Upstairs

Here are some pictures of the upstairs of our house. Well, upstairs #1. Oh yes, there are two upstairs. This is the main upstairs.

Lydia's room. Yes, we have dormer windows. We LOVE them! And that IS two closets. We don't have a high number of bedrooms, so if we happen to have more than two children, it won't be a problem for them to share a room.

Window seat. Lydia loves to sit up there and cuddle with each of her stuffed animals. She also likes to look out the window and laugh at outside. Ha ha!

Window seat in the playroom. Lydia's room and the playroom are mirror images of each other. Except the playroom is pink. We chose Lydia's room not to be pink because there is a ceiling fan in her room, and not in the playroom.

More of the playroom.

That door with the mirror is a small door. It comes up to my neck. It is a storage closet. We have those in both bedrooms upstairs.

Upstairs bathroom. Don't you love the forest green counter top and linoleum floor? Our house was built in the 90's and it shows. It will be on the remodel list for one day, but not for a while. Also, a nice feature to this bathroom is that there is a linen closet right as you walk in. I love all the storage in this house!

More upstairs bathroom. The sink area and the tub/toilet area are separated. That will come in handy some day.

Tub/shower. Don't you love the forest green stripe? It's definitely a matching bathroom. Ha ha! The toilet is just to the left as you walk through the doorway.

More pictures to come later. I hope you enjoyed the "tour" of the upstairs of my house.

New House

We are all settled in our new house. We love it here! The neighbors/ward members are all really nice. It will take a while for it to really feel like home, but we definitely love it here.

 

  This is our house! Isn't it adorable? It is definitely our dream home.

This is what you will see as you come in the front door. We will eventually have more pictures on the walls, but I need to map all that out first. We have pictures up in lots of places, but we're not even close to finished yet.

This is looking down at the front entryway. This picture doesn't really do it justice. It's pretty grand.

 This is the front living room. This is where we will receive guests and piano students. It is our "clean" room. Lydia likes to go in there to play the piano and climb on the couch, but toys are not allowed there. I like to keep up appearances, even though the rest of the house is messy. Ha ha!

More of the front living room.

 Front living room looking into the entryway.

That's all I'll show for this post. I'll hopefully get more pictures of the rest of the house in other posts, but first I have to set things up and clean. Ha ha!

We love our new home!

First Post of 2014

Wow! Lots to update... I haven't really had time to blog lately. Well, at first, I felt like I was being boring because I didn't have much to blog about, except Lydia. She's always a fun topic, but you readers may be getting a little sick of hearing so many things about her. However, lately, we've been pretty busy.

So, since November, Thanksgiving was great. It was with Lance's family this year. Christmas was a blast. Lydia loved all her presents, and still does. New Year's was fun. It's getting harder and harder to stay up that late. Valentine's Day was celebrated a little late. Lance had a volleyball game. He's started competitive volleyball, and LOVES it.

We have also made a HUGE life changing decision! We are moving!!! For real this time!  We're super excited for this new adventure, and our beautiful new house, but we're sad to leave our friends in this area. We're also bummed to leave our house that we've done so much work on, but for us, the new house is definitely worth it.

We hope to stay in the new house for, well, pretty much, forever. I'm really nervous to make new friends in the new neighborhood and ward, but I'll be brave and branch out, something I'm not really used to doing.

We're pretty busy getting packed up and ready to move. I don't feel like I'm helping too much, because I still have to take care of the little one. She's a lot more fun than packing anyway. Ha ha! Lance has done tons of packing on the weekends. We've taken a bunch of packed boxes to his brother's house for storing until we actually move. I think we've gotten up to 80 boxes already, and we're only about halfway done, if that!

We have our house on the market right now, but don't get your hopes up for buying it, because we just got a really good offer a couple days ago, and we accepted it! We were so happy to get an offer so soon! Our house had been on the market only ten days. Wow!

I decided to have a piano recital for my students before the move. Many of them don't want to travel so far to the new house for lessons, so they will hopefully find another teacher that can teach them closer. The recital was yesterday, and they all did great! I will miss my students. They are all wonderful. As for the students who are still going to take, we're taking a break while I get settled into the new house.

So, the next time you hear from me, I will probably be relocated. I'm so excited, nervous, sad, and stressed, all at the same time! But honestly, I think the excitement is winning.

Here are some recent pictures. Enjoy!

Christmas Village

Valentine's Day picture

All of us crazies

Lydia making her daily (constant) mess

Wish us luck!

It's Cold and Flu Season

So, I have a very useful tip today. I know it's not Thursday, but who cares!

