I met another mother who has a child Paul’s age and I was shocked to hear him recognizing colors. So I decided to start emphasizing colors. We had a red day the other day. Paul wore a red shirt, he ate on his red plate, we went to the barn (which is red), and he played on the red slide.
And here’s the life-action shot:
I’m not sure our “Red Day” made a difference in my son knowing the color red, but it was fun.
Six months ago, we closed on our new house. We moved in shortly thereafter. Now that we’re settled, it really about time I share the pictures of the inside. In fact, I can’t believe it’s already been six months.
Since January 29, we had the wood floors refinished, completely replaced the roof, and moved in. We have all the framed artwork that we own up on the walls. The wonderful thing is there are so many walls that we still have space left for more!
Note: Wow, this post ended up long. No hard feelings if you don’t want to read it all. 🙂
Since Ryan is back to traveling starting this week, I’d determined to get back on a regular schedule of cleaning the house. No more excuses, despite the summer weather. My goal is that every Thursday I spend the entire day getting the house ready for his return, including:
I started this morning, entertained Visiting Teachers for an hour, and was done by 3 p.m. (including taking 1 1/2 hours of Paul’s nap time). Paul was very “helpful” when he’s awake. In addition to regular cleaning, I want to do one other major or minor house project a week.
If I consider how much money we spent on floors, a new roof, and moving, certainly I could get a lot more basic house maintenance done in the next six months too!
I’m pretty happy with the main entry to my house. I love it, in fact. Do you think the entryway needs a little console table under the picture of Christ? Maybe I’d put one to the side under the other picture in the hall (not pictured here). Except, I don’t want it to become a place to set things. Not cool. I just like the look of console tables. This is a dream, not a project.
I love the long counter in here! Project: This bathroom needs a photo or picture over the toilet. What kind of a picture does one put in a bathroom? Does the picture of Christ on the counter look odd?
This room is so comfortable. It’s a non-play room, so I feel I can keep it clean and tidy for more than an afternoon. A few weeks ago, we finally put up our three picture shelves. Project: I need to get extended family pictures and frames to put on the shelf.
I love this book case, and it works for now. Dream: A larger, taller case with glass doors.
When the extra leaf is in the table, it makes this room very crowded. We only eat here when we have company though, so it’s okay, I guess. Except we never want to take out the leaf.
I love my kitchen. It’s probably my favorite room, just because it’s so comfortable. When it’s clean, I just get goosebumps as I walk in to it. I love the granite countertops.
I like this room too. I like the pillows I found for the couch, and that table is actually a chest for hiding Paul’s toys.
I like this room too. Really, I just love my house overall.
I don’t have any project in here, other than getting pictures on the wall (a very low priority). When we first moved in, I had my books in alphabetical order (fiction) and Dewey Decimal order (nonfiction). I’m a geek. Needless to say, it didn’t last long with Paul to help reorganize it.
I didn’t really know how cluttered my bookshelves are until I take pictures of them! It looks pretty messy.
Ryan’s office is quite and lonely when he’s gone, especially since he’d been working from home for so long. Paul likes to sit in the chair in the corner and read his books. If there are any projects for this room, I don’t know about them!
Paul’s room looks the same as in his tour a few months ago. Other projects include more pictures on the walls, especially in the hall, and recaulk the tub in the hall. Fun, fun, fun!
Okay, I know that was more than you wanted to know. But now I feel really good about the prospects for the coming six months! We’ll see how much we get done.
(Oh wait, I forgot the yard! For another day….)
We went to a local park that had a plastic train to play on. Paul is going through a very serious train phase, and so this was quite an exciting thing.
We also went to the petting zoo with his little friend Andy. Paul was seriously scared of the sheep: they “baaaa”ed very loudly, and as we weren’t cool people who paid for animal feed, they were not happy with us. Paul only had interest in the animals for a very short time, but we live very close to the petting zoo, so we will return many times this summer, I’m sure!
Ryan’s been in town for three weeks! It’s been so nice to have him home at night. I go to finish getting dinner ready and there is laughter coming from the playroom instead of wails and whines. And then he gets Paul ready for bed while I clean up the kitchen or vice versa. I’m so jealous of all of you who have your husband home most nights! I’m so spoiled this month.
Ryan worked in St. Charles (30-40 minutes away) for a week. The downside was that I had to drive him if I wanted the car. We are still a one-car family, and it’s obvious that we’d need a second car if he were in town more often. Paul did not like sitting in the car for 90 minutes in the morning and again in the evening! Ryan worked in St. Charles for one week, he worked downtown a few days, and the rest of the time he’s been working from home. It’s very nice. Of course, knowing that the company has clients to send him to would be very nice too. It’s a good time to stay very busy in your place of employment.
