Our Furniture -- finally!

My dresser - my favorite part is the middle door. Inside are three small drawers. All the drawers have whisper close which means they finish closing on their own!

One of our 2 nightstands. This is Andy's but mine looks the same! Notice our wedding album underneath the nightstand!

The king sized bed that we love! Our temper pedic mattress and pillows are fantastic. Lottie and Ty are on the right!

Andy's dresser

Here is a pic that Luke took of Ty! Isn't he a cutie! Can't believe he'll be 3 in September.

House Update

What a week! We've been inside many homes trying to find the right one for us. We were booted out of our home for 6 showings. But it was all worth it because we have a signed contract on our house! One week after listing our house online we had an offer. Then on Wednesday we received our second offer causing the first people to increase what their offer! They then offered what we would have countered. We accepted their offer without countering and rejected offer #2. We also found a house we like. It's 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, basement, fireplace, big kitchen, huge backyard, on a court, and over 2000 square feet! It's really nice. We made an offer last night. This house is going through a relocation company so it will be awhile before we hear if they accepted/countered our offer or not. We're hoping!

A great day!

With a day as beautiful as today was, how could it not be great?! Add to that a super easy dinner, shopping at the consignment sale, a strawberry/blueberry smoothie and new shoes! I spent the evening with Ty while everyone else went to church. After shopping at the sale we ran over to the mall so I could get a new pair of crocs. I love the crocs that I have (flip flops and mary janes) and have wanted the pair I bought today for at least a year! I let myself buy them tonight. Then found another pair I like! They keep coming out with new styles. Anway, I treated myself to a smoothie and then Tyler and I ran to get a few things at the grocery. Came home, gave Ty a bath and then the big boys came home. The best news: our house is being shown tomorrow! Not just once, TWICE!!! Once at 12:30 and once at 3:30. I'm so thankful to know tonight. Here is what I wish, that they would both love our house and we'd have two contracts! Ha! Anyway, it is very promising since the pics of the house aren't even up on the website yet, just the info. We're also going to see another home tomorrow night. I'm feeling excited! Now I've got to do a little straightning and putting away to be ready for the showings!

For Sale!

It's official!

One step closer...

to putting our house on the market! It's been a CRAZY week. I'm exhausted as usual. I need to go to bed! We met with our realtor this past Thursday and are finishing up a few things before we list our house. We're hoping to have it listed in about 1 week. We were very busy today! Here's what I did:
*woke up too early b/c of the boys
*made eggs, turkey bacon, and frozen biscuits for breakfast
*worked on my consignment sale stuff (bagging ,entering tags in computer, etc) - so far 121 items!
*got the boys haircut
*made taco hummus
*return to Mich*ael's and bought Ty and easter basket while there
*return to Toysr*us and bought Finley's b-day present while there
*went to walm*art to get baggies for the consignment sale
*painted the garage door
*put a few things away in the attic
*made pepperoni rolls
*made potato, broccoli, cheddar soup
*went out for dessert to celebrate Steph's b-day
*washed dishes, loaded dishwasher
*talked to my mom on the phone for almost an hour
*packed one box of clutter
*went to my mom's to pick up a few more wire hangers and visited for a bit

Unfortunately there are still a lot of things on my list to get done this weekend! I need to clean the kitchen cabinets and baseboard so Andy can do paint touch-ups, I really need a nap tomorrow, make menu/grocery list for next week, pick up ergo carrier from Cara so I don't break my back carrying Ty in the bjorn anymore, and CLEAN! The week ahead will be busy too as we get the last few things done before pictures/listing of the house. It's looking good!

Busy Day Ahead

Today is going to be busy. I just finished making pancakes for the boys with fresh blueberries in them. Not a good idea! Neither of them likes the blueberries in there...lesson learned! I wasted my delicious blueberries and they wouldn't eat their pancakes! As you know we're trying to get our house on the market. Our goal is March 14. Two more weeks! We have many things left to accomplish. Andy is working on things like crazy. He is so talented. I am really amazed that he can do everything that needs fixing on the house. And all of the work he does looks professional too! This week he has done so much - sanding doors so they don't rub on the jamb, priming doors, rehanging doors, tilling the slope in the backyard (used to be tiered but all the railroad ties were sliding out - it wasn't done right... so Andy took them out and sloped that part of the yard), replacing windows in the garage, painting, greasing the doors so none squeak. The list goes on and on! He is doing an amazing job! Thanks babe!!
Last night we packed up extra stuff in the boys room and closet. I'm going to like living in our small home without all the "extra" stuff...decluttering feels great!

