Homework, Part 1

Since we don't have nearly enough stuff keeping us busy lately, we've decided to do some major work on our yard this summer. This is our third summer living in our house, and it's definitely way past time for us to put our mark on the yard.

We decided to do one of the biggest jobs first; taking out a couple of trees and trimming branches on a couple of others. There is a huge honey locust right behind our house that was fine, and healthy, but that also has tiny leaves that build up in our gutters, clogging them and causing water to pour over the gutters and into our basement on more than one occasion. You know, not one of our favorite occurrences.

I guess I should have said, there WAS a huge honey locust right behind our house, because it's no longer there. They were there and done by noon today when Aaron stopped home for lunch. The difference is amazing, no?



We also had some branches trimmed on the tree that's just off to the right in the photo, and a diseased oak taken out in front so that the blight in that tree didn't spread to the two other oaks we have in our yard, and one branch that was brushing our house taken off the maple on the side of our house.

We'll miss out on some shade, but I like a house that feels light and airy, and I think we'll definitely have even more of that feeling now.

Still on our list of yard to-dos (and I doubt we'll get them all done this summer, but that won't be for lack of trying):

(Here's an old picture of the front of our house for reference:

)

• Tear out all of the overgrown bushes in the front yard (and the decorative tree that is even more overgrown and blocks our porch).
• Trim down the lilac bush so we can see out our front window.
• Add window boxes along our porch railing, filled with red geraniums
• Add back in some new bushes, grasses, and colorful flowers in front
• Paint the front door
• Put house numbers above the garage
• Replace the lights
• Replace the mailbox
• Clean up the porch, and add a couple of chairs where an old pile of wood, left by the previous owners, currently sits

Daydreaming

Whenever I have something I want to avoid doing, I come up with some Big Project I would like to do. Now, I'm not quite sure what I'm avoiding right now, but I have several Big Projects on which I'm ruminating.

One is a redo of our downstairs half bath.

We already have a white medicine cabinet to hang up in there, so I thought this vanity would go nicely:

Along with this faucet (except for less money if I can find something similar):

I really like the squared-off look of this one. It makes it a little different than the others, and I prefer straight lines whenever possible. Although, if I'm going be honest, I really, really want this faucet, but can also think of better ways to spend over $900 (!).

Also, does anyone really still buy faucets like this one?

I mean, if you purposely went out and bought this faucet, I'm sure it's beautiful and you obviously have wonderful taste. It's just not for me. It looks dated and reminds me of my grandma's house. Also I have these on every bathroom sink in my house right now, so, you know, I'm in no place to judge.

(Side note - I'm at least going to make Aaron go out and buy and replace the half bath faucet this week. His parents are coming in just over a week and they've never been to our house before and my nesting is worse now than it ever was when I was pregnant.)

Of course, if I'm going to replace everything else in the bathroom, I will also have to paint. So far we have painted one room on our main floor and I'm trying to make the colors flow nicely from one room to the next, so - the family room is this color:

 I kind of like yellow and blue or grey together, so this color might work well:

Although, if I'm honest, I also like this color, with a white bead board on the bottom half of the wall:

However, like hell is Aaron ever going to let me paint any walls any color even resembling pink. He also doesn't understand my love of florals and botanicals. I say they remind me of my grandmother (who had excellent taste), and he says EXACTLY.

Anyway, that's probably enough daydreaming for right now. I just have one more thing to share. So, let's say your husband came home with a new video game last night, and felt guilty about spending the money on it, and so he said you were also free to go out and buy something of your choosing, whatever you want. How sad would it be if the thing you wanted was a new mopping system? Yeah. I thought so.

This is why I have a category called "Random Randomness"

I'm pretty sure I just burned my butt when I got into my car, simply by sitting down on the seat. It has been (as with pretty  much everywhere else) ridiculously hot lately, and I am looking forward to the cool-down promised for tomorrow. Highs in the mid-70s? Yes, please! That sounds like perfection.

I have been sick for about a week now, and my biggest issue right now is that it feels like my ears need to pop and I can't get them to do it. Thankfully I feel approximately 95% better than I did just a few days ago. Stupid allergies plus a sinus infection. Summer colds are the worst!

I hesitate posting this next part, because I'm not completely, 100% sold on the idea that it's purposeful, but Sophie has been saying "mama" for a while now, and on Sunday, when the girls and I got home from visiting my parents over the weekend, she looked at Aaron and said "dada." Several times, in fact, and she has been saying both regularly ever since, and sometimes it really seems like she's using it correctly. If she is, in fact, using the sounds as words, she has Gabbie beat on a first word by about six months. Craziness.

Sophie has never been quite as good at keeping herself entertained as Gabbie was, so we have had to be creative in ways to keep her occupied so we can get something (anything) done around the house. One surefire thing that buys us a good ten minutes? Ice cubes. We put them in either the mesh feeder or a sippy cup. One day last week I needed about twenty minutes to get dinner together, so I gave her two ice cubes, one in the mesh feeder (which she will then eat) and one in the sippy cup (which she can't quite figure out, so she shakes it to make noise and then pours out the water as it melts, and then splashes in the water (I taught her how to splash and so now if she sees liquid, it's splash city!)), and you would have thought I gave her a diamond-encrusted puppy for how excited she was. So, of course, I had to take a picture (see the cuteness above).

