the living room

Ok all you decorating women out there...I need help! It looks as if all is going to work out and we are going to close on this house soon. So...I need to get to work figuring out paint colors and flooring. Here is the first room (with many more to come). Please give me your thoughts or suggestions. After I get some input, I'll let you know what I'm thinking at the moment.

This is the living room from the dining room door.


This is the living room from the far side. The front door to the house is on the left and the door to the dining room is on the right.


Here is the chair that will go in the room. The chair and couch are the same fabric. You can also look at the previous post to see what they look like.


This is a close-up of the fabric.


I am going to have to decide whether to go with the original wood floors (and a rug) or carpet (which would probably be a neutral color). Of course, that is dependent upon the condition of the floor. This picture is the floor in the room that will be Caroline's. It has been finished a bit (who knows how much) and appears to have been used as wood floor for a while. The other floors in the house have been covered with carpet (and all but one still is).

calm in the storm

Except that Nathan isn't in this picture, I kinda feel like it represents "normal" life around here.

no more aerobics

I have officially said goodbye to aerobics. After much thought and prayer, I decided that I needed to give it up. Since I have returned to aerobics, I have felt like I just couldn't give the time I needed to give to my family. It's only three mornings a week, but then, that's three mornings that are lost. I really debated about it for a while, but one thing after another confirmed that recapturing that time was the right choice. So...now I'm going to have to find a new way to be diligent in exercise. We're also going to have to be a little more careful about the money we spend since that little bit of income will no longer be there. I know it's the right decision, though, so I know God will help us work things out!

the house

So I've been selected to write a description of the house...this will be interesting.

The basics -- it is 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. It was built in 1960 and has partial brick/partial vinyl siding (in quite good shape). The carport was closed in to make a second living area, and the back porch was extended and enclosed to make even more space (actually I think the porch was done before the carport). So the total comes out to something like 1573 square feet.

As Jennifer mentioned in the original post, the flooring needs replacing to some degree. It's got old carpet and original hardwood floors, plus vinyl in the main bathroom and kitchen. We don't know if we will keep the hardwood floors or put in new carpet over them. The kitchen has what appear to be original pine cabinets (in good shape), a fairly new range, and a decent refrigerator. No dishwasher, but being the dishwashing person, I am all about putting one in soon. We expect to have the house rewired before moving in, because the wiring (besides the addition areas) appears to be original -- ungrounded outlets, no outlets in the bathrooms, a fuse panel instead of breakers, etc. Doing that will provide some peace of mind about safety as well as allow things like entertainment equipment, computers, etc. to be plugged in, and make sure that the system can take the load that will be put on it. Paint...I think Jennifer is going to love getting to pick colors that are not the beige we've lived with for 6 years of being married.

The back of the property slopes downward some, enough so that the crawlspace at the back of the house has something like 5 feet of vertical room. There are two storage buildings in the back, plus a decent amount of space under the back porch addition to store things. The backyard has lots of plants, some that have taken over their planting beds after having not been tended to in probably about a year. Once some of that stuff is pulled out, it should be a good place to play for Nathan. There is fence almost all the way around - we'd need about twelve feet of chain link on the left of the house to close it off totally in the back.

Front yard area...there is an (unfortunately) rusty flagpole in the yard, which I intend to fly an American flag on. It needs a spotlight to be all-weather, 24 hour, though. The front porch is decent-sized, enough to put a couple of rocking chairs on if we want. Parking space is a little hampered by having closed in the carport, but we should be able to get both cars in side by side and still have room for a visitor. Anything more would end up in the yard.

The house is just down the street from an elementary school and a Presbyterian church. One set of neighbors is what Jennifer would call "cute old people." The location is pretty much central to Warner Robins, so we will be able to get to things without much delay. Sonny's is at most 5 minutes away...

Back to the interior. The front door opens into the living room, which is of typical size and shape for the age of the house (about 10.5' deep by 16' wide). Straight across is the doorway to the dining room and the rest of the house. The kitchen is to the right, separated by little counter-height shelf things. The dining room has plenty of space to have our table (with leaf) and all the chairs and still leave room for walking through. Out the back side of the dining room is the doorway to the enclosed back porch. It's about 15' by 11' and will probably end up being playroom space. It's got lots of windows. To the left from the dining room is the hallways to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The master bedroom is straight down (back left side of the house), and the other two are on the left (front side of house). The full bathroom is on the right side. The master bedroom has a small walk-in closet and a half bath. We are probably going to try to figure out a way to convert the closet space to a shower and have two full baths (at some point), but we'd have to figure out a good way to replace the closet space. To the right from the dining room and through the kitchen is the enclosed carport and laundry room (which was originally entered from the carport). This room will likely end up being the office/utility-type room. The computer, bookcases, sewing machine, and piano will probably all go there. For some reason, it has two doors to the outside -- one at the front and one at the back, both on the right side of the house.

