New Shelves!

So, Bob and I somehow managed to agree that some shelves in the bonus room and finishing out our shoe nook by the garage would be nice and useful for organization, and I managed to convince him that he didn't have time to do them himself. **Though, OF COURSE he could have done them himself, and would have definitely done a fabulous job...we decided to stimulate the economy of our buddy Tom from church ( http://ajslegacyhomes.com/index.htm) and got him to build some shelves. This whole affair has taken exactly 2 months between initial estimate, waiting, building, waiting, and painting. The painters came today and finished up, and both projects turned out great. I can't wait to pile the shelves with stuff on Thursday (per the painter's instructions, we have to wait 3 days). Here are some pictures!

Drawer dividers

Bob got to try out his new table saw/toy today and make some long-awaited drawer dividers. He did 8 drawers in all, each with its own specs. They turned out great, and now we can be organized!

Decked out

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Bob has decided to reverse his normal Scrooge role this year and pressured me to get going on decorations early. So, after some struggling and grumbling from me, we got all the decorations done! And I must say, I'm glad they are up. Enjoy!

Food Lion special:

Tree branch advent wreath:
The village:

Stockings:

Outside (bonus room will have a wreath shortly):
Garland with fancy new LED lights since the old ones stopped working:

And...the big finale...our new addition this year:

October!

Well, apparently this is turning into a once-monthly-updated blog. October was a busy, fun, and exciting month for us! We started off the month at the pumpkin patch, which was a huge hit.

The next day, Bella got blessed for the feast of St. Francis...we will be needing a booster or something, because the initial dose did not take!

The girls made their first and second trips to Marbles museum in Raleigh this month, and had a blast both times.

We had our yard sale on the 8th and netted $112, plus $50 for the double stroller via Craigslist this week. The remainder of the stuff went to Erin's old preschool's yard sale the following weekend, where they made over $900 for the playground project. And we got to clean out some stuff!

We had a fun trip to Concord on the weekend of the 15th where the boys took Logan camping, and they all had a great time, and we did a dry-run Halloween there. Erin had her last day at White Plains part-time preschool on the 20th, and got a week and a half off around her birthday before starting at her new school on November 1st.

We went to the State Fair on the 21st and they both enjoyed the animals and mini-donuts.

Her big ABC birthday bash was the 23rd, and she had so much fun with her family and friends at Crowder Park!


Despite her wishes, Erin had her 3-year checkup on the 28th. She weighs in at 32 lbs. 6 oz. (69th percentile) and is 39" tall (91st percentile). I wish I could tell you her blood pressure or vision screening results, but she, ah, declined those! She checked out good otherwise and got the good ol' flu shot.

We had a rainy Halloween here, but Erin (flower) really enjoyed going to the 4 houses that we did get to...Anna (bumblebee), however, cried the entire time!

We've also enjoyed a mediocre season of Wolfpack football so far:

So, it was a fun and busy month! Everyone is happy and healthy, not counting Anna's possible teething and a couple of little runny noses. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and more fun this month!

Done!

The great decorating project of 2011 has finally been completed! 3 months of working an hour or less a day has finally yielded 11 window treatments. Some turned out better than others, but they are all presentable enough that I don't feel like I have to fix or redo them right now. So, without further ado:

Laundry room:
Half bath:
Top of stairs:

Bottom of stairs:
Office:
Erin's room:
Anna's room (awaiting hooks to hang the tiebacks):
Bonus room:
(the pink lining is BRIGHT when the sun comes in)
Master bath toilet room:
Master bath around the tub:
Perhaps my next endeavor should be photography. It is tough (for me) to get good pictures of windows! There is a story behind each one that I will not bore you with...but if you ever want to hear, just ask! I had a lot of fun making them, and if anyone is looking for the "homemade look", I would be happy to make some for anyone! You just can't be on a strict timeline :)

Oh, and our office has a new item, courtesy of Craigslist and Josh's truck (and Josh):

September!

We've had a nice month - it's been less hectic than August, which has been great! No traveling all month! Let's see...we've been working on lots of little house projects, including fall-izing the yard, painting the bonus room (maybe that was last month), and hanging pictures. I continue to harass Bob about getting his office set up, which may be starting to work a little bit. All but 1 room now has window treatments...I've made 10 and just have Anna's room to go. They have mostly turned out pretty well, but you can tell they are homemade. Oh well!

We checked out the monthly free "concert" over Labor Day weekend, which ended up being a magic show. Anna was mesmerized, but Erin opted to take a nature walk around Bass Lake with Daddy instead. The following weekend, Daddy went to see friends in Washington DC, and we girls hung out and took it easy. We discovered what may be our favorite new park, Macdonald Woods, in Cary. Anna and I frequent it now while Erin is at preschool during the week.

The next weekend was the birthday party weekend - 2 in one day! The girls enjoyed them, and the biggest hit was the life-size Elmo balloon at Hanna's birthday.

This past weekend, Erin and I went to the Kids Together Family Fun Walk that invited her preschool to attend for free. It was fun, and she won a t-shirt for the snazziest (only) wheels! It was a rainy morning, so the attendance was low, but it cleared up and we had a great time.