Over the long weekend two weekens ago now, we decided to go out to dinner one night. While waiting for our food to arrive, we were looking for ways to keep Sophie entertained (this is what takes up the majority of my time and energy when I'm not at work lately; I'm totally blaming her for the fact that it has been nearly a month since my last blog post. I'm brain-dead because of my adorable (time consuming) baby!), and Aaron thought he would try to see what she could do with a straw. So he put his water near her, and she grasped the straw, put it in her mouth, and started drinking his water. She's a straw savant!

While she will drink pretty much anything, this girl will not eat food (hey! There's a thing she has in common with her sister (grumble, grumble)). We've tried rice cereal (she will eat it for the daycare ladies, but not me), sweet potatoes (gag city) and pears (four bites then gag city), and she's not much of a fan of any of them. I'm going to keep on keeping on, though. Tonight? Bananas! (I'm guessing it will be Banana Gag City!) She remains a huge fan of nursing and would nurse 24-7 if I let her (I don't let her (don't worry, I'm not starving her, but I'm also not letting her use me as a human pacifier)).

Despite the fact that neither of my daughters will give me the satisfaction of eating one damn bite of real food (okay, Gabbie will take "a couple more bites", but that's it), both have been doing some major growing lately. One weekend a few weeks ago, Gabbie's shoes fit on Friday, but not on Monday. Needless to say, Gabbie has new shoes. We went for her 3-year appointment the following week and she had grown an inch and a pound in a little less than a month. Craziness. She's been complaining of growing pains lately, and I swear she wakes up noticibly taller than she goes to sleep some days. Sophie's 6 months size clothes are starting to get tight - Gabbie never got into a size until she was at least that age, and Sophie is growing out of things at approximately the age listed on the label. Despite all of Gabbie's growing, it has, as usual, gone to getting taller, not wider, and she can still comfortably wear size 24 month shorts (and does - I'm not spending money if I don't need to). I'm not looking forward to winter, when I have to make sure her pants are long enough, and will probably be shoping for tiny, pink belts.

Speaking of my girls getting bigger, we are almost completely done getting Sophie's room together. We just have to remove the blue tape from the trim and arrange the furniture, and she'll be sleeping in her own room. We painted the walls a pale green ("Celery"), and painted the trim a cream color (creatively titled, "Creamy" (Aaron says he hopes I like the trim in the rest of the house, because never again! (I say I hope he forgets soon because he is SO painting the trim in the family room))). I'm hoping to get some Beatrix Potter wall stickers or posters for decorations and then her room will be complete (and I'll post pictures!).

He also painted the family room over the past weekend. We chose "Afternoon," which is gorgeous in person, but looks really bright in pictures. I will try to take some good pictures soon, when we have everything more assembled. Aaron had been complaining that because we still had the same furniture and hadn't really done any decorating, he still felt like we were living in an apartment. Decorate away, I told him, and he is. We've actually let Gabbie pick out every paint color we've used so far, except the color we used in our bedroom, and she has done a great job! (We have not, and need to repaint the bedroom, because it's not great.)

Bedroom Action (Not what you think)

My brain is full of all sorts of uninteresting-to-a-blog-audience types of things (Logic models! All those emails I have to deal with! Meeting agendas! Oh my!). This new job while still wrapping up my old job thing is kind of kicking my ass.

So! A couple of semi-interesting (probably to only me) things going on right now include bedrooms. Gabbie's bedroom, our bedroom, and the soon-to-be nursery, to be exact. The top floor of our house is full of change and excitement (and sleep, thankfully)!

Gabbie's room has been painted (I need to get a better picture than I've been able to capture so far) a lovely pale lilac. It took us the better part of a day, but I have to say that Aaron and I do a darn fine job painting. It looks great!

This weekend we added a new feature to her room: a big girl bed. I really don't know how she's old enough for this already, but it seems she is. Instead of anything fancy, she has a twin-sized matress on the floor. The main reason for this is that she seems to have inherited a less-than-desirable trait from me: the propensity to fall out of bed on a regular basis. We are definitely lacking in the grace department overall, but most definitely in the falling category. My mom started me out in a regular bed, but then, after a couple of black eyes from hitting the floor with a great big smack, she learned her lesson and put me on a mattress on the floor. I'm taking that lesson learned and running with it because my heart cannot take too many additional falls (like the tumble she took down the stairs, or the near-fall in the shower, or when she tried to fall backwards onto her beanbag chair but missed and smacked her head on the couch (the hard part), all of which happened in less than 24 hours between Friday night and Saturday morning). She's trying to kill me, I swear it! We need to add a few finishing touches, like something on the walls, a lamp by our reading chair, and a bedspread (not that she keeps one on her) and then her big girl room will be complete.

Our room is also set to undergo quite the transformation. We bought a bedroom set last year, but now we want to paint the walls and trim (we have the paint purchased, just have to slap it up on the walls), put in wood floors, add a sitting area (i.e. purchase some more furniture), and possibly buy and mount a small television, and we'll be all set. Aaron wants to have this all done by the time I hit my third trimester (in just under six short weeks!) so that we have a nice, relaxing retreat. He's adorable, and I think I'll keep him around.

The nursery is getting the least amount of work done - we have to paint it, reassemble the crib, and move in my old dresser and the glider. Maybe some artwork on the walls too, we'll see. We're waiting until after my ultrasound this Friday, during which we'll get a firm answer on the baby's sex (HOPEFULLY!) and then we'll finalize our paint color decision (I'm pretty sure it will be green either way).

Having a house is a lot of work. Finally getting it the way you want it is even more. And the anxiety and challenges that accompany moving a toddler to a big girl bed? May just be what pushes me over the edge. I'm knocking on wood that she stays put just like she has the past two nights. I can deal with it taking her 45 minutes to fall asleep if only she promises not to wander in the middle of the night. Seriously, I don't think my heart can handle one more fright.