Lydia has been sick with a cold (probably induced by teething) and guess what, I caught it. It's bad enough when the baby is sick, but now the caretaker? I guess it was inevitable, but it's not fair that a mom should ever get sick. We don't get time off, EVER! We don't even get time for naps, which is very necessary for the sick.

Anyway, let me tell you a trick that works for me. I've used this a few times, and it works like a charm. I found this trick on Pinterest.

1 teaspoon honey and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

That's it. Just mix them together and eat up, twice a day for three days. The honey coats the throat for immediate sore throat relief, and the antioxidants in both the honey and the cinnamon fight off the infection. And, it tastes pretty yummy. It's a little strong, but it's no nasty grape or cherry cough syrup. Bleh!

Holy wow! Right?

You're welcome. :)


*Other symptom helpers include:

-Pain killers/decongestants (duh)

-Chamomile tea (I add a little honey and lemon, with a lot of sugar, and it tastes divine, perfect to warm you up on a blustery day) P.S. Herbal tea is totally in line with the Word of Wisdom, if that worries you. Ginger and peppermint teas help with tummy aches.

-Sucking on a candy cane. This helps coat the throat, but the peppermint also helps nausea if that's a symptom. I did this while pregnant and it worked beautifully.

-Melt Vicks in a candle/scentsy warmer. This works especially well for babies who can't have Vicks on their skin. AND it clears everyone in the house up, to!

-Humidifiers. The main thing the doctor tells me to do when I take Lydia in. If you don't have one, get one! It's totally worth it. Ours is a cute little cow. Ha ha!

-Get moving! Moving around breaks up mucous. That's why we feel cruddy in the morning, but as the day goes on, we feel better. So, don't be a baby. Get up, get out, and get on with your life. (Only if you have a cold. If you have the flu, stay in bed!)

-Sip coke. The caffeine/acid helps with the icky tummy bug. Also, if you have a headache, the caffeine usually helps with that, too.

-Ginger snaps/anything ginger. Ginger helps with tummies, too.

-Suck on chocolate. Chocolate helps coat and soothe the throat. Milk chocolate works okay, but dark is the best for me. Milk chocolate just seems too sweet and irritates me a little. Just don't do this ALL day, although I know we all would love to. Right?

-Marshmallows. These also help coat the throat, temporarily. Lance is especially fond of this one. Ha ha!

-Get a good amount of sleep. Sleep is the time when our body does its best healing, so get at least 8 hours a night.

-If you feel a cold coming on, be sure to take your vitamins, drink plenty of orange juice, eat healthy, and get a little extra sleep. It may help prevent the bug from hitting you too hard, but it's not a guarantee.

*These tips were all tested by me, and are what work for me. Not every tip works on everyone. But most of these are easy and harmless, so it's worth a try, right?

I hope these tips help you control your cold and flu symptoms this year. Good luck!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

We've sure been enjoying the fall weather around here. My mom, brother, Lydia, and I went to Gardner Village a little over a week ago. Lance, Lydia, and I went to Pack Farms pumpkin patch on Friday, and we've let Lydia play at the park every so often. We've also taken some drives to see the leaves. Fall is so fun!

 Lydia at Gardner Village. I made the spider for her hair out of pipe cleaners. It fit right in at Gardner Village.

 Lydia loves riding on Daddy's shoulders.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch. Lydia was a great poser at first.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch straw maze. Lydia LOVED this! She didn't want to come out.

Lydia was not happy to be out of the straw maze. She is distraught.

Pack Farms pumpkin patch. We picked a pumpkin. And we also got a baby pumpkin for Lydia. She loves hugging the baby pumpkin.

Lydia loves the swing. (Mantua park)

She wasn't too sure about the froggy she rode on. She bailed as fast as she could. (Mantua park)

Lance also went to Michigan for 10 days. He went to help Bryce and Jessie (his twin brother and his wife) with their house. Their house is super cute, but is in need of some tender loving care. Since we get help from family all the time, Lance thought it'd be nice to help Bryce out. He installed a dishwasher, patched the bathroom ceiling, fixed a light in the kitchen, and dug up some rogue cement in their backyard.  It was a foundation for something, but that something wasn't there any more.

Lance was going to take vacation leave for his trip, but since the government shut down for a few weeks, he only took a few hours of leave. Score! Thanks for being so stubborn, everyone in congress! Ha ha! Also, we got a LOT done around our house too, with the government's little shenanigans. So, hey, it's not all bad. Sorry to all the taxpayers who paid my hubby to go on vacation and get some household chores done. Bring that up with congress. I'm sure you have a long list of things you'd like to bring up with them...

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Fall, and has a very Happy Halloween!!!!

I Break Rules Sometimes. So What?

I'm going to break my own rules and do an update post on a Thursday. Normally Thursdays are supposed to be for tips/recipes, but I haven't posted in about a month, so I think this is better.

