Going to the Park

We had the pleasure of taking our niece and nephew to the park this weekend. I guess I didn't realize how much there is to do at the park. They played on the slides, on the large train, in the water throwing rocks (that was very fun, apparently), and then on the swings. There were plenty of interesting questions. Ian insisted we go up on the slide, but David and I told him we were too big, Dave convinced him but Ian told me I wasn't too big. Cara loved posing for pictures, shouting "cheese" every time she could see the camera pointed at her.

Catching up...

Oh my! I am so behind. We painted the kitchen 3 weekends ago. The following weekend my mom, Holly and I went shopping at second hand/antique stores with Marie (she needed some furniture to fill up her house) and I found a wall hanging that is perfect in the kitchen, you would think we picked our wall colors from this tapestry.
Then my mom and I cleaned up most of the front yard and pruned the rose bushes. There is so much to do but we are enjoying the process. This term isn't as time-intensive for David so he is able to help out around the house a little more. With the help of Dave O, he pruned one of the trees in the front and took out another one that was hanging over the roof and dropping a lot of debris. It was too close to the house and it looks so much better now.

Last weekend we went to Portland. I went shopping with Kelly and Marie on Saturday and Sunday while David and Brandon hung out. On Saturday Brandon's friend, Justin, brought over Rock Band and the guys played ALL DAY. Big surprise! While us girls spent most of our shopping budget on clothes and shoes. LOL. We had a blast. Saturday night we met up with the guys at McMinamins' St. John's theater for dinner and a movie. We saw Charlie Wilson's War. Good movie, but kind of depressing how badly we messed up on that one. We stayed up late playing more Rock Band. I got to try the drums for the first time and it was fun. HARD, but fun! More shopping Sunday and then the drive home. Overall we had a great time, not very restful but a great time.

I'll post house pictures soon. I just wanted to catch up a bit.

Setting up the Craft Room

While David is busy with his new full-time job and full-time school (he is working so hard), I have been fixing up the house some more. My mom came over yesterday and helped me organize the craft/spare room. Up until now it has been a catch-all for random boxes that we didn't have space for yet. I am so glad we got it cleared out so now we can actually use the room. In our apartment the second bedroom was just basically storage. We didn't have enough actual room left over to do anything with it. This one is very different.

I am so excited that I can finally have a place to leave my crafts so that I can get back to them later. I never seem to find time to do any scrapbooking (I still have my wedding to do) because taking all the stuff out and putting it all back was most of the work. Now I can just leave it there and get back to it when I can. I am really looking forward to it. I also have all my sewing stuff in there and everything is all organized into drawers. 

On the book shelves we have various music books, craft books and board games. I couldn't believe how many games we had because at the apartment they were spread out through different rooms. I think we still have one more box of games somewhere. I set up my music stand so I can start practicing my flute again. I miss music too. Once we remodel the dining room I am hoping to move my piano from my mom's house to this house. It would actually fit right now except that I don't know where we would put it while we are tearing up the brick and once it is in place I don't want to move it.

These are the before pictures:

Snow Day

It snows here sometimes, but it rarely sticks. Today was a gorgeous snowy day. We went for a walk at about 2pm. I took my camera...
Our cute little house covered in snow.

Train wheels lined up, covered in snow.

Train

A bird house in an old tree in our back yard.

Adventures in the New House

It is definitely exciting. Never a dull moment. Just in the first week, the dishwasher flooded the kitchen (but luckily it is covered under the homeowner's insurance), and the washer flooded the laundry room. LOL. Well that David was able to fix. He was so proud of himself exclaiming "I fixed it! And I only broke it a little bit." You see, he broke the front panel off so it's a little loose now, but the washer is NOT leaking now. It works just fine. As for the dish washer, if one of the major appliances had to break beyond repair, I definitely would have chosen the dishwasher. It is mostly a convenience appliance, anyway.

Other than those minor...OK, major mishaps everything has been great. We love our new bed, which we were able to get with the help of some Christmas money we got this year. My mom gave us a fridge as a housewarming present, she is so sweet. I love my fabulously humongous new kitchen. I have cooked just about every night this week (yea, Dave likes that too) and I actually enjoy washing dishes because I can look out across the river to the hills through my large window. It makes me happy.

David has been working hard on his schoolwork and his new job at the medical supply. He is a driver now. He loves it. This was his first week. Better hours, better pay. It is a huge blessing. So since he is busy with school, my mother has volunteered to help me get settled into the house. Last weekend we organized the master bedroom.

This weekend we chose a more challenging project, the bathroom. We bought shelves, a new medicine cabinet, new toilet seat and a hand-towel ring. We ended up going to Lowe's three times today. I officially feel like a homeowner. The third time was at 8:45pm (they close at 9pm). We rushed there because the medicine cabinet we bought was 1/4" too wide. YEP! There was NO WAY it was going to fit. We found one that fit and it looks great. Here is the cabinet we built.

You can kind of see the dragonfly hooks on the wall. David let me get dragonfly stuff for the bathroom. Other than that it is pretty neutral. We are going to paint it a sage green. I can't wait. It really is a lot of fun to fix things up.
This was the bathroom before. There was nothing where the new shelf stands now. We were glad to be able to use that space for storage. Soon I'll be putting something around the window too.

Still waiting...

I keep waiting to be able to write about how we've moved in and how great our new house is and all. The fact is that we are still not moved. We had to move out of our apartment so all our stuff is in Dave's parents' garage and we are staying with my mom. It's kind of fun. It's like we're visiting for some vacation except that I have to get up and still go to work. On the plus side we didn't have to travel very far.

I know there is a reason why we are here right now. I know because God has a plan even if we can't see it right now. I am peaceful and we're making the best of it. The only thing I really miss is sleeping on a real bed. We're on a (high-end) inflatable mattress, but we just bought a new mattress and as soon as we have the key for the house we'll have it delivered. I can't wait for that!

Dave started school again after the break. He's taking international business right now. He also got a new job with better hours and better pay which will allow him to work outdoors part of the time. He is really looking forward to leaving his current job.

We are in the midst of many changes right now and we're enjoying the process. Our phone numbers are the same, but we're in-between mailing addresses right now. I just wanted to update everyone.

David is on Winter Break

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David has finished school for this year and has three weeks off. He did very well in his marketing and buisiness classes. He will be restarting in January. This is great timing because of the upcoming move. We are really looking forward to being in a new house that we can paint and landscape the way we want. We should also be able to fit more guests at one time than our current apartment allows.