Yesterday he had to fly out to Albuquerque in the early hours of the day, but he’s flying back tonight, red eye. He may return to NYC next week; I’m not sure. I wouldn’t mind having him around longer, despite the caveat I wrote above.
We had a really nice weekend to celebrate our third anniversary. Ryan finished up his work in St. Charles and we drove down to Naperville. Mom and Dad had agreed to watch Paul. It was to be the first night I was ever apart from Paul. And it was about time!
We went to dinner at Olive Garden (one of my favorite restaurants because it’s very tasty, even while being inexpensive). Then we went to to the temple for a session. After we got out (rather late), we drove to Chicago and stayed at the Palmer House. (Ryan has hotel points, and we just don’t order any room service so it was free.) The next morning we walked to Millennium Park and took some pictures as we walked around. Then we got a nice lunch and drove to Naperville in time to visit with my brother Carl and his friend.
So how did I do without Paul? I woke up once in the night thinking “oh no! He fell out of his crib!” (I don’t know why. He’s never even tried to climb out of his crib.) And then I had a dream that he was crying for me because he couldn’t get his socks on by himself. (Well, it’s true: he can’t get his socks on without my help! He tries every day.)
So how did Paul do? Mom says he didn’t cry all weekend, and he slept in until 8 a.m. (Why doesn’t he sleep in for me?!) When I heard him waking up from his nap on Saturday afternoon, I was eager to see him. He rolled over, saw me, and started to cry. It was kind of funny if you think about it.
Then we got ready and went to cousin Daniel’s baptism. We were so excited that we could be there. Paul wasn’t very reverent, unfortunately. We then had a barbecue at Daniel’s house. I didn’t get any pictures of the birthday boy on his big day. Boo.
After my last post, I did buy four small bushes (total: $70)Â and Miracle Gro, a hose, and Weed Killer (total: $70). I tore out the dead bushed and planted the newborn bushes in the front planter.
Ryan’s comment: “They look like a couple of weeds.”
In the past month, they’ve grown and they look a little better. I took a picture of the planter “before” (with the dead bushes), but I didn’t take a picture of the “after” until this week. It still looks pretty meager. Maybe when my bushes have grown more, I’ll show you. I’ve also planted a few perennials and bulbs my friends gave me, but of course those won’t be much until next year.
That is the extent of yard work I can afford this year. We have a lot of other things to do, but we do not feel confident doing them ourselves and/or would really need to hire a professional. Some of those things include:
Our planters have random things in them. I still don’t know which are weeds and which are supposed to be there. So the positive side of not having any more money for “gardening” is that I get to just wait and see. I’m glad, too, because one side of the house ended up being a bed of strawberries!
We have all the framed pictures we own up on the walls. Now we just need frames so we can put up the rest of our pictures. I can’t wait until every wall is full of our pictures. Then it will feel completely like home. It’s only just home right now.
I’ve spent some time getting the basement organized, including a very empty food storage family storage spot (did you notice the church “changed” the name in all it’s material?). I’ll get a picture (but not tonight) because I’m very proud of the nice open space beside all of our storage boxes. A few weeks ago, you couldn’t get past. Now you can!
Organizing the basement means there is now space to begin a sufficient family storage! Right now, our family storage is mostly non-edibles: toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies. But I’ve figured out a plan for getting the edibles up to three months as well. I’m excited to have a storage of usable food just down the stairs.
I’m also slowly attacking the really moldy refrigerator in the basement so ComEd can pick it up (they’ll even pay me for it). I thought I could clean it and we could use it, but it is too moldy. I never ever want to put my food in it. I’ll never get the mold out of all the cracks. I am going to be sick just thinking about it.
Other things I’d like to have done around the house that unfortunately cost money:
And that’s just the beginning…
I’ve come to a new realization lately: I don’t mind housework. I realized this when Ryan was home. One night, he was talking to me and I started emptying the dishwasher and loading it. I realized I didn’t care that that was what I was doing: it didn’t bother me. It’s not a big deal. Why, then, do I put it off all day?
Since then, I’ve realized the same thing about many chores: sweeping and mopping the floor, making the bed, cleaning the toilets. I don’t love doing the chores (and no, I don’t want to do your chores), but they need to be done and doing them doesn’t bother me. It’s nice to have a clean and tidy home.
It’s a nice thing to realize.
I update my reading progress at my reading blog here, I post weekly updates about my son’s antics here, and I’ve started tracking my cooking here.
I’m hoping that tracking my cooking will be an incentive to remain creative in my cooking as well as healthful, even when my husband is out of town. When I don’t cook (i.e., when Ryan is gone for five days at a time), then I feel like I can’t cook and I get in a rut where I’m paralyzed in to inaction (“oh, no! It’s dinner time again!” *start panicking and staring in the mostly empty refrigerator*). I need to keep on cooking every day and planning ahead, and it will become more natural.
