Archive for House
The prior owners of this house were kind enough to leave the super cute shower curtain in the boys’ bathroom when they moved out. They also left a large roll of wallpaper border that went with the curtain that we didn’t necessarily want to put up because wallpaper can be so difficult to remove. So, my aunt offered to make us a 3-D shadow box with it to dress up the bathroom. My mom and aunt spent HOURS cutting and sticking yesterday. Look how cute it turned out!
Here’s a close up. The basic process is to cut out each item multiple times and put small adhesive foam pieces between each layer, varying the height to give different levels of depth in the finished piece.
There is a giant pile of bird poo just outside our back door. This is why:
If they weren’t so cute I’d be annoyed at the mess to clean up. The little guy on the left looks grumpy huh? He’s mad because we’re scaring off his momma by climbing up on a ladder to take his picture. He’s plotting his revenge – planning to poop on my head later, no doubt.
You know, that nest is really impressive when you think about it. It looks like it’s made of mud.
They’re driving our cats crazy…
I’ve been busily decorating my walls since we moved in, and had been at sort of a loss as to what to put in the boys’ room. I didn’t want anything too “cute” and don’t care for most of the typical kids room stuff. I finally hit on an idea this weekend and am so excited to have found some awesome vintage artwork in a transportation theme. I could look at vintage posters all day- they’re so beautiful. I already had two Tin Signs
And, this awesome print
and finally, this amazing “Ballooning Over Paris”
How cool is that??? Big J loves “Hot Hair Balloons” as he calls them, so I think he’ll like it.
Finally found time to post here! The whole moving thing has totally messed with my blogging time. There are SO MANY things to do as we get the house in order. Lots of fun stuff like painting and digging out from under all the boxes. Lord willing, this is the last time for a LONG time. I keep telling myself that when I’m tempted to complain about going through all our junk. Actually, I don’t mind painting all that much, as the end result is totally worth it, and I love throwing stuff away, so this is the perfect opportunity to get rid of stuff we’ve been carting around with us for the last 8 years. So anyway, I’ve been pretty busy between all of that and trying to keep Little D fed.
This kid has the biggest appetite. I can’t believe how much he packs away into that little tummy of his. It’s a little worrisome actually, since the genes my husband and I have passed down to him are not, um… the skinniest genes ever. Some mealtimes I have to just cut him off- no more food for you! I have nothing left in the kitchen to feed you! He must be doing some serious growing. This is no surprise, since after carrying him for just a little while, my arms feel like they’re going to fall off. Gotta build those “Mommy Muscles” back up- they’ve gone a little flabby since I stopped carrying Big J around.
So, our big splurge after buying the house was a shiny new dining room table. I wanted to make the dining room an office, but Mark convinced me that it was time to be grown ups and have some grown up furniture and I’m glad he did because the table is bee-yoo-tiful. We went shopping at a couple of places and only found one we liked. Furniture is one of those few areas in our marriage in which there is perfect harmony. Actually we would have passed it right by, but then we noticed the sign on the table said it was part of the Cindy Crawford Collection. Well, that does it. I mean the table was designed by Cindy Crawford! We must have it! She is obviously a *model* of taste and class and just having a table in our house from her collection will magically turn us into beautiful, perfect people. Yada, yada, yada… Seriously, why does Cindy Crawford have a furniture line? What does being a super model have to do with furniture? Why does having her name on a “collection” suddenly make it more marketable? That’s just sad people.
Well it took a little while, but all the financial stuff is finally wrapped up and we’re ready to close next week! We had a last minute erroneous item show up on my husband’s credit report that threatened to derail the whole thing until we were able to prove it wasn’t his. It was a very difficult couple of days while it was being resolved, and a big lesson in not holding on to things of this world too tightly. We were reminded that we needed to be willing to let this one go without getting too hung up on it or upset about it. If things didn’t work out because of the random goof up at the credit bureau, that’s not a problem we caused and was in many ways out of our control. Thankfully, we know the ONE who is in control and who causes all things to work together for good.
Anyway, we couldn’t be more excited and grateful to be moving into a wonderful house! We are also thankful to have family that will be here to help with the packing. We’ve moved so many times in the last 8 years and are ready to settle down for a good long while. This feeling of semi-permanence is totally new to me. I can finally throw out that big bathroom shelf thing we’ve been lugging around from place to place, thinking we’d use it again. I can take my china out of the trunk and put it in one of the MANY cabinets in the kitchen. Okay… better quit doing my happy dance for now and get busy packing huh?
I am stressssssed out. We’re in the midst of buying a house, and I had no idea how nerve-wracking this whole process was going to be. I’m not the nervous, stressed-out type either. I know that God is sovereign and that means I should not be anxious about anything. But, I gotta tell ya, I’m not doing as well as I should be on that front. We found a house we love, in a great location, and it’s exactly what we want. We went through the ups and downs of the offer process and were so excited when the final offer was accepted, only to be plunged into the lovely business of getting approved for a mortgage. With the current financial situation the country and mortgage business is in, nothing is a sure bet and we’re just waiting for the final word on approval.
So, I’m trying to ignore that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. It will go away soon. All will be well. Amen.
