Random Things Of Note

This is a long post. You've been warned.

1. I realized the other morning as I was blow drying my hair that it was 10 years ago that I started to blog. At the peak of my blogging career, I think I averaged about 50-60 consistent readers. Today, I'm down to 2 or 3. It's a sad, sad state of blogging affairs. I should just give it up already. But I can't. I need a different outlet than Facebook. I guess.

What I can say about the blogging life, it that I developed friendships with some pretty cool people. Some of whom I know in real life, or met once in real life, or have yet to meet in real life. Here's the list of the people I would not know today if not for having a blog (in no particular order):

CalTech Girl (and her hub, GmTroJan) - Beau and I (and Jesse) met them when we went to California for a family reunion with my in-laws. We are "friends" on Facebook now, where we spend a lot of time liking each others status updates and random links and whatnot.

Sleepy Beth (and her hub, Tim) - I can't remember exactly how we decided to meet in person. I know that it was after Beau and I were married. I think they invited us over for dinner or maybe we invited them over for dinner? Either way, about once or twice a year, we try to get together for dinner. And it is always a fun time, lots of laughs, and fun for our kids, too. We're overdue for having them over for dinner. An invitation is coming, Beth!

The Thinklings - It has been so long that I do not remember how I found this blog. I do know that things got personal when I got an email from Bill asking me to opine on this post. We have all on our separate blogging ways, but I love and appreciate the online brotherhood of these wonderful, Godly men. Over the years there were some really excellent theological debates, discussions about books, movies, and TV, and general silliness. They were with me when I was single, encouraged me when I started dating Beau, and were thrilled for me when Beau and I got married. Today, I am "friends" with Bill and Jared on Facebook as well. I can't wait until the day that I get to meet these men, whether it is in this mortal life or in eternity.

Phil - I think I "met" Phil through The Thinklings. A fellow book lover, we are "friends" on Facebook as well and follow each other on GoodReads, too. I have read books I otherwise would not have considered because of Phil's excellent recommendations. He is another Godly man whom I look forward to meeting one day, be it in person or in eternity.

Robbo - Back when he was a Llama Butcher with his pal, Steve, they organized a blogger meet up. Beau and I went and it was great to meet in person these two smart and witty guys. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Robbo, who is charming and lovely. Steve was as nutty in person as in his writing, so there were many laughs along with the intellectual talk that often went over my head.

Amy - I first met Amy at a Christmas party at my sister's house. She is sweet and lovely and her husband is super nice. We have similar interests and one thing I cherish is our 90-Day Bible Challenge together along with a group of other women. We have done it twice now and I think it will probably happen again in the future. I am glad that I have met Amy in person and I wish we lived closer so that we could hang out.

There are others - folks with whom I am "friends" on Facebook but have never met in real life, folks whom I met in real life and have since lost touch with completely. But all of them have had an impact on my life in the past 10 years and I am grateful.

2. That was a long random note. I'm sorry.

3. Television - remember when I used to post my TV watching schedule and it was this long elaborate explanation of what got watched live and what was recorded and watched later? Yeah, my TV viewing habits are much simpler now. If it's live TV, it means it's on Disney Junior and my kids are awake. Except for Redskins football - I watch that live as much as is humanly possible with two kids who just. don't. get. it. and why aren't we watching Disney Junior?

By the way, have you seen Honest Toddler? I follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and the blog. I have a problem. Although he is making so many things so much clearer.

Anyway, TV. There are exactly 3 shows that get recorded for me these days. They are Doctor Who, Copper, and The American Bible Challenge. At some point, I'll set the DVR for Once Upon a Time and Top Shot when they come back, but that's it for now. I used to think it was sad, but now I'm kind of happy. I'm reading more and I'm not watching crap. Note: Doctor Who is not crap. It's actually much smarter and interesting than I expected and it is why I'm fully Whovian now. Copper is great - even Beau likes it.

Oh yeah, I can't forget Downton Abbey and Sherlock, but they won't be relevant topics until 2013, so we'll discuss them later.

Do you see the pattern, though? Almost everything I watch anymore originates in the UK. They make way better TV than we do in the US.