Here is our plan for today:
* Andy takes a load to the dump (the railroad ties) while I keep packing boxes of our extra stuff (trying to declutter)
* Load trailer with boxes of extra stuff, bookcase, shelf in bedroom, cedar chest in Ty's room, and other misc things
*rearrange furniture in Living Room (move Lego table from behind couch back into boys room)
* Make roasted vegetables for 25 people at church for tonight (grocery, chop veggies, roast)
* Ty's picture appointment at 2:10
*Mom is taking the boys to a school carnival from 11-1ish
*Game night at Maria's - Yea!

A productive day off!

After breakfast we got ready and took the Jeep in for some preventive maintenance. On the way home we stopped at Lowe's to pick up a few things. When we got home I washed the garage door. Then took a shower and got ready. We went to McD's to meet all the cousins for lunch and playtime since Erin, Rori and the boys were in town. We took up a rather large section with 9 kiddos! It was fun. When we came back home I primed the garage door while Andy worked on the window of the garage. The windows on our house are all the newer, nice, vinyl windows but the two windows on the garage that face the front yard are wood. The paint was all cracked and some of the wood was rotting. So Andy is redoing the woodwork around the window. He found some really cool window sills at Lowe's that are made of PVC. So instead of getting wood and priming and painting it, it's already vinyl and white! Wahoo! After the garage door dried I painted the first coat on that matches our siding. It looks great! Just need to do 1 more coat. We're going to be working on our house inside and out because we're planning to put it on the market this spring. We have several projects we need to do to put it up for sale. I'll be in charge of paint touch ups and repainting some of the trim that has really taken a beating. Andy's got a lot of projects he plans to do. Then there will need to be thorough cleanings...So! Lots to do!

We went to pick up the Jeep then came home and had leftover mexican lasagna with some roasted veggies. Tonight I need to make the grocery list and get ready for work tomorrow.

Our New Siding

Before - the soffit and fascia were rotting. It was bad and ugly! Please ignore these ugly bushes. I've wanted to redo the landscaping on this side since we moved in.

During - they worked off and on for about a week. Now it is finished! Looks good, huh?!

Our siding has been complete for about 6 weeks, but I'm just now getting the pictures up! We're really happy with the end result. Now we just need to get matching paint for the garage door.

Our new picture!

Remember this post where I talked about our new piece of 'artwork' we were getting framed? Well Andy picked it up last week and we love it! See what you think! It is a picture of light shining through trees...

Reason to Celebrate!!

A new heating unit!

Our glorious new A/C unit. Isn't she pretty?!

We have air conditioning! After 12 days without air we are feeling GREAT tonight!! Thrilled to have a new heating and air conditioning system in place at our house. A few frustrating things happened with the company. We were supposed to have gotten the new unit on Friday, but they gave our appointment away while our financing was processing. Andy mentioned that to them today, that it was frustrating to deal with the extra days of heat and they said "oh, well we could have brought some window units over". HELLO?? Why didn't they offer that to him on the phone last Thursday? Another problem, when they were installing they told Andy that our current thermostat wouldn't work with the new unit. They didn't figure that into the cost and this was going to add $200. He let them know he felt this should have been included in the estimate. So they told him he could go to Lowe's and buy a programmable thermostat and they would install it. So he got a nice one for $100. The final complaint we have is that they drilled a hole in the wall of our newly painted hallway bathroom. I can't believe it. I mean, we're paying professionals and they drill a hole in my bathroom wall?? They didn't tell us about it either. Andy was with the boys in their room reading and he saw what happened, saw them walk in the bathroom to see if it had gone through, etc. When he mentioned it to them they acted like they didn't know it happened. We JUST finished this room! Now it has to be patched, primed and painted there. Arrgghh. Sorry for the complaints. It's just like Andy said. We're you're paying as much as you do for a completely new system, you expect it to be done right. And by right we mean with an accurate estimate, no miscellaneous holes in the wall, and done when they tell you it's going to be done. So enough complaints. We truly are happy to have a new unit and to actually have A/C. It's just that today was a little frustrating!