Other random things: there is a scuttle hole to the attic (i.e., no pull-down stairs). It actually has a coat closet (we don't have one here). There is a window in the dining room (that now goes to the enclosed porch) that has no glass in it. The ceiling vents are circular -- I've never seen that before.

I think that's enough of a book now. Hopefully the inspections will go well and things will move along quickly for us. It's definitely nice to have our offer accepted with no counters -- I feel like we're getting a good deal, and we'll be able to get the main things fixed up before we move in.

Phew. I bet you're exhausted just having read this.

step three: inspections

Our offer was accepted today...with no changes! Yay!

So...the next step is to do all the inspections we want to do to make sure there are no major hidden problems. Depending on how all of that goes, we could be home owners in a couple weeks.

I started to write a description of the house, but it wasn't making such sense...at least not the way I wanted it to. So Matt is going to do it in a little bit.

step one: find a house

step two: make an offer

We have taken this step. Here is a picture of the house we have made an offer on:


This house is not such a fixer upper as the other one we posted. It needs some new carpet/flooring and paint and maybe to be rewired, but otherwise it is livable. Along the way, we would do some updating, but we could very well be in it in a month or two at most.

soccer game

Here is a picture of Matt coaching his Upward soccer team. They are 3rd and 4th grade boys. This past week, the game ended in a 2-2 tie. (The guy in the yellow is the ref.)

Aunt Architect

Nathan, Caroline, and myself traveled to Atlanta this weekend for Aunt Erin's graduation. Here are a few pictures (the last is Nathan and his second cousin Lydia).

weight update

So...I haven't been doing the best about what I eat and drink, but somehow I still managed to lose some weight. I have now lost a total of 3 pounds. It's not huge, but it's weight loss. My biggest problem lately has been that when I seem to be eating good I get to feeling bad/extra tired. I think it may be that I wasn't eating ENOUGH. Who knows. We'll see, though. I think I may end up gaining some back this week because I've bene really bad the last two days. I'm not going to stress over it, though. I have enough stress. I NEED to be able to eat what I want. I'd rather be fat and happy than skinny and insane. :)

back to the drawing board

Today we had the house pictured below inspected in view of making an offer (usually this happens the other way around, but because it is a VA foreclosure, things work a little differently). Anyway, I was there for the whole 4 hours while the inspector did his thing and I tagged along. Turns out there are more things that need doing than are worth it for us (HVAC, water heater, roof needed replacing "last year", etc...), so we're starting over again. We were planning on totally redoing the kitchen, most of the bathroom, putting in new carpet, and other stuff to fix it up, but those other things put it outside the range of what we would be able to do and still have the possiblity of getting our money out of it.

In a way, we're kind of relieved. (A little surprising to feel that way, but it's true.) We can start looking "for real" again and keep on saving money. Then we can find something that's in better shape. Fortunately, we don't have any pressure timeline of any sort -- it's just a matter of wanting to stop renting, so we have the luxury of waiting to find the right house.

Tulips from far far away

Erin brought me some tulips when she came back from Europe (specifically, they came from The Netherlands). Nathan and I have been faithfully watering them (after they were planted a bit late). They are just now starting to bloom. Here is a picture of one of the two pots.

house picture

Here is the picture of the house we are looking to possibly make an offer on:


We went and looked at it again today. It definitely needs a lot of work to be up to our standard of living, but it has potential. What a hard decision this is! In all reality, it may not be available at the moment anyway for our price. We'll see.

the great exodus

One of the strange things that happens after you have a baby (at least to me) is a mass exodus of hair. It's just crazy! For about a month now, every time I wash my hair, I have handfulls come out. I'm not talking 10 or 20 strands. I'm talking 50 or 70 or 100. Nobody ever talks about these kinds of strange things!

the house search

As some of you know, we are in the process of looking for a house to buy. We are looking for an older home that we can fix up. We just found out today that a house we had previously looked at is going back on the market soon. We really liked the layout of the house, but the price was a little too high. Now, though, we have saved a little more money and are hoping that the price will be reduced. The house has four bedrooms, a smallish living room, a decent sized eat-in kitchen, and a dining room (that we would probably use as a play area). Please be praying for us as we may be in the position to make a decision soon.