4. Books - Since the last books post, I have completed the following:

The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure by James Dashner - the 2nd and 3rd books in The Maze Runner Trilogy. I didn't hate the trilogy, but I do think it is way too long. It is also rather violent and gruesome. Interesting premise, though, and that's what kept me in the story. 3.5 stars for the entire series.

Complete Atopia Chronicles by Matthew Maher - This book was recommended by Hugh Howey. It is self-published and actually was a series of short stories, but Maher compiled them into one volume. The premise is very intriguing and the ethics were thought-provoking. That is what kept me reading to the end. It ended on a huge cliff-hanger. My initial feeling upon finishing it was frustration because I was pretty sure I was ready for it to be over. However, maybe with time I'll have renewed interest for the continuation of the story. Who knows? I think I gave this one 3 stars. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley - I finished this one last night. It was enjoyable, but I liked Kearsley's other novels better. 3.5 stars.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson - I finished listening to this one on the commute this morning. This is the funniest book I have ever read. There is a lot of profanity so if you're sensitive to that do not read this. Really. 5 stars.

Currently Reading: Delirium by Lauren Oliver (audio book) and No Easy Day by Mark Owen (Kindle).

5. The House and All That Entails - We are mostly unpacked. That said, there are still a lot of random boxes scattered around the house. I think maybe half of them are my books. We have a bookcase shortage, so I think those boxes are headed for the basement until we figure out where to put some additional bookcases.

I have always told my mother that when we had a large enough house that we would host Thanksgiving. Guess what? We're hosting Thanksgiving this year. And because I'm completely nutso and I often feel guilty that we spend the major holidays with my family every year, I told Beau that we were going to invite his family to join us, too. By my count I think we're having about 20 adults and 9 children. Um, is it OK to start panicking now? I kid, I'm not panicking. Being the planner that I am, I'm already working out logistics for all of the food (pot luck, sort of) and the sleeping arrangements for those who will need to spend some nights with us (Beau's cousin and his wife have a son a year younger than Jesse and twin girls who will be about 1 year old by then and they live in New Jersey. There is no way that is a day trip for them. I mean, she is an incredible wife/mother, but no way.)

Also, by then Beau's mother should be with us for an extended stay through the holidays/winter. I have worked hard to get the guest room ready for her. There's some clutter that needs moving to other places and then that room is completely finished. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

6. Family Vacation 2013 - We're going to Disney World! Molly calls it Disney Junior. So cute. I am very excited to take my kids to The Happiest Place on Earth. They are going to love it. I labeled a jar The Disney Fund and called the kids over to explain to them that we needed to start saving money for the trip to Disney. Whenever I have spare change, I give it to them and they very carefully drop the coins into the jar. I seeded it with a few dollar bills. Beau laughed and said, "If this goes like the baby bottle fundraiser for the crisis pregancy center, then just write a check and stick it in there." What's the fun in that?

And that is it for now. My fingers are tired of typing.

Moved Into The Money Pit?

We're all moved in and getting settled. There are still a lot of boxes to unpack, but the key things are done - kitchen, clothes, offices, etc. In our first month, we encountered two large hiccups of the money pit variety.

1. The day after we moved in, I started what was going to be about 7 loads of laundry. After load #1 was washed, I moved it all to the dryer and pushed the button to start and got only a click. About 20 minutes of fiddling and checking and we determined that "she's dead, Jim."

We had talked about adding the frig/washer/dryer to our home warranty, so I asked Beau to call to set up a service call. Turns out that option never was added to the home warranty, so no go. We called the 800 number on the dryer and were told that a service person would be there the next day.

She (!) arrived and then spent 3-4 hours sweating over our dead dryer (which worked fine at the home inspection, btw). She called a more experienced technician with no fix. She called the manufacturer with no fix. She got shocked once for her troubles. She left, soaking wet from sweat and effort and I felt terrible for her. We were not billed at all either.

That night I did some research online and bought a new dryer that was delivered two days later.

2. Last Thursday, after dinner I started feeling warm while moving around the house. Putting the kids got me really sweating. Beau came to bed and we tried to snuggle, but I was a sweaty mess and moved away from his furnace-chest. At that point he said, "Is it warm in here?"

"YES!"

Turns out the AC was dead. The fan was blowing, but the unit outside was not on and we couldn't get it to come on.