Pottying is going ok. 6 weeks in, and she will go in the potty if she has to, but will still just go in her pants if she doesn't happen to be sitting on the potty. We will continue and hope it clicks soon! We now own a steam cleaner as a result of the pottying debacle.

So, it's been a great month, and we're enjoying the cooler weather. October looks to be a little more busy with Grandma A. visiting, yard sale, trip to Concord, the big preschool switch, the fair, Halloween, and of course, the big #3 birthday for Erin! We are excited about it all!

Bonus Room Redo

Those of you who have been to our house know the beauty that was our bonus room. Here is a reminder of the brown and orange sponge paint. Try to ignore the adorable (much younger-looking) kid in the foreground:

Yesterday, we (mostly Bob while I watched the kids) repainted the whole room a lovely light green. It is MUCH better! We are glad to have that crossed off our list!

This picture gets the color most right. It is ironically very close to the background of this blog:

And I found this cute tree decal at Target:

I might want to get another one or something similar...maybe we'll have a forest someday!

Decorating

I am finally able, after 8 months, to attack the decorating situation in the house. Bella has had it with the kitty cat window treatments and has demanded a change. Here are my first 2 valances, only 10 more to go!

Dining Room Furniture!

Well, I have been saying that getting Bob a desk was a higher priority than dining room furniture. Turns out, I can only be so patient, because the desk ain't happening. So, Friday afternoon, I happened upon a set on craigslist, and by 6pm we were in Clayton/Cleveland with a Uhaul, making the deal. Coincidentally, we had already arranged to try out a babysitter that evening, so instead of a quiet dinner together, we had Bojangles in a Uhaul! The babysitter said the kids did great, so maybe we can have that real dinner sometime when our bank account recovers from this super-expensive date.

It is a very gently used (never used, the guy said) 3 year old set by Kincaid that coordinates really well with all of our other furniture in the house. We both liked it a lot, and it was a great deal for being basically new. It's definitely more contemporary and less formal than your typical dining room set, but we are less formal than your typical people, so it was a good match.

So, we got it home and unloaded on Friday night, and today I finally was able to finish cleaning and stocking it. Bob has been a very good sport about the money and effort involved. Isn't it worth it, Bob?!? (Don't answer that.) Now we can display Gramma and Grandad's china (that was her mother's), and maybe even use it someday!


In related news, does anyone want this lovely item that I got at a yard sale for $25? Free to family and friends, or else we'll try to sell it at our yard sale this fall.

What a Year!

Whew, 2010 was a busy one for us! It's hard for me to remember all the way back to last January when Erin was mastering walking, we were moving her to her new bedroom, then Ansley turned one and we had a big snowstorm. Then was February when we went to visit newborn cousin Jimmy in Boston. After that was a business trip for Bob over St. Patrick's Day and our laid-back Easter with the smallest egg hunt and best Easter bunny present ever - the plastic slinky that has brought hours of entertainment. She and I went to Concord to see Great Grandma and Grandpa H., then we went back for Logan's fun birthday party. Erin went strawberry picking, then on May 18th, we welcomed sweet little Anna Kathryn to the world!

Things really got interesting after that - Daddy went to England for work, cousin Jimmy came to visit, and we had a really busy summer just trying to get by on little sleep while entertaining Erin and keeping Anna happy/fed/napped, with trips to Concord here and there (including checking out the ImaginOn library in Charlotte). Our days were filled up with trips to the park, library, grocery store, and the couple attempts at the pool that failed miserably. Anna got baptized on August 14th, and then we had lots of fun at the beach with Grandma F.

We put our house on the market just before Labor Day. 3 weeks later, it sold, and we hunted for our new house. October was full of house repairs and packing, picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, a trip to the State Fair, and Erin's 2nd birthday on the 23rd, complete with Elmo cupcakes! November 17th was the big/stressful day of closing on both houses. We moved in, unpacked, went to Concord for Thanksgiving, and came back to finish unpacking and get ready for Christmas. We managed to squeeze in a trip to the Natural Science museum among the Christmas prep, had Cookie Fest in Concord, and of course as much outside time as the weather would allow!

It was a great one, but I for one, am hoping for 2011 to be more relaxing, just as fun, and filled with long nights of sleep! Bella agrees - all this change has worn her out! We couldn't have done all this without our wonderful family and their help along the way...so thanks, everyone, and an early Happy New Year to everyone!

We're In!

So...after yet another close call and a crazy closing on the old house Wednesday morning, we have moved in to our new house! We LOVE it...and the girls do too! We were worried about what Erin would think because she was not too excited about it when we came to see it before buying it. But we think now that her stuff is here, she is a lot happier. She is having a great time exploring everywhere and already knows her way around. Bella is doing better today than yesterday (her first time here after 2 nights at the kennel), but still refuses to eat. We have not put the electric collar on her yet, but are thinking about it.