We are such suckers for a good deal!

This weekend Aaron and I reclaimed our titles as King and Queen of Major Appliance Impulse Buys, when we came upon a killer deal on a new (slightly scratched) washer and drier at Lowes. We were just there to buy some tools to work on the yard and a few flowers to plant, but were also trying to wear Gabbie out so she would sleep when we got home and we could work outside without worrying about entertaining her as well. Our method involves running her around Lowes a couple of times while daydreaming about all of the things we could do to our house. As we approached the appliance section, they were bringing out a washing machine that we had admired several times before. Then we noticed that it had a big 1/2 price sticker on it. When we saw them also bring out the drier we were sold. The guy working back there said that either we should buy it, or he was going to on his break in a little while, because it was such a great deal. We beat him to it, and are very happy to be replacing the current pair we use that is 20+ years old. It's especially nice because in just six short months we'll be doing a lot of extra laundry, and this way we can do it with less worrying about how much water and electricity we're using.

Other weekend highlights included finally taking Gabbie to see the new Shrek movie (we all loved it), working on our front yard so that the annoying guy down the block can finally stop whining about us (long story, he's a douche, although not the only reason we finally put some extra effort into the yard), feeling much less of the first trimester yuckiness I had been experiencing, hanging out with friends on our deck, and finding out that the new mosquito bite remedy I read about (put a little anti-persperant on the bite) actually seems to work!

Weekends are no where near as relaxing now that we're parents and home owners, but I have to say, this one was definitely not too shabby. The only problem I have is that it was a few days too short, but that's always the case.

(Post-Script: I just wrote cakes instead of case in that last sentence. Can you tell where my brain is this morning?)

What is it with old men at Lowe's?

Several things that are too short for their own entry:

1. Many of my family members have been teasing me lately for something really weird - the amount of toilet paper I use. Apparently I go through it much faster than the average woman, even though I think I'm using a completely normal amount. The whole thing came about because we went through an entire roll of toilet paper one weekend when I was visiting, and they say that it takes them about a week to go through a roll on a normal basis. So I'm curious. How much toilet paper does a regular person use then, per visit to the throne? I'd say I use about 10 squares. Is that a ridiculous amount? Am I using way too much? I guess I just want to gauge whether I'm the weird one or if they're abnormal.

2. I am very excited about the 3-day-weekend coming up. We have a party on Friday night and then nothing else planned for the entire weekend, save for daily family naps. Seeing as how we've all been going about a hundred miles an hour for the entire month of May, I'm more than happy that we're ending it by relaxing.

3. Tomorrow morning we have what is, hopefully, Gabbie's last appointment with an orthopedist about her hips. She has to get an x-ray and then see the doctor, and if all is well we won't have to see the doctor again. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on this one. We haven't seen any problems - she's walking, running, jumping, riding a bike, and dancing just fine. In fact, she never really stops moving. Still, I can't help but worry a little bit. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it goes as well as we expect it will.

4. If I have to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs one more time in the near future, I may scream. Gabbie wakes up requesting, "Ice Age?" We indulged her on vacation and were very thankful the movie kept her busy while we were working on refinishing our deck last week (expect a post on that soon), but now she expects to watch television, and especially that movie, whenever she wants. I'm sure all the spoiling she received over the weekend didn't help my cause, but seriously. It was on our tv about 10 times last week, and I'm thinking that's about 8 times too many.

5. There's something exciting happening next Tuesday that I can't wait to tell you all about after the fact, and it has both Aaron and I up at night with anticipation. This is why we're looking forward to the family naps this weekend so much. Between croup and anxiety, we're quite the sleepless bunch.

6. So, the title. Several months ago we were at our local Lowe's and an old man stopped us to give Gabbie a dollar coin. A little weird, but we said thank you and were on our way. Then two weekends ago when we were there picking up deck supplies, another old man stopped us. This time, without asking us, he handed a sucker directly to Gabbie. Well, we said thank you, and again headed on our way. Since Gabbie has never before had a sucker and had basically no idea what it was, plus we wanted to avoid a meltdown in the middle of Lowe's that would most likely occur if we took it away from her, we let her hold it. She just held it and looked around and we figured we'd take it away when we were leaving and it would be no big deal.

At one point Aaron and Gabbie took off to find brushes while I was waiting for the paint guy to mix up a color sample of paint for Gabbie's room. Apparently Aaron was looking at the shelf, then looked back down and Gabbie had the sucker unwrapped and in her mouth. When they got back, I freaked a little (on the inside; I still didn't want to cause a fit), but I guess if anything bad were going to happen it would be too late - she had already had it in her mouth. Thankfully, she's just fine and the guy apparently had no bad intent (we didn't think he did, but you can never be too sure), but I still worried a little the rest of the afternoon.

Seriously, old guys at Lowe's, what's up? Why must you give candy and other goodies to strangers' kids? Is it just me or is this weird?

Back to real life already? Fine.

We are back from our lovely, warm, sunny Florida vacation and had to acknowledge real life yesterday morning by heading back to work and daycare. Gabbie was the least excited of all of us and showed it by kicking and screaming from the time I entered the daycare parking lot until well after I left. Way to break my heart kiddo! I didn't want to go back either, but it was definitely time. (Although, I do have another 1 1/2 weeks of vacation time left...no, better save it.)

