here

I'm here. In Erie. Boxes almost all unpacked. Now I'm on to removing wallpaper. Lots and lots of wallpaper. Pictures to follow in the next couple days.

Rain, Rain go away

Our home inspection on the new (3rd) house went well! Yay!

Now if the rain would stop so the chimney guy can fix our chimney cap then all would be good. Our buyers can't close until that is fixed (they have an FHA loan) so if everyone could pray, cross their fingers and toes, hope....whatever you believe in....that the rain would stop so we can close in Erie on the 13th I'd really appreciate that :)

Thanks!

Random

Just a random photo......

So I'm getting stuff done. Worked almost the whole day yesterday (took a break to eat lunch and another to make/eat dinner. I got a lot done. I was hoping to get more done today but I went to the Antique Mall....probably for the last time, sniff, sniff. Also had lunch with my hubby, tonight I am off to The Web with the boys and the neighbor girls. We allowed each of them to pick one activity they wanted to do before we left and they both wanted the same thing, score!

One of the things I've been doing a lot of is looking through this site:

http://favoritepaintcolors.blogspot.com/

I am SOOOOOO sick of "trying to sell my house so I can't have any fun colors or photos of my family on my walls"

I am thinking of painting the kitchen a turquoise-ish color. Not too bright, not too pastel, something fun and non brown. The cabinets will be white and there is so little wall space in the kitchen I think it will be fine. What do you think? Here are just a few (very few) of the colors I am considering....

Beyond the color on these walls don't you love the storage and the picnic table? I'm thinking of doing similar storage in the boys playroom when we move.

The home inspection was finally scheduled for Monday. Chris will walk me through the house and take a whole bunch of measurements for me and then I'll be heading to ikea before we move--not for everything but we at least need some storage for the playroom and I'd like to get some expedit for the family room. Speaking of ikea, another site I've been looking at lately is http://www.ikeahackers.net/ it's fun to look at others creativity.

That's it for now. My head is still swimming with things to do so I'm going to tackle a few before I pick the kids up from school.

Have a great day.

An ode to Jenny

Is an ode a poem? If so, then I guess I shouldn't call it an ode. This is perhaps better described as a letter to a dear friend.

So I have this friend. Her name is Jenny and she is awesome. Seriously.

She Rocks!

She makes her husband breakfast every morning and even packs a lunch for him.

(My husband is lucky if he gets dinner).

She is a very giving wife!

She plans crafts for her kids, enrolls them in fun classes, supports their interests, goes outside and plays tennis, basketball, baseball, etc with them.

She is a wonderful mom!

She goes out of her way to save coupons and magazines for me. She makes homemade cards for friends and relatives.

She is a generous friend!

So why am I writing this, because I want to cheer her up. Jenny is pregnant with her 4th bundle of joy and some relatives made not nice comments to her this past Easter weekend and I want her to know she is beautiful and loved. Not only is she pregnant with #4 but her husband commutes to work 45 minutes away which means he is often home after she goes to bed (he's a principal and stays for sporting events, etc). And if that's not enough on her plate her house is on the market and has been for the last two years. She is handling it all with grace and love.

I love being around her, she is funny, kind, creative, caring, and just a wonderful person. I know that if I had everything going on that she does that I would not be 1/2 the person she is.

Jenny, I adore you. If you need me to bring some duct tape and rope to your next northern Ohio event I will only be 2 hours away and I'd love to kick some tooshie on your behalf.

I'll miss you dear friend.

3rd time is the charm

So....we are hoping that the 3rd time really is a charm. This is our new house. Chris bought it on his own.....I have never seen it, except for these pictures.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1480-Canterbury-Lane_Fairview-Township_PA_16415_M47859-44833

I trust him. Looks like a great house, except when I ask him questions he gives me blank looks. He will go up for the home inspection and we plan to video chat so he can walk me through and I can ask away. :)

I have 2 weeks until the movers come so I am trying to do a final purge and get the house in order.

Have you ever had so much on your plate, so much to do that it renders you unable to do anything? Hoping to do a brain dump today so that I can start attacking things little by little and it doesn't all seem so overwhelming.

What's on my mind today?

