Adulting

Adulting. An action verb that is technically not an actual word, but it should be. It is used almost daily in our household. Ross and I use it in both positive and negative tones, but mainly negative. Adulting is proving to be both awesome and extremely tiring.

Adulting with children. As adults (really parents), we are to teach our offspring how to survive day to day while we ourselves are attempting to survive day to day. The first four years of having children is basically teaching them survival skills that will truly stay with them throughout their lives. What I have discovered is that the basics of saying please and thank you, sharing things, having good table manners, and waiting our turn is used WAY more than anything I EVER learned in any math class. Essentially, I am responsible for teaching my boys more important life skills in the first four years of their life than what they will gain in the following 13 years of school. Parent Adulting is tough.

Adulting with Property Part One. Ross and I bought our first home a little more than a year and a half ago. We were tired of renting, so we took the plunge. For the most part it has been a fairly painless experience. Our mortgage is less than any of our previous monthly rents, we don't have to call a property manager when things aren't 100%, and if I ever get the itch to paint a room, I can. 

Now with those fantastic and enticing benefits comes a number of headaches. A few months after we bought our turn-key home, I walked into our closet only to get wet feet. I thought the shower door had drained water off and had gotten the carpet wet and went along my business. This continued for some time and we finally called a plumber. 

He informed us that it wasn't his first visit to our home for repairs, but it was his first time to be in the house with it finished. Fantastic. Just what one wants to hear. But he fumbled around and we thought we had it fixed when he left and we did not have any wet carpet for months and months. Until recently, when we rarely have dry carpet. So another plumber has been called. We are now looking at replacing our shower, the base of our bathtub, all of the baseboards, and all decorative tile. Bring on a possible insurance claim. Property Owning Adulting is tough.

Adulting with Property Part Two. We bought a house in Oklahoma. We bought a house in one of the most unpredictable weather states in the US. About 7 weeks ago we had a hailstorm roll through that was quite impressive. Ross and I ran frantically attempting to get whichever vehicle into the garage all while being pelted with ping pong ball sized hailstones. My vehicle was the lucky one to get into the garage so it fared pretty well. Ross' truck did not. The hood took quite a beating and the windshield has a good sized chunk out of it. But, since we didn't have any windows in the house broken, we considered ourselves good to go.

It wasn't until I was showing my parents the swing set Ross built for Levi's birthday via FaceTime and my dad asked what the marks on our fence was, that I thought about our exterior damage. A short (HA) call to our insurance company later, we are having our roof and fence inspected. Turns out we need a whole new roof, guttering, and our fence needs a nice sprucing to get rid of the hail dents. 

Bring on insurance claim #2 (and premium increases UGH) from this lovely hail storm. Property Owning Adulting is really tough.

Adulting with a Spouse. Ross travels a lot. He recently counted and he has traveled for work 18 times in the past 19 months. Sometimes he is gone for one night, but typically he is gone for 10-25 days. His job is kind of crazy right now and it doesn't have any looks of slowing down for the next two years. Years ago when we would discuss how we pictured what his career would be like, I did not picture him being this busy and traveling this much. I am incredibly thankful that we live less than three hours from family during this point of Ross traveling this much. There are short moments in time where the army actually works in your favor. Adulting with a Busy Spouse is really, really tough.

But, in all of this adulting comes these great moments that wouldn't happen if we weren't adults. I married this guy who chose a very interesting career which has moved us around, tested our limits several times over, and makes our family life anything but ordinary. He is a guy who is happy to let me steal his shirts, doesn't care that I don't get all the dishes clean every day, and watches Gilmore Girls with me because he knows it is my favorite. I have two really entertaining, strong-willed, energy-filled, momma-loving, blue-eyed boys. I own a home (or rather owe money to a company who owns my home) that feels like home. Adulting isn't all bad, it's exhausting but it is a rewarding exhausting.