February 8th, 2010
If ever there ever was a post with a mish mash of stuff, this is it! The kitchen sink included!
Way back when we thought we were moving( you know, two weeks ago…) Mike put up a much needed back splash behind our stove and sink. He used left over tile from our bathroom when we renovated that. I thought that was a very smart and frugal move on his part. The tile is pretty and very neutral in color. I took some pictures so my mom could see how it came out. My mom knows how ugly my walls were behind the stove and sink so she’ll really appreciate how much better it looks. You’re welcome to appreciate Mike’s handiwork too.
As usual, I wish I had taken a “before” picture but didn’t think of doing that while Mike was working on this. This may not seem like a big deal but we threw away our ugly, moldy (yes! it was moldy on the bottom, unbeknown to us!) dish drainer and bought a smaller one. The old one used to be to the right of the sink, taking up a lot of that space and making it look cluttered and ugly. I also had a cookie cooling rack laying there too for an extra spot to air dry dishes. We cleaned that area out and I put a smaller, prettier, non-moldy dish drainer to the left of the sink. It looks much neater and nicer and creates extra counter space to the right of the sink. I also took my dish soap, hand soap and sponges out of an ugly, plastic Tupperware container and put them in a glass pie dish. ( I never make pies!) It’s amazing how you get accustomed to certain areas of clutter and don’t even notice them anymore. Then once you finally notice it and make a few simple changes it makes a world of difference!
This is the back splash behind the stove. The walls were hard to keep clean and because I’m a messy cook they were usually splattered with grease and oil etc. Before Mike put up the back splash I scrubbed the wall behind the stove and to the right. It looked much better just with the walls washed. The back splash actually seems to make the kitchen look bigger and “homey-er”
And one last little detail that my mom will appreciate….
I finally changed the kitchen valance. It had a green, satiny looking valance that wasn’t hideous but wasn’t super pretty either. It was dark green. I never changed the valance after we moved in and have been ignoring it for almost 6 1/2 years! I finally put a cheerier one up. The previous owners also painted over the beautiful dark wood work around the window and doorway. Maybe now that we have time, we can sand that paint off and re-stain it.
Now we move on to my health update:
My nurse practitioner called a couple of weeks ago and said they were having trouble with the machine that reads the results of the holter heart monitor. So, I have to wear it for 24 hrs again. They’ll call me…. (hmm..I should probably follow up on that since they haven’t called me yet.)
I’m still having the same dizziness as before but have kind of gotten used to it! I’ve been taking my vitamin D and prescription iron pills. Even if those don’t help my dizziness they’re still good for me.
*If you’re a man reading this you may want to stop reading here if you don’t want to read about women issues..*
My ultrasound results came back and I have a cyst on my right ovary. That’s all the nurse said when she called. She said that could create fertility problems but from what I understand those are pretty common. So, they want me to go through two monthly cycles and then come back in for another ultrasound to see if the cyst has gone away on it’s own.
Fun stuff, right? So, we’re on a new lead with that. Not sure what will come of it but I’ll keep everyone updated.
On a side note, Katelyn just had another UTI so she was on another round of antibiotics for it. The doctor thinks she’s not wiping correctly and that’s what is causing these infections.
Now, I’ll leave you with some cute pictures of Katelyn in her dance costume. She really wanted to wear it all the time when we first got it. I’ve put it away and she’ll forget about for a bit until her recital in May.
February 5th, 2010
It was very hard to pick my favorite pictures from this time last year because this time last year the girls and I were in Texas! We had just gotten there for our 6 week stay because I couldn’t drive. So there are a lot of pictures from the photo album that I love. I’m going to do my best to keep the pictures to a minimum!
I love this picture of my grandma Ross and the girls. This picture represents all the times we ate at Pizza Garden while the girls and I were there. We love Pizza Garden!
I can’t help but smile every time I see this picture of Madelyn and the one of the girls below it. My mom had made pig tails in my girls’ hair that day and they looked really cute! She’s also the one who took these pictures. I love how they came out.
We let the girls ride on the merry go round at the mall while we were there. Katelyn loved it. I like how this picture of Katelyn came out.
Although the photo quality of this picture isn’t very good, I’ve always liked it. Not only do my sister and Madelyn look exactly alike in this picture, their dimples are showing up identically too!!
The next few pictures are of the trip we took to the Fort Worth Zoo with my parents and brother last February. It was a great time and I’ll always have fond memories of it.
I always crack up at this picture of the penguin and my brother. This penguin was soooo cute and friendly. It and my brother shared some special bonding moments and it seemed to follow my brother back and forth.
This picture of my dad and Madelyn captures the fun we were having on that beautiful day!