(I was going to update on my weight loss happenings, but this was much more interesting...or positive anyway.)

not as well

I'm not doing as well this week as I did last week...at least I don't think so. (I'm not keeping up with what I eat.) One of the problems has been that the penny item from Publix (which I can't resist since it only costs $.01) was chocolate chip cookies. I ate quite a few of them over three days. They're gone now, though. Otherwise, I've been doing ok. I really think the thing that makes the biggest difference is cutting out all the milk that I used to drink. I used to drink 3, 4, 5 cups a day...often chocolate. Most days, though, I've only had 1. That really cuts down on my calories.

losing weight

Unfortunately, I have a lot of weight lose. I am going to give all the sordid details here. I figure it creates some sort of accountability if people actually know. So...in college, I weighed about 135. After getting married, I gained about 15 pounds. I was not really very thrilled about that. However, I soon got pregnant with Nathan. I gained 32 pounds with him and kept about 25 after all was said and done. Ick! Unfortunately, I never lost that weight and even gained about 5 more pounds. Then, I got pregnant with Caroline. I gained 29 pounds with her. When I went back to aerobics, I still had 17.5 of those. So...in case you're not keeping up with my ever increasing numbers, that put me at 197.5. Oh me...oh my... If you would have told me in college that I would EVER weigh this much, I wouldn't have believed you. However...I did.

Well, I am going to chronicle my attempts at weight loss here. I have started back to aerobics and have started to change my eating habits. I actually gained a pound around my birthday. That happens when you eat whatever you want (including a half a strawberry cake). This past week I really got into things. I am not doing any specific plan since that never works too well for me. I am really good at keeping the rules...until I don't. It's all or nothing for me. So, I'm really trying to take this as a "one decision at a time" type thing this time. The things that I am implementing are:

1. Drink more water (both for the water and to cut down on drinking calories)
2. Eat healthy snacks
3. Avoid some favorites...Dr. Pepper, Kit Kat, Twix

I may start really limiting how much I eat after supper since I tend to do a good bit of snacking at night.

Anyway, I am happy to report that despite having a big Easter meal, I lost 2.5 pounds last week. Yay! I know that I don't need to lose too fast (1 pound a week is supposed to be good), but it's nice to see some change.

Easter picture

I put this picture up so that those of you who are interested can see how tall Nathan is at the moment. I didn't put it on the kiddos blog because it really shows how much weight I need to lose. I don't really want to advertise my large size. However, it is a reality. (And this picture gives me more motivation to lose some weight) I figure that those of you who actually look at this blog occasionally love me enough that it's ok. So...here's the family picture full length. If you prefer the closer head shot, head on over to the kiddos blog.

what do you think #2

These are a little less "normal", but I would still love lots of feedback.

what do you think #1

I would love to know if anybody likes any of these. Any comments...good or bad...would be appreciated...really.

cherry blossom festival - helicopter

cherry blossom festival - red biplane

cherry blossom festival - little red plane(s)

cherry blossom festival - a10 and p51

pictures are finally up

It has taken me forever, but I finally put some pictures up on Nathan's page. Either Matt or I will try to get a written update posted sometime soon. Of course, that is dependent on what happens with my pregnancy. (Also my excuse for not getting something up sooner.) Anyway, we'll try. In the meantime, use the link to the right to take a look at the new pictures.

family and trees

Here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment. The first is not the best picture, but at least you can see all of us. The second is Nathan's tree that he decorated all by himself. The third picture is our tree all finished.

at the parade

Ryan and Arin found a friend. :)


Everybody watching the parade by the side of the road (the rest of us had chairs).



Arin had enough...enough of that boring parade.

Lydia at the park

Here are a couple pictures of Lydia...Matt's cousin's daughter...at the park at Thanksgiving.

crash and burn

Well, the whole wearing underwear to bed thing didn't go so well. We did lots of changing of clothes and bedding. For a couple days, Nathan was still on board. However, by Wednesday he was saying he wanted to wear diapers again. I hadn't been getting enough sleep and was a bit stressy so I didn't really want to deal with the difficulty, so Wednesday night he went back to diapers. Oh well...he'll give them up when he's ready.

I'll try to get some pictures up here next week. Things have been absolutely crazy lately. Between trying to move furniture around to prepare the baby room, getting ready for Christmas, and getting ready for Nathan's birthday party, we haven't had time to stop. We also have several Christmas party-type things going on this weekend and the next. I think once we get to next Monday things will be a little calmer, though. Then I can focus full-force on finishing up Christmas shopping and wrapping presents.

the next step

On Sunday, we used the last diaper in our possession for Nathan's nap time. I was about to go do a little shopping, so I asked him if he wanted me to buy some more diapers or if he wanted to start wearing underwear when he sleeps. He said he wanted to wear underwear, so we said "ok." So...we are attempting to take the next step in potty training.