Still no A/C...

Oh my gosh. I am so hot. It is 83 degrees in our house. We have several fans on. Andy went and got my parent's old exhaust fan so that should help. Thankfully, we'll have A/C on Friday. 3 more days and nights. At times I think I'm melting! It's made me grumpy too. Sorry, Andy. We decided to replace the whole system- the air condition guy said our heating bills will be cut in half. We have 6 months interest free to pay off as much as we can. Then we'll figure out how we'll pay off the rest. (Keep your fingers crossed that I pass National Board Certification in November). My next paycheck will include teacher's 3% raise and my step up for another year of experience on the pay scale. We're hoping that will allow us to pay more towards the new unit as well.

Other news, Poppy's 59th b-day was Sunday. I have pictures but it's been so busy around here. Hopefully I'll get them up sometime.

My feet have started swelling. It's very uncomfortable- they feel very tight. And it gives me anxiety. Don't know why. I jsut know they're not supposed to do that so it makes me worry. I've been trying to prop them up as much as possible in the evenings and have even iced them.
Off to bed...

Big Boy Bedroom

Well, we did it! Yesterday, we moved all the toys from Wilson's room out except for the train table. Then we rearranged the furniture and moved in Luke's bed and bookcase. We still need to move out the small desk and move in Luke's dresser. I went to Walmart and bought a new laundry hamper and 6 rubbermaid tubs that fit under their beds to store toys. We're really pleased with how the room is looking! Wilson is handling his new roommate well so far. We're really working on changing his thinking from "my room" to "our room". I know it is an adjustment. Thankfully the room is big and they have plenty of space. As for the multitude of toys that are still sitting in the living room (it is obscene- to embarrased to post a pic of it!) hopefully we'll be able to go through them and give some away or pack some up for storage or something... Last night they were a little silly going to bed, we had to go back in a few times and tell them to be quiet but overall the first night was a success! I think this arrangement is going to work out just fine. Here is a picture of the nameplates my mom makes each grandchild for their door- Wilson thought they should be side by side!

Siding :)

We met with a siding guy today and in 7-9 weeks they'll be here installing new siding, soffit, gutters, and shutters! I'm so excited. We picked out Pebblestone Clay, which is a dark shade of khaki. The shutters will be vinyl in Classic Blue which is an exact match to the front door I just painted. It is a navy blue.

I think I'm going to wash the cabinets in the kitchen today if Wilson quits whining and fussing. Andy is gone for a guys only movie and dinner! He's going to see One Dark Night and then out to dinner with Jason and my dad.

First Coat is Finished!

Then...

Now...

Can't wait to show you the finished project! Andy did all the cutting in and I did the rolling. It needs another coat so maybe we'll get to that after the boys are in bed!

Our Big Boy!!

Luke is doing so well with his potty training!! Today, for example, he went #2 in the potty one time and went #1 in the potty all day (except for 1 partial accident-he started going in his undies and finished in the potty). He had undies on all day at home today. While we were out running errands I put a diaper on him just in case. When we got home he was dry so he went potty then! Same with his nap, put him in a diaper and he woke up dry. Then used the bathroom when he woke up! I've kept his potty in the living room so he wouldn't feel like he was "missing out" on anything while in the bathroom. It just kind of happened that way when we started working on the bathroom and I left it out there since potty training has been going so well. Yesterday he did really well too. He had 1 wet accident but wore undies the rest of the day and used his potty all day! He really likes earning his 1 skittle/m&m/chocolate chip after going potty. It will be so nice to have him potty trained before baby #3 arrives! The best news is he is even telling us sometimes "I need go potty." He can pull down his undies by himself and sit on the potty. Sometimes he only has a few drips and he says "I go little bit". I think he wants to make sure he still gets his treat!!

