My Story
Hello and welcome to my blog! Most of my posts are about motherhood, DIY, family, personal growth, and teaching. I am a wife, mother of two beautiful red-heads, and a second grade teacher. Many of my posts are based off my own experiences, positive and negative, and are shared with you in hopes to establish connection and support with you and your own experiences. Our family has been through a lot of changes and heartache over the recent years, but we have grown and learned a lot along the way. Below you will learn why moving into a fixer upper was one of our biggest and most rewarding changes, especially with the passing of my mom. Just as I searched for advice, connection and support through my own adventures, my hope is to do the same with you.
At the end of 2022, we took a leap of faith by purchasing one of the best investments we’ve ever made. It was a 1976 ranch in desperate need of a face lift.
After a year of hard work, perseverance, and watching A LOT of YouTube tutorials…we have transformed our entire house and increased it’s appraised value by A LOT.
We totally knew what we were doing (for the most part), but we were not afraid to seek advice and help when needed.
We had some experience in home improvement projects with our previous two houses, but this project was a MAJOR undertaking. There was a mix of orange, yellow, and brown carpet, complemented with 3 inch ceramic tiles containing groovy splotches of brown and dirty yellow. I am not kidding when I say that I have THE most amazing husband in the world. Selling our family home and moving our two girls (and the dog) across town to a house with orange carpet and mice was less than ideal. But he did it with grace, patience, and determination during one of the darkest times of my life.
BTW…
…we ditched the lamp.
During the fall of 2022, my mom became critically ill as she fought a month long battle in the ICU. She had been diagnosed with severe asthma about 12 years prior, and the long term effects of using steroid medications to control her asthma were inevitably taking their toll on her body.
After spending weeks on a ventilator, my mom gained her angel wings on December 8, 2022. We were completely heartbroken. It had been weeks of intense emotions, hopefully and discouraged, as we experienced a roller coaster ride that we couldn’t stop no matter how hard we tried.
There are no words to describe what it feels like to have lost my mom. She was my person, my safe place. We talked nearly everyday. I was already struggling with my mental health well before her health took a turn that fall, but losing the person who had been my support person my whole life quickly threw me into a whole new level of hitting “rock bottom”.
Along with losing my mom, we were still struggling to get back on our feet financially after my husband lost his job at the beginning of the pandemic. Shortly before mom entered the hospital, I was experiencing crippling anxiety and depression, and contemplating taking a leave of absence from teaching so that I could focus on my own mental health. I ended up taking this much needed break after she passed, and I continue to work on healing ever since.
My mom and I shared a vision for our future homes.
Days before her death, that vision became a reality.
The house that my parents were currently living in, now my dad’s house (still weird to say), is the house where my siblings and I grew up. However, it is a large two-story home with over an acre in landscaping that needs to be maintained. It is more house than they need, but it had been in our family since it was built. It first belonged to my mom’s father before he sold it to our parents.
“It has to stay in the family,” is what I would always say to my mom, and she agreed.
Half joking, half serious, and 100% ambitious; Mom and I would chuckle over our big dreams of me buying a ranch with a basement in the same neighborhood, fixing it up, and then trading houses.
Two days before she took her last breaths, our offer was accepted for a ranch with a basement across the street from their house.
Buying our ranch fixer upper was one of the best decisions we could have every made for our family. Not only were we able to obtain the money that we needed from the sale of our old house, but we are now walking distance from family.
Fast forward one year, we now live in a beautiful home that we can truly call our own. I was able to transfer to a school that is closer to home, making life a little more manageable for our family (like I said, I’m learning how to slow down). Our girls are thriving at their new school, and they are loving the shorter commute to dance rehearsals! I love being a dance mom and watching our girls perform and grow in their craft. They love all of the friendships they have made, and the thrill of being on stage. We’ve been through a lot in the past couple of years, but we’ve grown and changed a lot, too.