So far, he wet a couple times Sunday night, three times Monday nap, and twice Monday night. He didn't wet before going to sleep today, but we'll see if he's still dry when I get him up. While I don't like changing pee pee clothes or bedding, it's worth it to do it (all the time) for a week or two if we get him out of diapers. Luckily, he hasn't been pooping in his diapers much, so maybe we won't have to clean up too much of that. That is definitely a different animal!!

(As a side note, I did buy more diapers...but he doesn't know.)

food adventures

Today Jennifer told Nathan he could have some Sprite. We were going to let him have it for lunch, but we forgot. So tonight I gave him some at supper. He made a funny face (it was cute and smiley) and he kind of shuddered some. Then he said "It tickles me!". It was very cute.

Also, for the second time this week, Nathan made himself a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Tasty!

Joining the portable computing age

Hi. This is not the usual author of this blog. Just so you know.

Yesterday I bought a laptop from The Company at an old equipment sale that happens every year. The sale runs in an auction format where everyone puts down their bids and can see everyone elses'. I got it for $110 (second cheapest of the four functioning laptops that were auctioned, so I did okay); it's a Dell Latitude C610 -- Pentium M 1.2 GHz, 256 MB RAM, and 20 GB hard drive. Everything is sold "as is", and there was no opporunity to test anything; I was hoping they'd tested my laptop decently, since two of the laptops had notes that things were wrong. It looks like it works fine; I've installed a good bit of software and such, though I haven't played too much. Now I need to put a wireless Internet card on my Christmas list (and maybe some more RAM).

Anyway, I think it's funny that I, being the biggest computer geek in the family, was the last to get a laptop. We do have two other computers, though, so maybe that makes up for it.

this past weekend - Atlanta

Matt and I went to Atlanta for an overnight getaway this past weekend. We had a really good time! Friday night we went to the Atlanta Thrashers vs. New York Rangers game. Matt's team is the Rangers and they won 5-2 so he really enjoyed it. That night we stayed at the Westin. We've never stayed at such a swanky hotel before. The two best things about it (to me) were the location and the view. We were able to park at the hotel and walk everywhere from the time we checked in to the time we checked out. It was nice! We also enjoyed the view of Atlanta from both our room and from the top. Here are two pictures of the view from our room:





In order to really appreciate these pictures, you should definitely click on them so you can see them full size!

our trip to the mountains

At the end of October, we stayed for a few days in the mountains near Helen, GA with my parents. Here are a few pictures from out trip. The first is a picture of where we stayed. We were in the next to last building on the right (down by the lake).



Here is a picture of our view across the lake:



Matt and I went driving around one day looking for leaves to photograph. I didn't really find what I was looking for, but here is a picture of some of the rocks on the side of the road:



We all hiked up to the top of Brasstown Bald one day (well, Nathan didn't actually do much walking on his own). Here's the view of the mountains from the top:



It was such a nice day that the flag looked really pretty flying over the mountains. Here are two of the many shots that I took:

finally...some new content

You can now read an update about Nathan and see new pictures by clicking on the "Nathan's page" link to the right.

statement not quite accurate

We have a local free paper that arrives at our house once a week. This week, there is an article about our church purchasing some property. Here is the first paragraph of that article:

"No one around claims first hand knowledge of what heaven is like. Educated guesses are about as good as it gets before the observer actually makes it past the pearly gates. The most widely held guess is that it is a peaceful, dignified place where those who followed all the right rules stroll golden avenues in quiet wonder."

There are a couple things in this paragraph that strike me as not quite accurate. Before giving more of my opinion, though, I would like to get a few opinions and first impressions from those of you who read this blog.

interview with Nathan

Back on the 13th, I interviewed Nathan for posting here. I figured some of you would like to hear what he sounds like these days. Unfortunately, I just haven't gotten around to putting it up. Anyway, you can now hear the interview by clicking on this link. The file is kinda big, so be patient. Also, let me know if I need to translate anything for you. Enjoy!

first family portrait

Nathan drew his first family portrait yesterday. Here it is:



He also drew William:

update on Nathan's page

For those of you who regularly check this blog but not Nathan's page, I wanted to let you know that I have written an update. You can click on the link to the right to read it. Enjoy!