Our Family Project

It's been many, many months since my good friend, Aubrey helped me get a clue about what to do with my living room/dining room space.  I finally  found furniture that would work for my vision! I'd been looking on Craig's List for only a few days when I found the dining table.  The seller was selling it with a patio set (love seat, 2 chair, and a coffee table).  We bought both the patio set and the dining table set for a total of $350!  Score! Then, I found one of the chairs in here on Craig's List for $20, and the couch for $350.  I couldn't be more pleased!  Initially, I was having a hard time finding a couch that I really liked for under $800-1000.  And, instead, thanks to people who gently used their furniture and then sold it to us at an amazingly low price, we got all the furniture in the rooms for what I was looking at for a couch! We still need to change out the floor lamp, add another side table with lamp, two lamps t...

This is very lengthy .. but I wanted to be thorough. Our housing situation has been in limbo for almost exactly a year.  One year ago on December 22 (give or take) Jon got the job that brought us to Arizona.  So, we knew then that the house we were living in wasn't really ours anymore.  (At least, that's what I started to tell myself to "detach" from the house so we could sell it.) This housing story has so many twists and turns, learning experiences, and heartbreak that it would be a shame to not document it very well.  We received an offer on our house in Minnesota after it had been on the market for 22 days.  Another month went by and we moved to Arizona and someone else moved into our old house.  When we got to Arizona, we moved into corporate, or temporary, housing.  It was a three-bedroom apartment in Scottsdale only ten minutes away from Jon's office.  It seemed perfect. Except that it was on the top floor. Anyone who has rambu...

We went to the grocery store right before lunch.  Probably not the best time of day to venture into a store filled with food, and expect my children to behave and not be cranky.  Surprisingly, they were relatively good.  After picking up the "essentials," I decided that we deserved a treat and bought a couple of frozen pizzas. When we got home, I dropped the bags on the floor, turned on the oven and put in the pizzas, then proceeded to put away the perishables.  Once that was complete, it was almost time for lunch, so we cleaned up the table and set it, then ate lunch.  I'd totally forgotten about the canned goods, until I heard some little noises coming from the kitchen. I found Maryanne in the pantry, putting away the groceries.  She was doing a masterful job, getting all the canned goods on a shelf and sometimes the bucket of flour.  She even did a little sorting and moved things around to make room for the cans she was going to place on the...

We didn't have to wait long. The next morning the agent called us and explained that the renters chose to rent the house to the other people who applied. Drat. Well, there goes that idea. We kept looking. We got word on the rental on Thursday, and that night Jon found another house that was about 30 minutes away from work. So, we emailed our realtor and asked her to show us that house on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, we continued to look at houses ... hoping for the straight sale that could close quickly, hoping probably in vain. On Saturday we piled the children in the van and headed to Cave Creek, Arizona to look at a house for rent. The length of time we would rent the house would be for a year. Something our realtor wasn't too thrilled about because, well, she's been helping us find a house for almost three months and she wouldn't be getting paid for it. Anyway, we walked through the house and it looked nice and like something we could totally live in. While there, a...

Yes, we are on our way! We accepted an offer on our house. Actually, nothing came from our second showing this last Monday, so we countered the first offer. And, the buyer accepted our counter offer. Yesterday we signed the offer acceptance, and tomorrow is the inspection. I cannot believe it has happened so quickly, and not too shy of painlessly. Forgive my personal ramblings below. You may skip over them if you are so inclined. Four years ago when Jon got his job in Edina, MN we talked about moving closer (the commute time was anywhere from 40-70 minutes each way), but that's all it amounted to: talking. Last year at this time we talked about moving closer again because he was assigned to work three days in the Edina office and two days in the Oakdale office (Oakdale commuting time was roughly 50-90+ minutes each way). However, we didn't go through with it because I was so stubborn. Yep, you read that right: I am a stubborn mule. I was too afraid of trying to sell the house o...

**I added a couple posts below this one, just in case you missed them.** Tonight we made pizza for dinner. I didn't remember to make the dough ahead of time, so I just made easy bisquick pizza dough that I altered with a little bit of Italian seasoning, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. They turned out better than I thought they would. The children always want to help make dinner. I don't know why it's so hard for me to share the duty; they love it when they get to cook. I hope these pictures can remind me to include them more often. The harmony in the house is much better when I do. Oh and can you tell which pizza is Andrew's? Yeah, I think he just piled the pepperoni and ham on his pizza and then ran off to climb the couch. BTW, Jon, we had a stern talking-to about that. ;-) (Kate's button: It is a 5-year no cavities button she got at the dentist on Tuesday. She's so proud of it ... she's been wearing it ever since. But, all I can say is, "Wow, that...

Things I should have taken pictures of this past week, but failed to because sinusitis grabbed hold of my brain and gave it a good shake: Adam as "Green Goo Guy" (a made-up costume for Halloween) He took some scissors to his the front of his cape before I was finished sewing it. His cape was basically his costume since we didn't really have a character to base this costume on. Yeah. I'm pleased with the finished product ... after I figured out how to make it work. Eliza making her tutu Eliza chose to wear a poodle skirt for Halloween. I failed to get the poodle on her skirt because, of course, I procrastinated until the day before the trunk-or-treat to make her skirt. Also, another reason she didn't have a petticoat. So, she made herself a tutu following this tutorial . Turned out super cute. Kate's fake vampire teeth They glow in the dark. Oh, and they are too big for her mouth. So she used costume makeup and "painted" on some fangs. The best part...

What happens when you plant one small little viola plant? On the third year, the entire flower bed is filled to capacity. Bushes are overrun by the violas. And, wait ... make that all three flower beds are overrun with violas! At least they keep down the weeds.

Okay, so while I was making the bed yesterday I started thinking about all the little things I do around my house to make "keeping house" a little more efficient. I do have to admit that as I think about some of these things that they are pretty quirky, I could probably keep my house just fine without doing things the way I do. But, where's the fun in that??? Anyway, two of the things I was thinking about are emptying and relining the garbage cans, and folding the sheets and making the bed. Emptying and Relining the Garbage Can I always, always, always put my extra garbage bags in the bottom of my garbage cans. That means, that since I buy my kitchen bags in bulk that I keep the box under the kitchen sink; and, when I pull out the last bag in the can, I go grab 10 or 20 bags out of the box and put them in the bottom of the garbage can before I reline the can. The same goes for my other garbage cans in the house, except that I reuse my grocery bags. And, I always, always, ...

I looked at my comments really late one night and noticed that my friend, Kelley, had tagged me. Usually, I'll read someone's tag and think, "That would be really fun." So, I looked at Kelley's blog and internally groaned! I guess what you're supposed to do is get off the computer RIGHT NOW and take the pictures before you do anyting. That means NO CLEANING, and NO MAKEUP or PRIMPING! I was just so not ready for this one. But, before I got up the next morning and started cleaning, I took my pictures. So, they are pretty true to the real thing. And, it's ... well, scary! My Toilet (Seriously, it could have been a lot worse.) My Sink (It's usually fuller than this. But, because I always try to get the dishes done before going to bed, I'd done the dishes the night before.) My Closet (Okay, so everything on the left of the picture, and all the pants on the top of the picture are my husband's. I know, I know ... I am totally lacking in the clothes d...