This picture of Madelyn and my mom reminds me so much of the fun we had taking walks and going to the playground while we were there. Madelyn wanted my mom to hold her hand the whole time she was on the climbing structure. So my mom obliged! Madelyn was only 18 months old here! *sniff*
This picture makes me laugh! Katelyn (in true Katelyn form) wore out my grandpa Woolbright with all the lifting and playing she had him doing with her!
I could have posted many more but I needed to stop here.
I encourage you to look back at your photos from a year ago this month and see the changes in your children, you or your life!
February 3rd, 2010
This photo is just begging for a caption isn’t it?
I found Mr. Ken Doll hanging out like this in the playroom the other day. Barbie was nowhere in sight.
Hmm…..
What do YOU think he’s doing? Make this Wordless Wednesday not so wordless!!!
Well, I guess the “wordless” part is already shot to you-know-where…
Anyway…
February 2nd, 2010
Top Ten Ways You Know You’re A Mommy Blogging Addict
1. Your day is not complete if you haven’t blogged.
2. You have IRL (in real life) friends and blog world friends. You don’t personally know your blog world friends but do happen to know more about them than your IRL friends! You use phrases like ” I have a mom blog friend who told me….”
3. You not only know what memes and blog carnivals are, you take part in them and/or have created your own.
4. You know what “link up” means.
5. You casually throw the names “MckMama” and “Angie” around like they’re personal friends of yours.
6. COMMENTS! They make your day. You live for them. You would do anything for more of them.
7. Your husband has no clean underwear because you spent time reading and writing blogs.
8. You use words like “blogworthy” and see the world not as a stage but as blogging material. Nothing is sacred anymore…or so your husband and family feel.
9. When your friends ask you how you’re doing or about some news in your life you say ” Oh, I blogged about it. You can read all about it there.”
10. Facebook and Twitter are not only used to stay in touch with friends and family but to also gain you more followers.
Link up up to Amanda’s meme with your Top Ten or head over there to read more great Top Ten Tuesday! And don’t forget to leave a comment.
We love those.
And, please, go wash your husband’s underwear already.
I finally did. My husbands, I mean….
February 1st, 2010
image courtesy of photobucket.com
Stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200 a new house. At least…not right now. That’s what God pretty much revealed to us this weekend. We had to put on the big, ‘ol mean crappy breaks on our moving plans. After busting our butts for a couple of days ( and me pretty much for a whole month) our realtor came over on Saturday and told us we’re going to have to list our house for 30k-50k less than what we were planning on. She showed us a market analysis for our area and it was not pretty. We could sell our house right now but we wouldn’t get what we need for it to be able to buy a better house than the one we already have. So…..we stop. And that really sucks. Big time.
So, in the mean time, we wait. Just like we’re waiting for God to answer other prayers. We unpack some stuff and other stuff we leave packed. After a sad and disappointing weekend I feel better today. God showed me I should be thankful that I have a house right now. He’s meeting our needs above and beyond what we deserve. The house looks the best it’s looked in a long time! Mike did a great job putting a back splash behind our stove and sink. There’s much less clutter. We have a bunch of stuff ready for a garage sale in the spring.
But I’m still really disappointed and upset.
We’ll chug a long here. I’ll be back to blogging more frequently now.
And we’ll wait.
The Bible says a lot about waiting. When I did a search on the word “wait” on Biblegateway.com there were 142 verses that popped up. When I searched for “wait on the Lord” 42 verses popped up. Apparently there’s something about waiting that God wants us to learn!! Here are a couple of my favorites:
Psalms. 27:14
Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strenthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!!
Isaiah 40:31
But those who wait on teh Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Psalms 130:5
I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope.
I know I’m not the only one waiting on God. Who else is waiting?
I pray these verses bless your heart like they have mine.
January 28th, 2010
Yep, this girl is just fine now. We went to the doctor yesterday and she was given a clean bill of…..healthy foot. Now she can continue to dance without than cumbersome thing!
January 25th, 2010
Guess That Drawing answer—
Madelyn’s picture is indeed d and Katelyn’s picture is of us, my parents and my inlaws eating Christmas dinner together.
Thanks for playing!
*********************************************************************
Before I get into the boring exciting update of my “health” and our moving process I want to present TWO drawings to guess about.
One is Madelyn’s and one is Katelyn’s.
This picture is Madelyn’s (obviously!). I’ll make this one a multiple choice. Is this drawing about..
a) A butterfly?
b) Katelyn?
c)Our birdies Zoe and Chloe?
d) Nana, Papa, Uncle Bob, Daddy and Mommy?
This next drawing is Katelyn’s. What do you think it’s about?