For some reason, I dread cooking until I begin. I really do like cooking when I’m doing it.
So does that work for an update, Jen? Sorry there are no pictures. I’m too tired to find my camera.
It may have taken three months to get to it, but I have finally put some pictures on the wall of Paul’s bedroom!
I have Greg Olsen’s O Jerusalem and a picture of the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple, and Aunt Jenny sent Paul some wall hangings last Christmas: an airplane, a car, a train, and a name plaque. I also bought a document frame from Michael’s and I’m going to rotate pictures from the Gospel Art Picture Kit. This month it is a picture of Christ being baptized, in honor of cousin Daniel’s upcoming baptism. I’ve been telling Paul about baptism all month. Next month I’ll put a different picture up and we’ll talk about the story all month. Hopefully by the time he’s older, he’ll actually learn something from that, right?
I think everything looks pretty nice and having something on his wall makes the room so much more cozy. The pictures are a bit small, so I may get something big for the largest wall at some point. For now, it’s very nice.
Here’s Paul giving a guided tour for you.
I learned this week that the house we bought at the end of January had been on the market 948 days.
That means that it went on the market approximately on June 26, 2006.
Ryan and I had been married for just over a month. He was still working from home. I had yet to start graduate school and then drop out of it. Paul was not even thought of yet. I was still working as a proofreader at an accounting firm driving 50 miles each direction.
I told that to Ryan and he said “Why were we the suckers that bought it?”
Ha ha.
We love it. Especially since it was far below market as a pre-foreclosure by the time we got it.
Even assuming they’d sold it below market from the beginning, we couldn’t have bought it 948 days earlier (as we were newlyweds unsure which way were were going to go). We couldn’t have bought it 583 days earlier (as we had just moved to Australia). We couldn’t have bought it even 100 days earlier (as we were still tied to our apartment). We bought it at the right time. And it’s the right place. What a blessing for us!
Off to $replace$ the roof this week. Feel free to oooo and aaaaaah over our Weathered Gray shingles next time you come visit!
I had a great weekend. Daddy was home, finally, so I enjoyed playing with him. He makes me laugh a lot! He is a lot more fun than Mommy. Mommy is boring.
On Saturday I went to the store with Mommy. Then, instead of taking a nap (I just kept screaming for a long time, so Mommy got me up), I went outside with Mommy and Daddy. I wasn’t wearing my coat. There was this very bright thing in the sky. I had to squint. But I helped Mommy and Daddy rake the leaves. There were lots of leaves. I liked to run through them after Daddy got them all into a nice neat pile.
Mommy doesn’t have a picture of me running through the leaves because she was busy raking the leaves. (She wants me to tell you that it really is almost Springtime. There are leaves to rake because they were never raked last autumn before the snow came.)
Mommy and Daddy and I raked all afternoon, until I reminded them that it was dinner time. I think the front yard looks very nice now. But Daddy put all the leaves in a big bag, so I can’t walk through them anymore. It’s really sad.
Then I ate dinner and wasn’t feeling well, so I threw it up. I don’t think I can eat scrambled eggs, because I think that happened the last time I ate scrambled eggs too.
I didn’t feel very well all day Sunday either. I bumped my head on the bench during Sacrament meeting and I was very sleepy so Daddy held me close for the rest of the meetings.
Daddy isn’t here today, but Mommy and I went back outside to rake. I ran around the back yard. And Mommy showed me this really fun new thing called a slide. She has to help get to the top but — WHEEE!!! — I love to come down again. I laugh a lot.
I’m taking my nap right now. It feels good to rest after a busy morning.
I have never been superstitious. Nevertheless, when I realized our move worked out to be on Friday the 13th, I was a little wary. But all fears were unfounded. The move went like clockwork, and I once again was grateful for the ease of moving with movers. It is 100-times worth the cost! Friday was the least stressful day of the last two weeks.
Ryan was to return home Thursday night; I’d been packing and cleaning the new house* for the past two weeks. Then Ryan called to say his flight was delayed. I was so tired of packing alone that I was almost feeling like a basket case. I had put my tired little boy in bed a little early and it was about 7 p.m. Ryan wouldn’t be home for 2 1/2 hours. Despite the boxes that still needed to be filled, I fell asleep. Once he arrived home, Ryan was up until after midnight doing some last minute packing. He let me sleep, thank goodness.
When the movers got there Friday morning, we just stood out of the way and watched them work. All the stress resting on my shoulders began to dissipate. We’d made it!