She was really, really great on vacation. We got compliments on how good she was on the plane after both plane rides. She did get sick our first full day there and so our first three days were fairly miserable. Our major problem with her getting sick is that she stops eating when she gets sick and this stresses Aaron and I out to no end. Still, we took her in to the urgent care based on our pediatrician's advice and got her the medicine she needed.

Within 24 hours of starting the medicine she was much better and we headed to Universal for Aaron's birthday. We all had a great time, but Gabbie especially. She went on four rides (some of them twice because she got off and promptly asked, "More?") and played in a splash park, and probably would have continued playing and running around as long as we let her (we cut her off after 4 1/2 hours since she had just been sick and needed to rest).

Outside of the theme park, she pretty much ran around her grandparents' house in her diaper and played with a Yahtzee set and Mardi Gras beads. Seriously, they kept her busy for four days. It was pretty cute, except for the zillion times that she tried to put the beads on my feet, because it tickled a ridiculous amount (I have very ticklish feet). 

We also went to the beach, but those pictures are on Aaron's phone, so I'll have to steal them from him later. All in all, vacation was great and we're all sad it's over. Up next? Home improvement projects to get ready for Gabbie's 2nd birthday party this weekend! I can't believe my baby is going to be 2 in a week!

Top Five Things That Are Getting Me Through Winter Alive (plus 1 bonus quick thing)

I know I am not alone in this sentiment, but I am SO OVER WINTER! Except the winter Olympics. I'm not over those. I love those. However, the rest of it can go away. Since I'm sure it isn't going to listen to me and go away for another month or two, I'm doing whatever I can to make it go quicker and/or fake myself out, and these are the things I'm doing.

1. This one is kind of surprising, but in order to make it through this winter alive, I'm mostly giving up sugar. This is also related to the losing weight thing I have going on, but I discovered that when I did slip up and eat a sweet, my mood took a nose dive and I was ready to go to bed for the next two months. It's so weird! This is not to say that I'm eating zero sweets, because I'm giving in on rare occasions, but for the most part I've sent sweets packing. I haven't baked dessert save for the pie for the baby shower in weeks. I gave up my afternoon candy bar and my nightly bowl of ice cream (is it any wonder I have yet to drop the baby weight?). I gave up regular soda and only have diet soda on a rare occasion. I never thought I'd be one of these people, but I gave up most processed sugar and I feel great!

2. Things that smell like summer. Citrusy perfume, coconut scented shampoo and conditioner, pina colada flavored gum...the list goes on and on and anything that smells like summer is a winner in my book.

3. Wearing bright colors. I especially am enjoying wearing my summer tank tops under cardigans, so I can feel like I'm somewhat dressing for summer while still staying nice and cozy warm.

4. Good books. I've been reading quite a bit, and have enjoyed everything I've read so far. I tried to read Isadore's Secret, a true story about a nun who was murdered in northern Michigan early in the last century, but although it was entertaining, it was really slow, so I abandoned it and have been reading books that would be considered good beach reads. Currently I'm reading The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death and am enjoying the hell out of it. Next on my night stand is Catching Fire, and I can't wait to get to it. I love good books!

5. Decorating (or planning to) my house. We've decided on paint colors and have started shopping for new bedding. We are also watching copious amounts of HGTV and DIY to get ideas for remodeling our master bath and kitchen. It's so much fun, and Aaron and I are finally starting to agree on what we want. Now that the agreement is happening, it seems like much more of a reality. Yay!

One more quick thing that is getting me through the winter: Gabbie being silly.

(It may be kind of hard to tell, but here she's wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses and saying, "Cheese!" while pretending to take a picture of herself with my old cell phone. She is awesome.)

The Top Five Things I Would Rather Be Doing Right Now

5. Sitting in a coffee shop with a chai latte and a good book.

4. Napping under a mound of heavy blankets.

3. Sitting at home with a cup of tea and a good book.

2. Sitting at home drinking this and reading a good book.

And the number one thing I wish I were doing right now:
1. Sitting on a beach, drinking a mojito, and reading a good book.

If you couldn't tell, it is freaking cold and gross outside, I do not want to be at work, and I have a couple of good books at home waiting for me, not that I could sit quietly and read them because I have a husband and a daughter who have needs that are apparently much more important than my need to sit and drink something warm (literally or acoholic-ly) and read one of my books. I have also had a headache for the past couple of days and am thinking that either copious amounts of caffiene or alcohol (or both) will be the surefire cure. Also quiet. Quiet would be nice.

Also, a house that doesn't smell like smoke would be nice too, but since Aaron nearly burned down the house this weekend our house has smelled a lot like smoke (it is getting better) and that might also be the cause of the headache. It's a kind of a long story, but just know that it's not a good idea to accidentally shut the flue when you have a roaring fire going. Just a tip.

Somewhat relatedly, the front corner of my living room smells strongly of vinegar. One of the remedies to a smoke smell we found online was to set out bowls of vinegar. So, after Gabbie went to bed the other night we set out a few bowls to see if it would work. She didn't bother them at all the next morning, but beelined straight toward one the second we got home in the evening and spilled it all over the floor. Our carpet has a somewhat thick pile and so it holds on to any and all liquid that gets down into the fibers like it's been through a recent drought and doesn't know when it will see liquid again.