We called the home warranty people and they said the soonest they could send someone to take a look was Monday afternoon. I balked hard since our house was sitting at about 86F at that point already and it was going to be a sunny, hot weekend. There was no way I wanted my family to endure my whining and complaining if I had to sweat all weekend. I hate nothing less than to be sweaty constantly. I'm a big time sweat-er.

When I mentioned the problem to a guy in my office he said the exact thing happened to him last month and it turned out to be the capacitor. Simple fix and not expensive. So I begged Beau to call someone to come take a look. It was the capacitor, but the dude didn't have the right one with him and he had to come back on Saturday. We signed a contract for annual service calls, too. After he fixed it, he then serviced the furnace for the winter, so that's good to go now, too.

We are enjoying the house. The kids love having more space for running around. We like having more space for them to run around. I like that Jesse can ride his bike and I don't need to worry that he'll get hit by a speeding car (there's little traffic, but he stays on the sidewalks). I like that the kids can play in the backyard without too much hovering on our parts and they have a large, fun space back there.

The Lord blessed us with a great home for our family. We are grateful. And we're grateful that the first couple of hiccups were small and relatively inexpensive.

15 Days

We're 15 days away from closing on our first house. I'm getting excited. And impatient to just be moved in already. There's so much I want to do to make it our home. There are so many ideas swirling in my head (and my Pinterest boards). There are rugs picked out, sofas picked out, linens identified to be looked at in person, walls to paint, a back yard to make kid friendly, a living room to be turned into a school room, offices to set up, pictures to hang, meals to cook, lives to live.

God had blessed us immensely in our nearly 7 years as a family. We are excited to embark on this leg of our journey. My prayer for this house is that the Lord will be central, this will be the home that the kids always come to (ours and their friends), our guests will enjoy warm and welcoming hospitality, and where grace and love are abundant.

Thank you, Lord, for this gift.

Seven Years to One Month

Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of the day Beau and I got engaged. We bought a ring and then he taught me to shoot. A good day, indeed.

Today marks one month out from our closing date on our house. I'm getting more anxious - good anxious to be in there and making it our home and bad anxious because it means we have only 6 more weeks to pack up our stuff.

We went sofa shopping yesterday. One the one hand it was helpful - we determined that do like the same style but we differ on leather vs. upholstery; on the other hand is was extremely frustrating - two littles who were bored to tears the whole time and weren't shy to express themselves. By the time we got home I was ready to kill someone. No buying yet. We're still sort of trying to decide the placement of our current furniture. Certain pieces will determine whether or not we go for a total color makeover or not.

Either way it will be a fun challenge.

The New 'Hood

So with every day that passes, we're one step closer to home ownership. Closing is June 29.

Beau mentioned several weeks ago that he needed calling cards for the kids to set up play dates. Jesse has mentioned play dates with random people recently. But he often doesn't know the kid's last name, definitely doesn't know the parent's info, and they definitely don't know ours. Hence, the calling card idea.

Now that we're moving to a brand new neighborhood, the calling card idea became a smarter idea. Tooling around Etsy.com I found a lot of cute options. Did we want individual cards for each kid? A card for them together? A family card?

In the end I opted for the family calling card (in lime) since we will all be new to the neighborhood. As we meet people, we can hand them the card that contains each of our names, Beau's and my cell number, our home phone number, and a family email address (which I created today).

What I bought is the digital file. I'll get them printed from GotPrint.com, where I get my business cards printed.

And I'm also looking at change of address cards to mail to family and friends when the time comes.

The Hunt Begins

Remember a few years ago when we started a house hunt? It was the height of the foreclosure boom in our area and there were a lot of houses available for cheap. It was depressing. And then I got pregnant with Molly and the house hunt stopped because I was ill, ill, ill and the thought of the hunt made me cry.

We are restarting the hunt.

Our goal is to find The House in which I can die when I'm old. This because in my 40+ years of life on this earth, I have moved a grand total of 5,432 times. Actually, that is a slight exaggeration, but not by much. I'm done with moving. Thinking about this pending move makes me want to sit down with a good book and escape from reality. I hate moving.

But ... I'm excited that we are actually able to buy our own home. I'm excited about having a yard for our kids to play and run in. I'm excited about being able to paint and decorate the way that I really want to and can't as a renter.