Now we have to unpack, but there is no stress or pressure: all I have to do before the end of the month (12 days) is clean and vacuum our apartment. The boxes in the new house will be emptied when we get to them!
That said, we got a lot done in the last three days.
Here’s a picture illustrating all that’s to unpack in the kitchen and living room: the kitchen box is the half-filled large one on the right. The blue tub is extra kitchen stuff for the basement, and the other boxes are for the living room. I wish I took a picture of the boxes before I began to unpack so I could share how much has already been emptied!
Here’s the kitchen at this point. We’re looking for a new kitchen table and chairs. (I hate this one.)
And while I unpacked the kitchen, Ryan worked on setting up the family room. We need a console to store the games and DVDs, but so far so good!
The living room is vacant, since our living room furniture is in the family room; we’re going to get family room furniture hopefully in the next month. The dining room is vacant and will remain so, since we don’t foresee getting a dining set in the next 12 to 24 months. The basement is a mess. The master bedroom is set up and habitable, thanks to Mom and Dad’s help during their Saturday night visit. Paul’s room is likewise full of toys and fun. Both other bedrooms are offices right now; they are, needless to say, a mess.
Anyway, I’m quite happy that at least the kitchen and family room, the main areas of my life, are ready to be lived in. Not bad for three days. On to the next three days! (during which, unfortunately, Ryan will be traveling again.)
*It was pointed out to me that sharing pictures of my dirty floor is tacky. Why brag to the world of my dirty house? I agree that it’s pretty tacky. Therefore, I want to clarify that the dirty laundry room floor was dirty from the previous owners. None of it was my dirt. And I subsequently cleaned it. I was just amazed, once again, by the power of Magic Erasers and I wanted to share.
On January 29, we closed on our first house!
Pictures have been officially requested from my mother, who is home sick and hasn’t seen it, so I have found some time to get them together.
The weekend after we closed, we were fixing the to-be-expected things – replacing locks, cleaning the dirt and dust from months of being vacant, throwing away the previous owners’ garbage, etc. Then this last week we had the hardwood floors refinished: I think they turned out marvelously! We’ve been packing this weekend. Now that we can get into the house, I get to wipe away walls of dust from the sanding of the floors. If you want to see what I mean about dust, see this video of Paul helping me clean it in just one small corner.
I’ve been spending lots of time over at the new house and I can’t wait until we move there for good on Friday! Away with apartment living! Four bedrooms, a family room, and a yard, here we come!
Note my little cutie in most of these pictures. He loves cameras!
![100_3573[1]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7004/6578586167_55341668aa.jpg)
The facade
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The view in the front door (Swiffer in the background...)
The living room, with doors open into the dining room
(Sorry for all the spots. I didn’t do anything to these pictures other than make them small for the web….Looks pretty bad!)
The family room
I wasn’t crazy about the hardwood in the family room at first. But since we got them refinished, I love the look! I’m not sure I’d change it. I guess we’ll see how it looks with the furniture in it.
The kitchen
I am so excited for so much (comparatively) cabinet space!
The deck
The back yard is so huge. I’m quite excited. This is also a swing set with slide at the back of the yard. (My picture didn’t turn out.)
Foyer from above
I like the half-open foyer. Two story foyers are also nice, but I like how this works out (it gives me a sitting room in the master bedroom!)
Part of the master bedroom and sitting room
I suppose it’s a good problem that I can’t fit the whole room in a picture, huh? I like the little sitting room attached to the master bedroom. It looks cozy.
Tub in master bath
I’m not a bath kind of girl, usually. But in our current apartment, the master bath only has a shower, and I’ve found myself wanting a tub on some “I’m so exhausted!” nights. I’m glad the master bath has both! And this looks fun.
Room that will probably be Paul's room
Again, it’s hard to get perspective: the ceiling is peaked (as was the master bedroom) and it makes the room feel so much bigger.
Well, I hope that satiates the curious. I’ll try to post again to let you know how the move goes on Friday!
I suppose that means I should go pack so we’ll be ready, huh…
I get to follow Mommy around all day with this cool new toy: it has a long handle and a flat bottom. Mommy usually uses it, so I know I’m being a really big boy to play with it.
Not only that, but there is tons of open space! I can just walk around for ever. I can even walk into a separate room from Mommy! There are stairs that go up and down. But I stay away from them when I see that they are going down; I fell down a few stairs a few days ago and it was very scary!
But there are also these great doors with handles that I can reach. I love to open the doors! It’s even more fun to go in the little tiny rooms and close the doors. These rooms are just my size — Mommy can’t come in — and I I like how dark it gets in there!
But then I get tired of walking around and Mommy gives me lots of graham crackers. Graham crackers make me smile!