When I saw what she was doing, I cried out,  "No! No! No!" and she freaked out mightily, dropped the bowl, splashing herself with vinegar in the process, and came crying to me. She doesn't like to be in trouble, not one little bit. I told her she wasn't in trouble, and gave her a few kisses on the head, but no way was I going to cuddle up to something that was covered in vinegar, so I took her to the bathroom, stripped off the vinegary clothes and then gave her a big hug. She had a rough weekend, what with all the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors going off for a while, and a newly stinky house, and stressed-out parents and what-not. So after the vinegar incident, we cuddled and made it all the way through Skippyjon Jones for the first time and then read an entire other book after that. Even though I scared her into the cuddling, it was really nice. I might (but probably won't) have to try that more often!

To steal a sub-title: It sucked, and then I cried

So, last Thursday I was grumpy. Then it got worse.

I got to Gabbie's daycare and was informed that there was 1 confirmed case of H1N1 in a child that attends, and several other possible cases, including, most likely, Gabbie's teacher that I haven't seen since that day. Gabbie had spent the entire day in the baby room since they were short on teachers, and even though she was in a good mood, this also meant she was a little out of sorts. This child loves a routine, and if she's deined her routine it gets a little dicey. So we got home, and I decided to try to get dinner on the table by the time Aaron got home, so I got to cooking. I was to the last step - putting the broccoli on to steam - when Gabbie started whining to be picked up. Then she started sobbing to be picked up. So, I threw the broccoli in the pan, threw the pan on the stove, and cranked the heat up to medium high. And walked away.

The key thing I'm missing here is putting the water in the bottom of the pot.

So, long story short, I melted the glass on my less-than-2-months-old stovetop. We're one burner down. I think I can handle one burner down, but I'm also PMSing in a major way and throw a huge fit when Aaron is also (understandably) upset.

Friday morning arrives finding me with horribly swollen eyes from all the crying the night before (related: I hate PMS), and still cranky. I declare that I am done cooking for a while, and Aaron thinks that okay. He brings home Chinese for dinner that night and we're all in a better mood.

Saturday morning I decide to make that pepper jelly I've been wanting to make for weeks now. I start it up, get it going, and when it comes to a boil I reduce the heat to let it simmer for a little bit. Then it decides to not play nicely and boils over. The house fills with smoke as the sugar burns on my stovetop. We finally get it cleaned up a little while later, completely following manufacturer instructions for cleaning up spilled sugar on the glass cooktop, and we discover it totally pitted that burner - it's now unusable too.

I'm discovering that glass stovetops may not be the right fit for someone who cooks as much as I do, and has a tendency towards being a klutz/unlucky.

I really have sworn off cooking for the week (with the exception of the soup I put in the crockpot this morning, although I'm not even going to think of how that can go wrong because if I consider it, it probably will with my luck) which works well since I'll be at a conference the rest of the week. Gabbie (and my mom) are coming with me, so Aaron can rely on microwave meals or eating out until we get back on Friday, which is when the stove repair person comes.

So, to recap, last week sucked in a major, huge way. I'm really, really hoping this week is better. It really has to be or else I'm going to completely lose my mind. I promise.

Post-script: we're getting the stove top repaired, and then we're selling it and buying a gas range. If I'd have known this whole process was going to cost me around two grand, I would have chosen much differently in the first place.

Oh, right. We bought a house. (Part Deux)

This part won't be nearly as exciting as the first part, but here's most of the rest of the house anyway.

The Basement

Aaron is very excited about having a basement, especially since I told him he can do whatever he wants with the space down there. (As I was typing this, Aaron walked by and told me he loved me, and I said, "and I love you down there" as opposed to ending the statement, "as well". I have tears in my eyes I'm laughing so hard, and he says that sometimes guys need to hear that. Glad I could oblige. (Also, maybe I can't talk and type at the same time.))

Here's one end of the finished part of the basement:

And the other end:

This is Aaron's favorite part of the basement:

He's got it loaded with tools already (all the ones he bought, I swear, so he could fully utilize his tool bench).

The Upstairs:

Our upstairs contains the three bedrooms and two full baths. Unfortunately I took crappy pictures of two bedrooms and the kids'/guest bath, so here's a picture of our master bedroom.

I love the windows in there. Actually, I love the windows throughout the whole house. It's so bright and cheery! Also in our master bedroom is the master bath (on the right) and walk-in closet (to the left).

We'll be done re-doing the bedroom as soon as we paint (we didn't do it a couple of weekends ago as planned), but we have big plans for the bathroom.

So, yeah. That's pretty much the rest of the house. Someday, as we get things finished and set up just the way we want them, I'll post "after" pictures for comparison. With as long as it took me to get these up, I wouldn't expect them any time soon, though.

Once again with the tidbits

It may only be Tuesday, but this week has been crazy already. The reasons for this include:

1. Gabbie is starting in the toddler room in daycare this week. They move them up gradually, and she’s only on day two, so she’s spending two hours there this morning. I just can’t believe my itty bitty baby is big enough to be in the toddler room already. That said, it’s also amazing how big she looks next to the babies in the baby room. It’s definitely time for her to move on, but it’s a little hard on all of us, especially since she loves her baby room teachers so much. They’re sad she’s moving up too. (Of course, it doesn’t help that I have a horrible case of PMS in the middle of all of this sadness.)

2. This weekend we bought a new range and refrigerator for our kitchen, which I expected but not quite so soon. That’s totally fine with me, though. I’m really excited to get them in, but they won’t be delivered for another two weeks. They had to order them since we wanted black and apparently all anyone carries anymore is stainless steel. I just didn’t want to have to deal with that many fingerprints on my appliances. However, we do have to do some work on the kitchen in order to get the refrigerator to fit, so there will be some demolition this week/weekend, not to mention some plumbing since we will now have an icemaker/water dispenser. We did manage to buy one of the biggest refrigerators on the market, but we got it for a steal because they had it priced incorrectly in their system. Score one for us!

