends and other various things. Not only that but we literally haven't stopped since we got back from Maryland. It's just been one thing after another. 

anyway. I'm thankful that I have friends who told encouraged me to take out my boys. I want to make days like, birthdays and Valentine's Day special so that when they are married, they make their wives feel special. 

Jt was not impressed that he had to wear a button up. He HATES button ups. Which I don't understand. He just looks so handsome! I told him that there are some dates that you can dress casual but this wasn't one of them. I also made him wear his blue suede shoes. 

  We went to Olive Garden. And the boys had spaghetti. Foolish mother. Notice the white shirts. 

All in all it was a good time. Minimal tears and some smiles. We finished it off with Liam napping and JT And I sharing a McFlurry. 

Date your kids!

(But date your spouse more) 

-j 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was definitely a time to be thankful. 

The Past Two Months

Sorry It been two months. I get into moods of "nobody cares about my life why should i post things"... (mostly because other people have pointless blogs) HOWEVER. Some people legit want to know whats going on.

December came and went. It was 70 degreese on Christmas Eve so JT wore shorts. 

My parents came down for Christmas. We had a blast with them.

We went back to the DMV (which for you Dallas friends it means DC, Maryland, & Virginia) right before New Years to spend time with Brian's family and to celebrate a beautiful wedding.

At the risk of boring you with a long post I'll keep it short. Happy Taco Tuesday!
-J

Messy Monday

Mondays are either grocery and baking days, or nobody gets dressed and stay in PJ's. Last monday we baked, but because of all the thanksgiving baking I want to do later in the week, we didn't bake today. 

My mom posted a picture on FB of her back yard and how it was snowy. So I decided I'd take a picture of our "back yard". Super thankful that today it isn't snowy.

Part of my job is to be a home maker right?  I'm not sure this counts. I needed to organize the boys clothes so I could put JT's stuff away for Liam, and so I could take Liam's stuff to the consignment store. I also needed to organize it, because this drives.me.nuts. Every shirt type and size should have it's own pile. 

Just keeping it real. Happy Monday!  There is no Young Life which means Brian has to work longer, but he'll get to eat dinner with us. I'd call that a win! Enjoy your day!

- J

Adventures of the Colligan circus

Monday night after we got in from DC we had NO food in the house. So we went shopping early yesterday morning. The boys always do Better in the morning. 

Except yesterday morning. 

I'm so thankful for Dannette and Sharon for teaching him to walk like this. He doesn't do it always. But he will when I ask him to. 

The lady at the deli counter chased after me and handed me two fresh cookies. She said she bought them for the boys to help them shop better. 

Notice the missing sock. This was probably the 2 hour into the shopping trip. 

Homeboy passed out on the way home. Slept from 1-4:30. He partied hard with will. 

There was also a mad dash to the potty with the door left proped open by the cart. Because you can't bring a cart full of food into the bathroom. 

Never a dull moment. Love these boys. 

Pictures of our DC trip coming soon. 

Halloween

Sorry It's taken so long, we're a little past Halloween. We had such a good time with Maeve (Brian's littlest sister) while she was here. I don't know yet what I think about Halloween as far as the kids are concerned. I like the idea of dressing up and free candy. We treat Santa like Mikey Mouse. Not real, but a fun aspect of the Christmas Season. Anyway nobody cares about my opinions.

We had a good time making cookies. Well JT lasted all of 3 seconds. Clearly these pictures posted in the wrong order, but you get the picture. We finally convinced him to get dress and his pirate jake costume looked suspiciously like Spiderman, but all it all was a good evening. Diana, let us trick 'er treat with her in her neighborhood, and Randy was kind enough to let her. The top picture is them playing swords with JT.

Some idiot gave Liam a lollipop, and before I could pry it out of his little hands it was soggy and wet.  Who gives an 8mo old a lollipop! Oo and he was pissed to when I took it away from him.

Brian went as a lumberjack. Which did nothing for me. and I went as the cool mom. Wait. Thats me every day.

Hope everybody had a good and fun halloween! (If thats your thing)
OH the biggest win of the night.. All I wore was a light sweater and a scarf. It was a perfect 70 something degrees out. Take that Maine! I could never do the halloween thing growing up.

(1. because my parent's would let me. 2. because we lived in the middle of fields. and 3. and most importantly because it's like 40 degrees out at halloween and you have to wear your costume over your snow suit.)