Today I took it easy in the morning. I think I've been pushing myself too hard. I've been having a weird pain on the right side above my hip bone under the protruding baby belly. It hurt a lot yesterday, last night, and again today. Andy and I just finished cleaning the walls in the bathroom. He repaired several holes in the walls from nails, a shelf, and the door handle. The putty was finally dry enough for him to sand and prime today. Have you heard of TSP cleaner? My mom let us borrow it to clean the wall and it works wonders! It cleaned the wallpaper paste residue and all the dirt/grime off the walls, doors, and trim. I'm definitely going to use it on my kitchen cabinets while we have it! Hopefully we'll get to start painting tomorrow. Oh and we decided to hold off on painting the shutters. Instead of only getting the soffit/fascia replaced with vinyl we're going to do the gable ends and the wood that is on the front of the house (on 1 side of the garage). That way it will all match and look nice. We were going to paint the wood ends and garage side because the wood was still good but that just too much right now. So I'm going to wait and see about the shutters!

House Project Update

*Disclaimer- I'm terrible at taking pictures. Bear with me!

This morning we went to Lowe's and bought the front door/shutter paint and a light fixture for the back door. I liked the one we bought for the back door better than the one we had on the front door so Andy switched the old one to the back door and the new one out front. The picture on the left is the back door and its ugly light bulbs.

Here is the old light fixture with the front door (that is now in the back).

Here on the left you see the back door with a nice looking fixture! Looks much better than the plain light bulbs!

Now on the right you see the front door with the cute new light fixture! Thanks for switching them for me, Andy!!

I painted the front door today! It looks good! Andy is putting the hardware back on the door in this picture! He did NOT want to smile. He doesn't like working in the heat. He had been working outside on the lights and all, but I sweetly reminded him that he is inside air conditioning here. :)

So, update on Lowe's wishlist: new oven, plantation blinds for boys bedrooms, and a new back door. We're doing good!

* The bedroom door is finished!

* The wallpaper border in the hallway bathroom is stripped! My neck and shoulders and back hurt...
* Mini-cheesecakes cooking in the oven! Yummy!
* Lowe's wishlist up on the refrigerator (2 new plantation blinds for boys rooms, paint for shutters and front door, light fixture for back porch-it is just a bulb, new oven, and Andy wants me to add a new back door to the list). I'm keeping focused! Still feeling positive about staying here and fixing this up to continue enjoy our home.
* My ankles are swollen a little bit today- first time I've noticed swelling. Probably because I was standing on a little ladder stripping wallpaper border all morning.

A New Focus

We looked at 2 homes yesterday- they were ok, just not the one for us. Like Andy said, if we could have combined parts from both to make one we'd have been really happy! One was out right away because there was only 1 bathroom upstairs- I don't want to be sharing a bathroom with 3 sons! The other full bath was downstairs even though there wasn't a bedroom down there. Plus the basement was really small. The other house was good but we weren't very impressed with the kitchen. It had less cabinets than our current house and you had to walk out into the hallway to get to the pantry. We liked the basement there and it had 2 baths upstairs and a 1/2 bath downstairs. The current owners smoke in it so that was a negative as well. Plus the shower in the master bath was a little weird. SO, we came home and I thought we'd look at the 3rd home we were interested in still later this week.


But today I woke up and had this feeling- that maybe my mom is right :), and maybe we should just stay where we are for our sanity at this point. Especially since the other house didn't work out. Maybe this just ISN'T the time for us to move. The baby will be here before we know it, school will be starting very soon, and our house would still need a lot of work to put it up on the market. Mom has been very supportive about the house hunt but she has also been reminding me that we can make it work here at our house. It might be easier to have less house to keep up with when we're so busy with 3 boys under age 5. Plus, we got our NEW van! So we can at least get around town with 3 kids- ha ha. So, are you ready for my new focus? - If you know me very well, you know how I almost always have something I'm focused on and can't get it out of my mind until it's done. It was the house. Then the van. Slightly still holding onto a new house. Now it is fixing up our house so we can continue to enjoy it! Here is what I want to do:


1. Paint the new door to my bedroom that has been the natural wood color (it was new) for MONTHS. Andy replaced the jamb and door so it would close. Today, I have primed it and painted it! Might still need a 2nd coat.

2. Redo the bathroom in the hall so it can be the boys' bathroom using all the cute new bathroom stuff I bought them at Target. Read about that here. Mom and I went to Lowe's and I got GREEN paint (for the top half above the white wainscoating), a roller, a new switchplate (white), and a new light fixture. This requires stripping wallpaper border, Andy repairing a small hole in the wall, prepping the walls for painting, etc.