3. Speaking of house stuff, we’re painting this weekend. We’re starting with our bedroom, and I’m having trouble deciding on colors. I want something kind of like Tiffany Blue, or Martha Stewart’s Vintage Map color (it’s about halfway down the page), but I can’t decide how light or dark to go. Our furniture has a deep brown finish, and we’re doing white accents. I just can’t wait to get something painted, because our house is all various shades of beige leftover from the previous owners. Then we just have to decide what color to paint Gabbie’s room (yellow or purple), both upstairs bathrooms, the kitchen (I’m thinking a kind of avocado green), the dining room, and the family room (the most contentious room colorwise – we can’t seem to come to an agreement). There are plenty of other rooms to paint too, but the spare bedroom will be last and dependent on “future baby”, which is what we call the hypothetical second child right now.

A Few Monday Tidbits

Mondays suck. Everyone knows this. Just thought I’d restate the obvious.

Do you want to know something I feel bad about? (I’m telling you whether you do or not, actually.) I feel bad that my work pays a lot of money to run the air conditioning for our office, and then I warm it right back up with my space heater. It was seriously 66 degrees in here earlier, which is slightly ridiculous, especially since we’re all dressing for the hot summer weather that has finally arrived. I wore flip flops (fancy office ones like these) and my toes are seriously blue.

Speaking of seriously blue – if you watch True Blood, have you noticed how much more pale everyone is? During last night’s episode Bill was so pale he was almost blue at one point. Anyway, that was one seriously good episode, and it’s hard to wait for next week. I’m also sad that there are only 3 new episodes left this season. Finally, what is up with the Jessica/Hoyt story line? It wasn’t in the books, and I don’t get the necessity of it other than continuing to use a character they made up in the first season.

I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture of the kittens this weekend. I’m explain more about them tomorrow, but suffice it to say I’m missing their absolute cuteness.

You can roll your eyes at me if you want (the nice thing is I can’t see it through the computer), but last week I joined FlyLady. Aaron is much busier at work these days, working long hours and being constantly busy during those hours, and so I need to pick up the slack a little around the house. Trouble is, he’s the good housekeeper in our family, and I have no idea what to do. I really like this system so far because it basically tells me what to do, so I don’t have to make any decisions. So far the dishes have been done every night before bed (which is different) and I’ve done at least one load of laundry every day (and put it promptly away, which is also different). Not that I live in squalor usually, it’s just that having a toddler tends to take up all my time. This is already helping to make things easier around the house, so I’m enjoying it. We’ll see if it continues to go so well. I tackle my first “hot zone” tonight.

Oh, Right. We Bought a House.

And here it is:

We went to look at this house just for fun - we couldn't believe the price for the size and neighborhood. We were sure there was something wrong with it, but we thought we'd go look because we were so curious. 

I started falling in love while I was walking up to the front door. Then I opened the door and saw this:

The living room 

I looked at Aaron, and that's when he knew we were in trouble, because I had already fallen completely in love with the house. One look, and I was already sold.

If you turn to the right when you walk through the front door, you see this:

It's a den/dining room/bonus room. Currently it houses boxes, but it will eventually be our formal dining room (if I have my way) or office (if Aaron has his way).

Off of the living room is the kitchen:

I absolutely love all the counter space. The dishwasher has already been replaced, and the stove, refrigerator, sink, and countertops are following sooner than later. 

Just past the kitchen is the eating area and the family room:

The family room extends around the corner and is about twice the length you see here, and full of windows. It's my absolute favorite room in the house.

We're currently doing a lot to this floor - we put in new door knobs/deadbolts (you never know who out there has a spare key), we're replacing appliances, light fixtures, painting, perhaps adding more wood floors (I hate the carpets - they pill, fuzz, and show every speck of dirt), adding new window treatments, and maybe even buying new furniture. Being a home owner is both fun and expensive!

Also on the first floor are a half-bath/mud room and the laundry room. Off of the living room is the staircase to the second floor, which I'll share tomorrow...

A Truism from Dad

When we were about to put a counter-offer in on our house, I called my dad to get his advice on whether or not we were getting in over our heads. He told me two things: you’ll have even less free time than when you just had a baby, and you’ll never have the kind of savings you once had ever again. Well, we’re still doing okay in the savings department, but the free time thing has been true so far, and we haven’t even made a sizable dent in our to-do list.

This weekend I built bedroom furniture while Aaron installed a dishwasher. Add in someone having to play with Gabbie outside of her naptimes and those things took all weekend long. I’m so impressed with Aaron – he’s never installed a dishwasher before, but he did it with no problems (although we do still have to call a plumber to come look at some issues he discovered in the process). I also managed to go shopping and spend some money that has been burning a hole in my pocket for the past week. I got two shirts, two pair of pants, a pair of sandals and some makeup.

Tonight we discuss whether or not we want to paint before our house-warming party in a couple of weeks. We also have to send out invites to that party and I’m going to start on sewing a purse I’d like to take to BlogHer (provided it turns out).

Busy is definitely an understatement, but we’re loving it all. Happy is an understatement too.

Making house decisions with more than one person is HARD!