We have a lot on our plates in the next few months, that adding a house hunt is stressing us both out. So we're open to a short sale knowing that they take several months to get approved. We're happy to move later in the year than in the next few months. We're just praying that God will make it all clear and smooth and within our budget.

The Busy

It's the end of the fiscal year, which means it busy at work. Although things have slowed down this week. I think we may be done spending money.

I took Friday off to get my hair cut. I think it had been 6 months since my last professional cut. I had cut my bangs 4 times in that time. She took 2.5" off of the length and layers. So much better; it was approaching Hermione Grainger for unruliness.

I then put on my crafter's hat for the weekend and created some small art pieces to finish a gallery of stuff for our stairwell. I had a nice collection of my grandmother's needlework and a nice art print that Beau bought in Spain back in his single years. Anyway, it was a nice little bit of creativity and realized inspiration.

My mother and I are working on a collaboration. More on that in the weeks and months to come. There are some details to work out still, but we think it'll be fun.

And that's about it. I don't have much else to say.

The Room Redo: Before and After

Here's the before shot - sports themed bedding, space theme vinyl wall art. Such a weird mix.

Here's the after shot. Grown-up plaid patchwork quilt, coordinating blue wall with stripes.

Yet, to come - the rest of the superhero vintage-style tin posters for the wall. We're waiting for Iron Man and Batman to arrive (hoping they come on Monday).

We all like it. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Here are some extras:

A peg rack behind his door. I kept a few of the space vinyl things for him. They work, I think.

[EDITED to Change:] I found two storage cube things in Molly's closet. Flipped them on their sides, stacked, and put the blue one on top. Took three of the fabric bins that went in the storage cubes and put them into the blue piece. Fills that space better.

What's awesome is that it occurred to me to use the fabric bins in the blue piece while I was in the shower this morning. While I was putting on my make-up, I could hear Jesse saying they should be used in his room (they were on the floor in Molly's room overnight). I went in to find them in the exact place I had thought of, too. He's a bright boy.

[Edited to Add:] Here's the finished poster wall. Forgive the poor quality - it was a quick shot taken with my Blackberry. There are better pictures on the real camera that's upstairs, still.

Happy boy. Happy Mama. *whew*

And with that, this project is complete. I'll post a few more pictures tomorrow.

The Boy's Room Redo

A couple of weeks ago, Jesse reluctantly went into his room (after jumping on Molly's bed with her) for bed time. As he climbed into bed he said, "Mama, I hate my room!" I asked why, to which he replied, "It isn't special. Will you paint my room red?"

So out of left field, the things our children say sometimes, right? Although, really his request was not too far out of left field. He's expressed his love for Molly's room before - it's painted green with all of the finishing touches that make it complete. His room was not complete - the mirror that goes with the dresser was still on the floor leaning against the wall.

We had a brief chat about his room in that moment and I offered to paint one wall, but not red. Some conversations on FB about it resulted in my sister offering her son's last bedding set - it's a patchwork quilt of light blue and red plaid, stripes, and denim. What's great about it is that it isn't childish, so it can be used for a long time with different motifs through the years to come (unless he decides he wants an orange room someday). And I have sheets to go with it already, too, so that saves the budget.

I'm going to paint the long wall where his bed goes a pale blue and do a red chair-rail stripe with a thinner red stripe about 2" above it. That way he gets the red, but not a whole wall. And he gets some wall color, but Mama doesn't need to move furniture out of the room to do it (his room is tiny and there's no way to remove the pieces in order to get access to all walls. Moving his bed is the easiest thing.

I had the thought to get some superhero posters - Spider-man (of course), Superman, Iron Man, etc. - to hang on the painted wall. He liked that idea a lot. The picture is one of the posters I found for him - in all there will be 5 - Spider-man, Batman, Superman, Captain America, and Iron Man.

And then I remembered this little shelving unit that I had found at a yard sale years ago - it's blue (slightly darker than the intended wall color) and perfect to hang on his wall. So that will get hung, too.

The last thing is his ceiling lamp, which is one of those DIY hanging lamps made from the cord kit and a lampshade. The shade is plain right now, but I'm thinking to paint the edges in a darker blue.

I'll take before and after pictures and post them on Monday. This is a full weekend project, I think. And now it's time to head to Walmart to buy paint.