Keeping Up With The Jacksons

Where to go trick or treating? Should we go downtown or in our soon-to-be neighborhood? We opted for our soon-to-be neighborhood and am I glad we made that decision. Beth came out with us for a little while and while out we met some of the neighbors. This one family in particular is really sweet. They have two kids. There oldest is a girl and she's Dylan's age and their youngest is a boy and a year younger than Dylan. They live down the street and I can't wait to get to move in and get to know them. They invited us to walk with them which was so nice! Dylan was so happy to go trick or treating with kids his age. Unfortuantely he took a spill as him one of the kids were running to a house, They house had shallow long steps and his shoe was untied. He stepped on his shoelace causing him to trip over the step and went flying toward the other kid and both went down and Dylan's candy went flying all over the sidewalk. Both kids are fine but I have to admit it was kind of funny. TJ helps him get his shoe on and as soon as he gets up and he trips over the same step again. Poor kid. But all in all, we had a great time with some great people and Dylan ended up with a decent amount of candy. Here's our little trick or treaters!

As soon as we found out we got the house to rent, TJ called all day on Friday to put in a notice to vacate. We rent month-to-month, so we thought they only required a two weeks notice to move out. Our landlord calls me this morning to let me know they need 30 days. It's in our lease so it's our fault for not looking but the landlord says she'll look into it for us and see about getting us out on the 6th, like we want. She tells me while I'm looking into it, to call the guy who deals with the rent payments and all and let him know we want to move out. I call him and explain and he's a real jerk about it all but says maybe, but we need to put it in writing and get it to him. So now I have to get over there at some point and give it to him, but these people never answer the phone so trying to get a hold of them to figure out when to go so they're available is going to be a pain. Hopefully when they call back today, they will tell me tomorrow is OK to turn it in, then I can have TJ turn in the notice tomorrow. I'm so tired of the way they treat their tenants. Maintenance is virtually non-existent, no one ever calls you back right away with anything. I'm done and can't wait to be out of there.

Last weekend was a busy weekend in the Jackson house. Friday night, Dylan had a friend spend the night. They played really well together and were perfect even when it was time to go to bed. Saturday, we took the kids to Madrac Farms to their pumpkin patch. We went through the corn maze, on a hayride, used the spoiled tomato slingshot and picked out Georgia Bulldog Pumpkins! Dylan was so excited to find out he had a bulldog pumpkin.

It is time. Time to look for a new place to live. Neither if us are happy with where we're living. Maintenance is horrible; it takes them days to call you back if you have a problem and then they half-ass any work they do. I even called the property manager and I never received a phone call from her. We have these neighbors who are nice but feel it's OK to smoke weed in our stairwell. If you want to smoke, fine but please don't do it in the stairwell where I have to go and bring my children. Go outside away from the door. The apartment has had its issues as well and we're just not happy there.

So we're in the hunt for a new place to live, preferably a house to rent so the kids have a yard to play in and we have our own space. The only problem we're having is finding a place that is in our price range and in a safe area. We have a found a few but the difference in houses that are just a few hundred dollars (sometimes just a hundred dollars more) is huge. They're so much nicer. I'm starting to get frustrated. I just want a decent house in a decent neighborhood where  the kids can play outside with kids. Apparently, that's a lot to ask for. LOL! I know we'll find one but we're both tired of looking. Hopefully we'll have some luck soon. AHHH!!!!

Yesterday, we had family pictures. We used a friend of Jenn's (another friend of mine) and she was great! We had a great time and the pictures look great, so far. She posted a few on facebook but not all of them. If you're interested in, you check them out on Andrea Zahn Photography's facebook page. Hope you like them.

It's Dylan's last weekend of summer before he starts 1st Grade! I can't believe my little boy is 6 and starting 1st grade in just 13 hours. Time is flying by WAY too fast.!