Buster's home. We picked him up Friday from doggie boot camp where he has lived for the past month. He is like a changed dog. As well he should be for all the money we paid. He has to wear a leash and pinch collar for the next week as he gets used to the fact that we mean what we say. I think the girls wish he'd go away because they aren't allowed on the furniture anymore and we are making Izzy wear her bark collar. They want it back the way it used to be when they ran things. But I am loving it. It is so calm. No tipped garbage, no opened freezer, no yelling at Buster for getting into the sink or eating toilet paper or underwear! It's lovely.

I need/want a haircut. I really like Callie's hair on Grays but I think mine is too fine. I've been searching for one I love, one that is super easy but I haven't come across one yet......

Our Erie house underwent her inspection today. She has been very neglected, poor girl. The attic is covered in mold, the furnace exhaust goes into the attic space but the attic isn't ventilated properly for the carbon monoxide to escape...... The gas has been shut off by the utility company--we assume for unpaid bills. Our contract says all utilities are to be on for the inspection, the seller is playing dumb saying he didn't know it had been turned off--there is actually a physical lock on the on/off valve put there by the utility company. So frustrated! We are giving him until tomorrow to turn the utilities back on or we are withdrawing our bid. Even if he gets that done he's going to have to find 2-6K to fix the mold in the attic......It isn't looking good for this guy or us for that matter. To top it all off there aren't any houses in our price range that we would even consider bidding on at this point.

Aiden came home today with an oops. He hit another child. He was trying to hit her bear but accidentally hit her. When asked why he said "because I felt like it" Grrrr. He's been having major respect issues at home and now it's bleeding over into school. Luckily he has an appointment with his psychologist tomorrow.

Just a few of the things on my mind right now.....I'm sure there are lots of others that I just can't put my finger on right now.

Good-bye Cinci! Hello Erie!

It was mean of me to say I was back and then suddenly leave again but the last 2 weeks have been CRAZY! We spent part of the boys spring break in Erie to introduce them to their school and the area, we went to Pittsburgh for the day to go to museums, etc. It was a great trip, more on it later. Then when we got home I went to a homeschool conference in Cinci--more on that later too.

Then on that Saturday April 2nd my prayers were answered and we accepted an offer on our house. YAY!!!!

My mom came on Tuesday to take care of the boys so we could go back to Erie to find a new house. We only had 3 on our list so we thought it would be fairly easy. But home buying never is, is it? We made an offer on one property on Wednesday but after their counter we withdrew the bid. The house was a bit small for us and although the lot was plenty big to expand there weren't a lot of families, or kids close to our kids ages in the neighborhood.

On Thursday we went back out after looking at a few properties that weren't going to work--one Chris wouldn't even go in to because it reeked of smoke so bad. I basically ran through that house because the smoke smell was so overpowering. It actually made me sad because it was a house we might have considered but we were never going to be able to get that smell out of the house.

We went back to one property that was VERY overpriced but in a fabulous neighborhood. We made an offer and then a counter and then another counter and finally reached an agreement today (Monday). We still have the home inspection to go through and we may withdrawal our offer if there are too many hidden fixes that we haven't already seen.

So here's the house.......

The front....garage is on the side of the house. Lots of very mature trees.
Formal dining room. Owner is leaving the dining room set. Not sure if we will sell or keep.
Kitchen. It's in bad need of updates. Will start by painting the cabinets....then we'll start replacing appliances as our finances allow.
Backyard. It's smaller than we have now. Only about a 1/4 of an acre, we have almost 1/2 an acre now. But the yard has lots of mature trees and the boys don't play much in the yard anymore. I am excited to finally have a hammock!!
Formal Living room. It's quite large! It will become the boys game room as there isn't a finished basement and we don't plan on finishing the basement because it's not that big.
Family room. Complete with fireplace. YAY! (The other house didn't have a fireplace.)
Didn't really get good pictures of the bedrooms (there are 4). here is the master.
Here is what will be my craft room/guest room.

We are so very excited. Hoping that the home inspection goes well.

⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5-7

December, January, February

For some reason I don't have a lot of pictures, that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot going on though.

In December Chris accepted a job in Erie, Pa. He started December 20th and has been commuting there during the week, most weeks, since January. It is so hard to be without him, the boys and I miss him terribly and I just keep praying that the house sells soon so we can be together again. (chris took this picture in Erie during one of their storms which make Cinci storms look silly)

In preparation for listing the house again we had our entry floor refinished.