Lately it would seem that thinking about the house, and all of the things I want to do to it are taking over my life. Aaron and I have started a list, and we keep adding to it. One problem, however, is that we disagree on a lot of things. Take these examples:

1. I like our kitchen very much. It could use some color, new countertops and appliances eventually (although the new dishwasher arrives tomorrow and I can’t wait to not have to wash everything by hand finally, except Aaron is installing it, and so that finally might start a while from now. I’ll let you know how it all goes.), and maybe a new floor, but he wants to rip everything out and start over. He doesn’t like the color of the cabinets (oak) but I think they’re fine. Plus they match all of the wood work throughout the house. We have a lot of oak. He doesn’t like the layout, but I think it’s great, and if he touches the large expanse of counter space between the kitchen and eating area I’ll kick his rear. He wants a complete do-over, but I just want some updates.

2. Admittedly, our master bathroom needs some updates. There’s a crack (non-leaking) in the sink, I hate the counter tops, and the shower stall was not made for tall people (the previous owners were both shorter than me – I’m 5’9” and Aaron’s about 6’2”). I like his idea of doing floor to ceiling tile for the shower and I’ve already picked out a new door for the stall. However, he wants to rip out the walk-in closet that’s eating up a good portion of space that could be used for a Jacuzzi tub, and then put in a new closet in the master that would obviously eat up some of the space in the master bedroom. I don’t need a Jacuzzi tub, and if I did, I’d replace the tub in the hall bath. I like the large master bedroom, and would be happier if we could just redo the organization system in the closet (the one that is there takes up too much space and makes it hard to maneuver around in the closet).

And that’s not even coming close to touching on paint colors, furniture, and where to put the damn TV in the family room. Then there’s the disagreements about when certain updates should occur. We need to buy a lawnmower, like, yesterday. We have no garage door opener, and Aaron has decided that we’ll just replace the door and install an opener at the same time, and we won’t be able to afford that all until the spring when we get our $8000 first-time homebuyer credit. We can afford an opener now, and I don’t want to go all winter having to get out and manually open the door. I’m lazy and hate to be cold if I can avoid it, and I embrace those facts.

It’s all fairly frustrating, but I know we’ll make it through and maybe he has some great ideas and I’ll love how everything turns out. But I want things my way too, you know? I guess we’ll need to learn another important lesson in cooperation and (crap, what’s the word when you both have to give up something you really want in order to make both people happy?) compromise!

Scattered Brain = Really Scattered Post. You're Welcome

I’m actually feeling fairly well-rested for once, but so scattered that today? You get bullets.

• · I’ve been watching True Blood whenever I get a chance lately. I read all of the books, and was having serious Sookie Stackhouse withdrawal, so I decided to treat it with a generous dose of the TV show. I watched most of season 1 by myself, but Aaron would watch a few episodes with me here or there. Then he watched the last couple of episodes of the season and got himself hooked. We watched the first two episodes of season 2 last night, and had to start in on the third because of the cliffhanger end to the second episode. I went to bed a couple of minutes in, even though I didn’t want to, because otherwise I would have been up way too far past my bedtime. Tonight though? We’re settling in with some popcorn (from the CSA – it’s soooo good!), a mojito or two, and the 3^rd and 4^th episodes from this season. I love it when we get into a show together!
• · So, yeah. The mojito mentioned above? I can drink it before Gabbie’s bedtime now if I want (even though we don’t watch True Blood before her bedtime because it’s not appropriate now that she seems to be completely aware of what is going on around her), because we’re down to only nursing in the morning. I thought the before-bed nursing would be the hardest to break, but she dropped it no problem. Dropping the middle of the night feeding took a couple of long nights to struggle through, but since she realized she doesn’t get to eat in the middle of the night, she’s been sleeping straight through (except for the other day when I woke her up by tripping and making a loud noise when I went in to check on her). Weaning: it’s hard and sort of sad, but also kind of awesome.
• · Since Gabbie started walking she’s been a little accident prone; something I expected, but that is still pretty hard to bear. We have wood floors in the dining room, which is adjacent to the family room. The other day when she went running (seriously, running) from the family room toward the kitchen, as soon as she hit the wood floors she went down hard and hit her forehead; BANG! It hurt me to even hear the bang, let alone to see those tears streaming down her face. But that was nothing compared to when she decided to have her forehead meet the edge of the banister the other day. She had a nice goose egg that has settled down into an ugly dark purple bruise. Thank goodness all toddlers go through this, or someone might think I was letting her get hurt on purpose!
• · There was a bathtub incident the other night, that I don’t really want to relive here, but suffice it to say Aaron has learned not to leave Gabbie alone in the bathroom with water in the tub. She was and is totally fine, but it really scared the crap out of both of us. Lesson definitely learned. The hard way.
• · We’re having our first non-family house guests this weekend, and I have a lot to do before they get here to get the house together. We’ve been a little lax on the unpacking, and need to get on it and quick. Plus, I’m starting to not feel exactly settled, and I think unpacking will help this greatly. Although, I’m not unpacking my clothes until we get our new dresser put together. It’s my form of protest to get Aaron moving on assembling furniture.
• · Did I mention that Aaron and I went to Ikea a couple of weeks ago and bought a new bedroom set? We’ve never had a bedroom set before, so we feel pretty grown up. It also made us realize how bad we are at making decisions. We spent a total of FIVE HOURS in Ikea and emerged with a bed, a dresser, and two bedside tables. We went in for much more, but that was all of the decision making we could handle that day. FIVE HOURS. I was completely exhausted. At least we came out with something – we’ve never been able to make decisions before when we’ve gone so this was progress.
• · Finally, Blogher is next week and I’m getting pretty excited. I’ve been trying to decide what to pack, but of course have decided that I HATE all of my clothes and need to go shopping. Due to being house broke, shopping wasn’t really in the cards. However, yesterday I got a check reimbursing me for expenses from my business trip to Boston, totaling almost $200. I asked Aaron if I could spend it on clothes and he said as long as it didn’t ever hit the bank account he wouldn’t miss it, so now I just have to decide what to buy. That sucks almost as much as having nothing to wear, because I hate shopping as much as I hate my clothes.