What have we been up to the last month?

Lydia turned 1 year old! Ah! How did this happen? Did I ever even have a baby? She's growing too fast. She was in the 30th percentile for weight, 40th percentile for height, and 95th percentile for head circumference. I know, big head. She's got the smarts to prove it... She crawls, but prefers to army crawl (slowly making the switch), pulls herself up to standing, walks with help, has stood a couple times without help, says a couple words like "light" and "that," she loves books, tries to feed herself without a spoon/fork, LOVES food, and is just so much fun!

 

Lydia on her birthday

We had a birthday party with family this past Sunday. She LOVED opening presents, loved dinner, wasn't too sure about the birthday candle (Lance blew it out for her because she was going to touch it), and REALLY loved her cupcake.

Eating her cupcake, yum!

On her actual birthday (Tuesday), we celebrated by going to the park. She had so much fun! She likes the swings and the slides best, but we had her climb and try other things like monkey bars and walking around the platforms (with Daddy's help, of course). She also got to go through the car wash for the first time ever. She just looked around silently. I made cauliflower soup for dinner because I know she loves it. I just can't believe my baby girl is a year old.

 

At the playground

We have done quite a few small projects around the house. There will be more on individual projects in later posts, but lots of projects have been done because...

Lance hasn't been able to go to work the past couple weeks, so he's done all the outside stuff that needs to be done before it gets cold. We're making the best of a ridiculous situation... stupid government. It's been kind of fun being able to see him a little extra. I'm not sure what Lydia will do without seeing him so often. She adores him.

In other news, my dad is on the mend. He severely burned his leg while camping in August. He tried lighting charcoal with gasoline, and it basically blew up, caught his leg on fire, and also caught other things on fire. Luckily, the camp was okay, thanks to neighbor campers who helped put out the fire, but his leg was burned really bad. He was in the hospital for three weeks. He had to get skin graft surgery. He had his final (most likely, we hope) surgery last week and is healing well. I took him to physical therapy before his last surgery, and he was doing really well with that. His last surgery was just to address a couple spots where the initial graft didn't take, but they seem to be doing well this time around. He will probably go back to physical therapy next week, and hopefully be able to drive there himself. If not, I get to chauffeur again.

 

Most recent flattering picture of my dad. I took some of him in the hospital, but that's not blog material. Gross!

Well, September and the first part of October have been exciting. Now for the really exciting part of the year! Holiday central! Can't wait!

Movie Monday September 9, 2013

Yay movies! I love them so much!

Before I tell you about some more good movies, I want to share an experience I had today.

I went to Target (and other stores today, big errand day), and guess who I saw! Julianne Hough! At least, I think it was her. I didn't talk to her or anything. I'm sure if I were famous, I'd want to be able to shop in peace. But it looked like her and sounded like her (she was talking to her nephew). She is just as adorable in real life as she is on screen! She was even in work-out clothes, and she was gorgeous! I secretly hate people like that, but not really. I'm just jealous. She was shopping with her sister (I think). Her sister was gorgeous too . . . AND also in work-out clothes. So, yeah, it was a pretty surreal experience.

Okay, so movies I like:

Safe Haven

 

In honor of seeing Julianne Hough, I will recommend Safe Haven. It is a movie of a Nicholas Sparks book. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Nicholas Sparks is sooooo depressing." Well, at least I think that. It's always a tragedy. Well, this one wasn't quite as much of a tragedy as the others I've seen. It had a little sadness, but more suspense. I really enjoyed this. And the ending had a fun little surprise. So, if you like chick flicks, this one is great!

 The Guilt Trip

We watched this one recently. I wasn't too excited about it, to be honest. It was just something that was available at Red Box that we hadn't already seen, or that wasn't rated R. We got it on a Saturday night, so the box had been picked through. Anyway, I really liked it. It wasn't quite as funny as I thought it would be. It had a great story about a mother and son and their relationship after he's grown, but yes, there was some comedy involved. I thought it would be total disaster trip, like the previews made it seem, but it really wasn't. There were some disastrous parts, but not like you think. And the overbearing mother role wasn't overdone at all, in my opinion. Maybe that's my inner mother speaking out, but it didn't seem as bad as portrayed in the previews. Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogen did great.

Roman Holiday

 

How can I review and not do a classic? This one stars Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Oh, how I love Audrey... She plays a princess who is in Rome on business/publicity. She hates being a princess and always doing what others want, so she runs away for a day. She meets a handsome stranger who happens to be a newspaper reporter. Well, like all classic movies, they obviously fall in love. The ending is a little disappointing, but in real life, that's how the ending would go, so it works. But I mainly watch it for the story, not the end.