One of Aiden's favorite gifts from Christmas.
The boys at Nana and Papa's in Maine for Christmas.
The boys stuck in the "fish bubble" at LL Bean in Freeport, ME.

January was FULL of basketball, so was February for that matter.

Zach...more basketball.
I don't remember what I did but I won the worst mommy award. I win this often.
We had some snow days but with 4 wheel drive it didn't stop us from getting out.
With Chris gone it was up to Aiden and I to clear the driveway and sidewalks.
Aiden's a great helper with the snowblower.
I've been working on this blanket off and on...mostly off....for about a year. I'm about 1/3 done.
I learned to make homemade key lime pie. It is so easy. AND so very, very yummy.
Buster with his ball. Don't you love how his tongue is sticking out the side of his mouth :)
People camped out waiting for Chick-Fil-A to open. We were not one of those crazy people.
One of Aiden's circuit creations. He has 3 sets of these circuits, one from Nana and Papa and 2 from Chris and I. He loves to experiment and create. I think this was his radio. Such an awesome kid.

Hello? Anyone still out there?

Talk about absentee blogger. My goodness!

Things got busy and there was so much I wanted to say and then it got overwhelming all the things I wanted to say so I just ignored it. HA!

But I'm back. Hopefully to stay.

So here's what I've been up to the past few(ish) months.

October: (In no particular order)

Baking yummy, yummy, homemade, from scratch, honey whole wheat bread

I turned 33. Taken on my b-day (16th) with Allie, my princess.
Went to the pumpkin patch and tried to get a Christmas card picture....it didn't work out so well :)
Made some art for the wall (I painted a huge canvas and then wrapped fabric around cardboard cake circles--fun project but it didn't turn out quite like I planned. I think in our next house I will put the fabric in embroidery hoops instead of on a canvas)
Visited my parents in Illinois.
Had a sleep test. Diagnosed with sleep apnea, mild. I stop breathing on average 6 times an hour with the longest being 67 seconds! I can't even hold my breath for 67 seconds!

November: (again no particular order)

We gave Aiden one of his birthday presents (a powerwing scooter) early so that he would have nice weather to ride it in. Nothing worse than having to wait months to use a present that you love.

Aiden writing his name on his birthday crown at school.

sleeping on the drive to Disney (the sleeping only lasted about 10 minutes)

Driving-at Disney

You can't really tell from the picture but there was a double rainbow at Disney.....what does it mean???? :)

Boys with Donald...at Disney (do I need to keep saying that??)

On Thanksgiving Day, and Aiden's birthday, my parents treated the boys to getting themselves dressed up like pirates. It was really hard to get pictures because it was so dark in the room. The one above is Zach.

Here's Aiden. He was super excited, thus wiggly, plus my poor sensory guy didn't really like having all that paint on his face. They got their pictures taken at the end and it took all his might not to rub the paint off. In fact as soon as we got back to the room he scrubbed it off. but despite that he did enjoy himself.

The boys favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Seeing Stitch, one of the very few autographs the boys waited in line for.

This is Aiden, yes he's on the dinner table, opening all the birthday gifts from family.

The boys are home from school so I will leave you with Aiden saying "Peace out" from the backseat on the loooooooooooong drive home from Disney.

I hope to post December and January tomorrow.

stress

I have been resisting the craving for ice cream and chocolate for almost one week now (except for the cinnamon ice cream my in laws bought but that doesn't count because I didn't buy it). I am feeling very stressed and it is leaving little brain power for more interesting things like

*blogging

*sewing

reusable produce bags

reusable snack/sandwich bags

napkins

*scrapbooking

*home decorating projects

*bill paying/budgeting

sorry I haven't been around as much as I thought I would be, it's not because I don't have anything to talk about, I could talk for days, but there is just so much other stuff going on that I just don't have the time.

*Aiden will be tested on Monday for dyslexia and other learning problems. Insurance doesn't pay a cent of this testing which could cost as much as $500 but no one said kids would be cheap. We have a conference with his teacher tomorrow, his progress report was mainly U's and N's.

*Our house is still on the market, I so wish we could just walk away from it just so we could move on instead of being stuck in this holding pattern.

*and those are just the two biggest things, needless to say there are also 100 little things going on as well.

I'm going on a women's retreat with ladies from church this weekend and I am very much looking forward to it. Hopefully it will help me calm down and relax.