To Dos

The first time Aaron and I went house hunting with our realtor was in July of 2008, so that puts the length of time spent between starting to look and getting into our house at almost a year. We moved in to the house about a month after we put in our first offer, and while that month seemed to drag and was about the most stressful time of my life, I look back now and can’t believe that it went so quickly.

But now, we’re in, and now that we’re in our imaginations have been churning, and our list of things we need to and would like to do to the house keeps growing. And growing. And growing. We’re starting with the need to list and then will eventually work our way down the want to list over the next few years. Even though our house is exceedingly livable as it is right now, and it already feels like home, we want to do so many little tweaks to make it more, I don’t know, I guess: ours.

This weekend we’re going garage door and dishwasher/perhaps other appliance shopping. Everything (and I mean everything) in the house is original, and since the house was built in 1989, that means that everything is 20 years old. That means all of the appliances are going to need replaced within the next few years, which is just fine with us. The garage door really does need replaced, and the opener broke and was taken out a few months before we put in an offer. So a new garage door is tied for number one. The other part of that two-way tie is a new dishwasher. There’s a dishwasher there, but the seal is broken and so it would leak if we ran it. I may be lazy, but after doing all dishes by hand for the past couple of weeks I am completely and totally ready to put in a new dishwasher. I’ll even install it myself if someone would give me instructions on how to do it. So yes, those two things are happening first. If we can get a deal on buying a kitchen appliance suite all at once, that means we’ll be getting a new stove and refrigerator within the next couple of weeks as well.

After that comes paint, a new countertop and sink in the kitchen, a master bathroom remodel, new lighting fixtures inside and out, maybe a new floor in the kitchen (because the dishwasher was (awesomely) tiled in and we may have to break some tiles to get it replaced), possibly a hardwood floor in the living room and the den (where there’s a weird octagon-shaped patch of carpet with no hardwood underneath (pictures are coming soon, I swear. We’re almost to the box that holds the needed cords)). Not to mention landscaping whenever I have time and a babysitter, as well as a solution to the mosquito-ridden back yard that’s so full of them right now we can’t use it. Also a new deck eventually, and we’ll probably put in a new closet organization system in the master closet sooner than later.

Man, just looking at that list makes me tired and excited all at the same time. We definitely have the before shots of the house and can’t wait to be able to show the afters. Owning a house is a lot more work than we expected, even without all of the remodeling nonsense we’re planning, but it’s also a ton of fun, and it feels really, really good that we finally have a home of our own.

Some tweets I would send if I had access to Twitter from work

You know what’s awesome? When you’re already swamped and someone sends an email to 40 people telling them to call you right away. AWESOME.

I have been up hours past my bedtime for the past 5 nights. Saying I’m exhausted would almost be a lie. I’m practically in a walking coma.

How to tell you’re a parent, item 26,000: You regularly pick someone else’s nose without any qualms. Parenting is so glamorous!

One of the great things about moving is welcome to the neighborhood cookies from new neighbors. Yum!

Have spent approximately 2 hours today thinking about BBQ brisket. May be a teensy bit too obsessed with food.

Maybe should have been more specific in my wish for a lawn mower/house warming present. Mom hired someone to mow my lawn twice. Still nice.

Lessons learned from office Olympics: I suck at throwing paper airplanes, shooting rubber bands, and have a pointy head.

Need to buy a new wardrobe for Blogher. Hoping husband gets a promotion (somewhat likely) so I can go shopping!

All In

As of last night we're fully moved out of the apartment where we've lived for the past four years and into our very first house. I would post pictures, but the cord that attaches our camera to our computer is packed in a box I have yet to get unpack. I also have no clue which box it is. Saying I'm not great at packing would be a bit of an understatement. At least we did it and we're here, right?

Aaron and I are exhausted as are my dad, mom, sister, and best friend, all of whom helped us move. Aaron is bound to be even more exhausted tomorrow, as he's at the apartment right now finishing up all of the cleaning they asked us to do (which was a ton). I would have gone to help him, but he preferred to do it by himself instead of having help along with a baby there to drive him nuts. Gabbie is doing pretty well, but has been incredibly ornery and is driving him up a wall. Me too, but I have more patience these days (probably because I've gotten a small amount more sleep than he has.

The house, though, it's great. Gabbie loves to crawl from the dining room through the kitchen into the living room around to the hall and back to the dining room multiple times in one big loop. It is hard to keep up with her, especially when she's making laps using her walk-behind toy. We have to install gates on the stairs soon because she beelines for them as often as she can. Right now the boxes the gates are in are making excellent barriers to her getting on the stairs, but of course, aren't practical in the long run.

I'm loving the kitchen and the family room, the rooms I'm sure we'll spend the most time in throughout the years to come. The neighborhood is really quiet, and the neighbors are incredibly friendly so far. I'm really loving pretty much everything about this place, and I'm so far I'm definitely glad we decided to move here. 

I know this is all scattered, but like I said earlier, I'm exhausted. A good, satisfied kind of exhausted though. I still can't believe I'm a homeowner!