Now on to my health and moving update……..
I got the results back from my blood tests two Friday’s ago. Everything came out fine. The only think my NP said was that my vitamin D levels were low and I’m anemic (which I already knew). So she’s prescribing a stronger Iron pill and wants me to take a vitamin D supplement.
I’m still having dizzy spells. I haven’t heard back about my holter moniter results. When I called last week they were having trouble with the print out so they said they would call as soon as they got the results.
I had an ultrasound last Wednesday to have a little look at my reproductive system. The technician said everything looked fine to her but that I would get a call from my doctor in a couple of days. So, I’m expecting that call any day now. I’ll most likely call today about my heart monitor results and my ultrasound results. I’m thinking that if everything comes back normal on my heart monitor results I’m going to keep taking my iron and vitamin supplements and see if my dizzy spells go away. As for my ultrasound results….I think if those come back fine I won’t pursue any more testing. When I had all the testing done when I was trying to conceive with Katelyn everything came back normal. I have a feeling the same thing is going to happen this time. I really don’t want to waste my time and money with all sorts of testing if everything is going to come back….normal. I’m really starting to think it’s a God thing. I’m trying to focus on packing and moving and keep my mind off the fact that that God is not allowing me to get pregnant right now.
As for our moving…
Our goal is to have our realtor come over this Saturday to look at our house , takes pictures and put it on the market. That’s our goal!! So, hopefully by the beginning of next week it will be on the market.
We found another house we love on Saturday. So now there are two. I love this house more than the other one. The only problem is…it’s also a short sale!!! We’ve found out that we can’t make an offer on a short sale house until we have accepted an offer on our house. The banks won’t accept any contingencies. One of ours would be that we need to sell our house before we can close on one. The banks want us to be ready to close at the drop of a hat although they want to be able to take up to six months to accept an offer. That is so dumb! So we can’t put an offer on the house we saw on Saturday until we have sold our house.
Just to make things easier I’ll name the two houses and compare them for you
H1= Dutch Gambrel, 1600 +sqf , 4 bedrooms 1.5 baths, 1 acre lot, nice deck, full basement with two more rooms,nice neighborhood, close to highway. NO garage. Bathrooms would need updating eventually. Needs new carpet in upstairs and new wall paint. Asking price is very reasonable and would save us a good amount of money each month on our mortgage.
H2= Ranch style house, 2900 + sqf, 4 bedrooms, 2 huge full baths, huge deck, about half an acre lot, full basement but not very high so Mike has to stoop to use it. Not usable for anything other than storage. Close to highway, nice neighborhood, close to highway, Katelyn’s school and elementary school. Needs all new appliances and new flooring in family room. No garage. Asking price is reasonable and would also save us money on our mortgage each month. This house has handicapped features which is why the bathrooms are so big. Bathrooms are newly renovated so they wouldn’t need anything. Some of the house would need repainting.
I like H2 better than H1. I love ranch style houses since everything is all one floor!! No more traipsing up and down two or three flights of stairs to do laundry. The floors are brand new in the whole house except the family room. They are beautiful hard wood. The room we would use for the girls is so big that it would be their bedroom AND playroom. We wouldn’t need a separate play area for them. When we were looking at this house we seriously got turned around and confused about how to get back to the front door or which part of the house we were in. I love that the house is that big.
Both houses have been on the market 3+ months and could end up foreclosing. That’s the only thing going in our favor right now. A lot of people don’t want to deal with short sales or foreclosures. I’m really hoping we get a chance to put an offer on the ranch.
So, there you have it!
Oh! Madelyn is doing well with her foot. She has a follow up appointment on Wednesday. She’s been walking around without her boot all morning today and seems to be fine. So, I’m hoping all is well and she can stop wearing the boot.
Please keep us in your prayers!
January 18th, 2010
If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook you know that last Friday and Saturday were not my best days.I promised a post on everything that happened so lets get started, shall we?
Thursday night, right before bed, Madelyn tripped over one of her toys and hurt her foot. Since it was bed time we comforted her and put her to bed. Friday morning she got out of bed and started crying because her foot still hurt and started limping. So I made her an appointment at the pediatrician’s office and the first available appointment wasn’t until 3:00pm. Which was fine because I also had appointments that day for myself. Friday was originally supposed to be a day for me to tackle packing and cleaning to get our house “show worthy” for when we put it on the market. My inlaws were going to watch the girls. Well, that was not meant to be. Let’s get back to Thursday again….