We didn't do anything too exciting. It was a nice relaxing weekend at home. I made a UGA tutu for Jordyn and am going to attempt to do a home photo shoot of the kids next weekend. Keep your fingers crossed the kids cooperate and the pictures look decent. If they don't turn out though, I'm taking them to Portrait Innovations the following weekend and having one of the cheap packages done.

Jordyn had a few developments this weekend though. We have definitely determined she does a small one-legged low crawl. We tried putting her on all fours but she just falls forward. Ahh, well she'll get there. We did give her first Mum-Mum cracker and she was in heaven. She loved every bite and was pretty upset when it was gone. LOL!

Everyone has a hobby of some sort. I have two: Making Crafts and Photography. I am new to both but have really kicked them into overdrive lately. After beginning to write this blog, I thought it might fun to log my progression of these two hobbies as well. 

I can't believe my little man turned 6 last week. He's growing up WAY to fast!

With all the craziness of the last few months, his birthday kinda crept up on us and we really had no time to plan a birthday party. My mom and sister planned on coming down, the weekend after his birthday, so we did a few small things for his birthday and then planned a fun weekend with Mimi and Aunt Lyndsay and Lyndsay's boyfriend, Josh.

Thursday was Dylan's actual birthday. I got off work early to spend the day with him and when I came home, we gave Dylan his presents from us. We thought we would really be excited about his NerfGun Wii game but it was the legos that excited him the most...GO FIGURE! LOL! Since it was Dylan's birthday, it was his choice for dinner. He chose Firehouse Subs and got a free firehat.


After dinner, we took him to Lovin' Spoons, a self-serve frozen yogurt shop. Dylan loved making his ice cream, which consisted of Reese's Peanut Butter ice cream topped with Reese's cups, M&M's, chocolate chips, other candy and hot fudge. Mmmmm...doesn't it look tasty?


He ate a few bites, then wanted to go play in the punch buggie they had. While playing in the car, he met a little girl. They got along great and didn't want to leave with each other, but all good things must come to an end. The little girl had to leave but her grandmother stood outside talking to someone for a little while. Dylan noticed this and went to the window and started knocking on the window. She came to the door and they "touched" hands on the other side of the door. Ahhh.....young love!

The weekend arrives and Dylan has Austin come spend the night. He is SO excited to see Austin. And Mimi is on her way. What could be better? Mimi arrives and she, Lyndsay and Josh stop by the house for a little bit to see Dylan and Jordyn before heading to the hotel.

Saturday = BEACH DAY!!!! We had a blast. The kids had so much fun in the water especially with Lyndsay and Josh. I'm so proud of Austin and Dylan for being as brave as they were, especially since sometimes they can both be pretty cautious about a lot of things. Jordyn LOVES the water! We put her in her float and she was as happy as could be in the water. Nothing bothered her...except for maybe the taste of the salt water but who likes that anyway.


Just as we're leaving, Maggie arrives to Tybee Island with Adeline. I felt horrible that she made the drive and the kids had had enough. Instead we stopped at The Crab Shack so the kids could feed the alligators. They loved that.

We then get back to the house and TJ gets the pizza and we have cake, pizza and open presents. Dylan was loaded with some new Cars 2 legos, and UGA shirt that he was super excited about.


Sunday, we took Mimi, Lyndsay and Josh downtown. As always, downtown is a great time. This time we even got some candy and ice cream from Riverstreet Sweets, definitely one of the best candy shops I've ever been to. 


After leaving downtown, we headed home and finished our weekend relaxing and building legos.

Blogs. I think they're FABULOUS! I love reading other people's blogs, especially ones that have DIY tutorials. I have an old blog the I NEVER kept up with and I mean NEVER. Well that's about to change. With two kids, living away from our families and most of our friends, we need to give them updates on how everyone is doing. And no offense to our amazing families but it gets old sharing the same stories 50 times, so if I can post it in a blog, and now just get everyone to read it, it will save me lots of time that I always seem to run out of.