We had a great experience moving with A Few Good Men out of Wake Forest (thanks, Amy and Erik, for the recommendation!). Their 3 guys came and loaded our old house in 2-1/2 hours and unloaded this one in 2 hours...including the piano. They were fabulous and nothing broke. The pod from PackMan came yesterday and Bob and Chris got it unloaded in an hour, also nothing broken! It's funny how we are able to fill a house twice the size of the old one with the same amount of stuff...I guess it's just more spread out! Big thanks to Uncle Chris and Grandma A. for helping us out this week with all this!

Anna is having a tough couple of days...she went to the doctor yesterday for her 6 month checkup. She weighed in at 18 lbs. 10 oz. (90th percentile), and was off the charts in length! Her head was in the 90th percentile - I can't remember those numbers offhand. But she had to get 4 shots and the oral vaccine and she is feeling it today. She slept great last night, but has just not been herself today (aka lots of screaming and not much sleeping). We are hoping our sweet girl is back tomorrow.

So, that's the update from here! Our phone number is staying the same...and please come by if you are in the area! It's a work in progress, but we're getting there! We have just located the camera, so we'll take pictures soon.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween, despite Mommy and Daddy having a stomach bug from early Saturday morning until late Saturday night. Erin had it last week, but hers was more mild and drawn out. I guess it's better for us to have it bad for a shorter time and be done. Anyway, Erin was fine to hang out at our house wearing (most of) her costume and help hand out candy, but as soon as we hit the road, she was not happy. We think she was afraid of being out in the dark and did not understand what was going on. So, she made it to a grand total of 1 house, while Anna went to 2. Oh, well! More pictures are here.

Otherwise, we are all recovered from the illness and are getting excited about moving in 2 weeks! We will finally have our list of repairs done tonight and the new buyers will have their walk through. We are hoping they are happy with everything. We figure we agreed to fix everything on the list, so hopefully they won't nit-pick over silly things. We continue to pack and get ready!

New House!

Well, I am not doing a very good job of updating this blog these days. We have found a new house, made an offer on it, and it was accepted! We close on both houses November 17th, so we have plenty of time to pack all this stuff. Also, both inspections were last week and the new house was almost perfect - just 3 very minor things. This house came back with a list of 16 items, but most are fairly small. Bob's taken care of about 6 of them already. The biggest thing will be replacing 2 of the posts on the front porch. We found the same posts at Lowes, but getting them replaced will be a big job. Anyway, we are very excited! I am even more excited because I have convinced Bob to get movers. Here are some pictures of the new house:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bob.callaway/NewHouse#
It's weird to think it will be over a month until we are in it again...it's hard to wait!

What else is new? The girls are doing well. Anna is sleeping so much better the past few nights, now that we are letting her cry. Coincidentally, the night I accidentally gave her double the amount of cereal at dinner was the same night she slept 11 hours. You better believe she gets 2 tablespoons now! Last night she woke up at 12:30, but only cried for a few minutes and went right back to sleep. She has realized that sleeping on her tummy is comfy! Now, we just need to get naps straight and we will be set. Erin is busy as usual, trying to make do with fewer and fewer toys as I pack them. Daddy has been busy with the house projects, and he went to help Uncle Chris and Aunt Leslie unpack their beautiful new house last Friday.

So, we are doing great and enjoying the cooler weather...and a good start to the Wolfpack season! Now we just have to wait for the big day!

The Latest

What's new with us? It seems like we have lots of crazy things going on right now! Here's an update -

1. We accepted an offer on our house last Wednesday, 3 weeks to the day from listing it. It just took 7 showings (really 6 since one didn't even go in the house), and we got what we felt was a fair offer. After 1 round of counter-offers, we are "under contract"! So, in related news...
2. We now need to find a new house. We hope to find one and close on November 17th, the same day we close on this house to avoid temporary housing. We do have a contender in the Wescott neighborhood of Holly Springs that we are going to see a second time tomorrow. We'll keep you posted on that!
3. The Taurus X started having transmission trouble on our way to Concord last Saturday, so it's in good hands at Hilbish Ford in Kannapolis. Grandma and Grandpa A. were gracious enough to let us borrow their Camry, so we still have a car...and the X is still under warranty, so luckily we will not be paying for a new transmission or any portion of one. Whew!
4. Anna tried cereal for the first time last Thursday, and I think today was the first time she has really swallowed any of it. She is enjoying eating like the rest of us!

5. Anna also has started "crying it out" at night as of this past Sunday...but it hasn't really worked. She keeps ending up on her tummy, the wrong way in her crib, with her face smooshed up against the bumper and is inconsolable because she will not sleep on her tummy. Oh dear. But, she has only been waking up once in the 11:30-12:00 range, then sleeping until about 7am. I definitely don't mind feeding her once at that time...so maybe she will train herself!
6. Erin got a new molar tooth on her bottom right. We couldn't really tell, except I happened to notice it when she was yawning. She has not been any different from her usual state of fussiness!

So, that's a quick recap from here. The girls are doing great, and Bella is hanging in there. Me, I am glad to not be constantly cleaning for showings any more! There is the small task of packing ahead of me though...at least I have a good little cleaning helper. We are ALL looking forward to being reunited with our TV since we are done "staging" the house. Life is good!