Thursday I had an appointment with my Nurse Practitioner for a physical and to talk about the dizziness I have been experiencing for over a week now and it having been a while now that we’ve been trying to conceive. So, they listened to my heart and said that I have an irregular heart beat so they have put me on a Holter heart monitor for 24 hours. I just got that put on today. My NP isn’t sure if maybe that has something to do with my dizziness. She looked in my ears and saw that I have a hole in my eardrum so wanted me to see an Ear, Nose And Throat doctor. She wasn’t sure if maybe that had something to do with my dizziness. She also scheduled an ultrasound for this Wednesday to check things out “in there”. She wanted me to have lots of bloodwork done.
Now let’s get back to Friday…
I went to have my blood work drawn at 8:30 am, had an oil change appointment at 9:30, then had my ear appointment at 2:15 followed by Madelyn’s pediatrician appointment at 3:00. Well, I had to wait over an hour for my turn in the lab so I had to cancel my oil change appointment. I didn’t get in to have my blood drawn until almost 10:00 am. I then went home got some of the kitchen cleaned and headed out again at 12:45 to meet my inlaws at their house and watch the girls so they could go pick up their van. Then I left for my ear appointment and my mother in law met me at the pediatrician’s office at 3:00 with Madelyn. The ear specialist said he didn’t think that my ears were the cause of my dizziness.
Once at the pediatrician’s office(after waiting 40 minutes to see the doctor) Madelyn’s doctor felt that Madelyn had, indeed, most likely broken something in her foot. I say “most likely” because the x-rays she had taken later on didn’t show anything but her doctor said at this age they have so many tiny bones and muscles in their still growing feet that x-rays don’t always pick up everything. So, off we went to the cast room at our hospital. After another long wait the orthopedist looked at her foot and decided she should have a boot. By this time it was around 6:00 pm. He finds out they have no more small boots to fit Madelyn so he sends us to another local hospital to get one from their cast room. When we get there we have to register(again) and fill out all sorts of paperwork etc before we can go the boot. Finally the boot is put on and we can go home. Thankfully, Mike was able to get out of work and come to the hospital for some of this.
Saturday morning, we get up and Mike takes a shower only to find that it won’t heat up. So he checks the hot water heater in the basement and finds that our basement is flooded and the hot water heater is broken. He stays home to get the basement cleaned up and get a new hot water heater. I take the girls to Katelyn’s dance class and go check out two more houses. Thankfully everything was taken care of and our basement is back to normal again.
As I type this I’m wearing my monitor and having to write every single thing I do that makes my heart pound, cause shortness of breath, dizziness or any other kind of symptom. The little booklet also indicates that I should write any bowel movements that cause any of those things! I thought that was funny. I have already had to write that “yelling at my kids” caused my heart to pound. I’m afraid that’s going to happen a lot within the next 24 hours….
I’ve included some pictures of Madelyn in her Wee Walker. It actually looks really cute on her! She has to wear it for a week and then we’ll follow up with the orthopedist. She’s been doing fine with it and has come close to running in it. Nothing stops her!!
January 14th, 2010
I’ve seen many bloggers posting favorite pictures from 2009 in their first few January 2010 blog posts. Since it would take forever for me to find my favorites to put in one post I’m going to do a post each month dedicated to my favorite pictures from one year ago.I might do a MckLinky link up over the next few months so you can link up with your favorite pictures from one year ago.
Here are my favorites from around this time last year. Katelyn was 3 years and 3 months and Madelyn was 1 year and 5 months.
This picture just makes me laugh!
Madelyn was just discovering snow and tried to eat it every chance she got!
Katelyn is definitely our snow bunny and is so silly and happy when playing in the snow
Madelyn had gotten into the dishwasher when I had stepped out of the kitchen for a second. Thankfully all she grabbed was a spoon and not a sharp knife out of the utensil basket!!
* If someone is already doing a meme like this with this name please let me know.
January 12th, 2010
Today’s Top Ten is going to be difficult for me because it’s going to force me to narrow down my favorite books (so far) to ten for this post. Next year at this time I would probably have a slightly different top ten if I were to make this book list again. I LOVE to read. I probably have a Top 50. But I digress…
Top Ten Favorite Books (so far…)
1. Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
3. Power Of A Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian
3. How To Make Children Mind Without Losing Yours -Dr. Kevin Leman
4. The Phantom Toll Booth (read this in my tweens and loved it. Still do!) by Norton Juster
5. The Jester by James Patterson (you’ll find a lot of James in my favorite books lists)
6. Almost Paradise By Susan Isaacs
7. A Bend In The Road by Nicholas Sparks
8. Suzanne’s Diary For Nicholas by James Patterson
9. The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C.S Lewis
10. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
Wait! Wait! Can I do another Top Ten for books….? I have so many more!!
Now go check out more Top Ten Tuesday at the lovely host Amanda’s blog.