3. Paint the shutters and the front door. Mom and I picked up some samples at Lowe's. I want to keep it the same color because we love it but it seriously needs a fresh coat of paint. We've never painted them and we've lived here 7 years. I found a perfect match!

4. Get the soffit that is rotting replaced with siding!

5. Before mid-September move Wilson and Luke into the same bedroom and de-clutter the toys. (That is the one I'm worried about. )

I'm sure there will be more so I'll keep you posted!

House Update and Pregnancy Update

We met with our realtor today and decided we're going to go to the Greivance Committee and Ethics Committee to try and get back some of our $750. These come before mediation and don't cost. Hopefully things can be settled through the committees so we don't have to do mediation. We're going to sign the release on the house when we get that paperwork back from our realtor to sign.
Last night Andy and I spent a lot of time on the realty website. I look at it a lot so I had written down 8 different houses to show him. We looked at all of them and crossed 2 off the list. So good news, there are 5 homes we're at least interested in seeing! We're hopefully going to go look at them with our realtor sometime this week. If we see one we're fairly interested in then we'll work at getting our house up on the market. We are going ahead and scheduling our soffit/fascia and gutter replacement which we had intended to do prior to the whole house trading possibility so that the outside looks good. The roof is new as of last summer. I'll keep you posted on our new home search!

My OB office called today to tell me the results of my blood work after the glucose test. My sugar was high so now I go back and do a 3 hour glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes or not. I had to do this with Luke and it came back negative so I'm not worried yet. Just really dreading the blood being drawn from the same arm 4 times. That hurt so badly. I remember asking them if they would please use the other arm on the 3rd blood drawing and they told me they couldn't. I hate that part. I have to fast from midnight until I get there at 8:30. Then I have my blood drawn. Drink a glucose drink, and 1 hour after I finish I have my blood drawn again. Blood drawn again after 2 hours and 3 hours after drinking the nasty drink. So I sit and sit and sit there! No food for almost 12 hours. Not gonna be very fun.

Andy and I are going to the Melting Pot tonight to celebrate my completion of my National Board portfolio and test! I'm super excited. My mom is watching the boys and we have reservations for dinner. I have wanted to eat at TMP for YEARS and we are finally going tonight! I'll post about our evening later!

Signed Contract!

We have an official deal on the house!! We came to an agreement last night and re-wrote the offer with our realtor this morning. Our next 2 steps are to get a complete inspection and to go see the loan officer. Pray that the inspection will not produce any major problems. I'm starting to get excited! We went to Lowe's today to look at stove's. The stove in the house is about 30 years old, it is original to when the house was built. Apparently, it was a top of the line stove...THEN. It looks really old now! While we were there we picked up paint samples. Lots of khaki, blues, and greens. I'm excited about new paint colors! I was wanting to repaint here! Now we might get to do it in our new house!

We had a good day off. Wrote contract with realtor, went to the bank, post office and out to lunch. We tried Puccini's which was really good. Andy and I both got the lunch special b/c I had a coupon for it which came with 1 slice of pizza, salad, and a drink. The boys shared a slice of pizza and then we ordered 1/2 an order of breadsticks that come with homemade marinara. It was yummy! They also have calzones and pasta. The calzones looked really good. I definitely want to go back! Andy is off to high ropes training for a local college, he is wanting to be able to lead high ropes. The boys and are are having dinner at my mom's. I just made a dessert with Wilson - not sure what to call it. It is part of the Pampered Chef Confetti Crisps recipe but just the cracker/caramel/chocolate part. They are cooling right now. Yummy! Gotta finish up some laundry too.

I think I need to start putting a note on my alarm clock on days off that says, "Yes, you get to sleep in (until your boys wake you up!) today." I don't think I told you about how I woke up the day after my NB test and thought I'd missed the test. I woke up and said "I overslept, I missed the test." Andy was like, "no, it's Sunday. You took the test yesterday." Since then I've woken up panicked about oversleeping at least one other time. Today I shot up in bed at 6:15 and said "Crap, is it Monday?" Andy said "no, you're off, it's Tuesday." I don't like waking up with that panicky feeling!