We bought a house!

As most of you know we have been looking for a house for some time. It started almost two years ago when we tried to buy a house in the country just north of town, then we decided to build, and then buy a different house, then build again and then we found this great house in YC. We aren't thrilled to be in town but we are in a quiet little neighborhood with wonderful neighbors. Wednesday I got word that we could close as early as Friday.

I will try to update often when we make changes to it. Of course I didn't get a picture of the whole front so that will have to come later. 

Cody opening the front door! 

 

Living room has a fireplace. You can get to the hallway and the kitchen from the living room. We are thinking of taking the wall out between the living room and hallway. 

The kitchen is in great shape. It is small but there are two closets in the hallway and one will be my pantry which means I will have just as much cabinet space as I do now. 

The cabinets are original to the house but have been refaced. They are in very good shape. 

Sliding glass door out to the covered patio off the kitchen

The main bathroom. That sweet 70's linoleum really gives it some personality.

Furnace/laundry room. Nothing too fancy but it does have an outside entrance. Cody can come right in and put his dirty clothes in the washing machine. We are both happy about that. 

Our bedroom. The walk in closet is nearly the size of the bathroom in our current home. It also has a full master bath. 

Carly's bedroom has a large walk-in closet as well. This girl needs it - we are so blessed with so many hand-me-downs and aunts with exceptional clothing taste. Not to mention the dress up clothes! 

Aiden's room has a much smaller closet with a sliding door. His room is just a smidge smaller than Carly's, but it is just as big if not bigger than the room he and Carly share now. The closet is larger than their closet now. 

I love the dark trim and that it is continuous through the house and matches! So many of the homes we saw did not have matching trim, doors or woodwork and that is irritating to me and would have been a lot of work for us. I am very happy this house is well matched. 

Outside -  The back of the house, looking south. The lattice needs to be taken down and the yard cleaned up. 

More of the back yard looking from the side of the patio into the back yard. The plants around the trees are somewhat overgrown but it has sat unkempt for over a year. You can tell the previous owners took pride in their yard and had a lot of perennial plants. We found some onions along the back fence, but no asparagus.   

From the far edge of the yard looking west at the house. 

The garage is very large. I think it could fit two cars but I bet we only put one in. 

This week's progress 9/25:

House purchased.

I have removed the apple boarder from the kitchen and the flower boarder from the main bathroom. 

Cody has removed the hot water heater, furnace and A/C. He also has a plan to fix a spot in the floor of the furnace room and to take out the wall in the living room. 

Stay tuned for the updates! 

Smiley Man

This little guy is all smiles these days. He weighs 15 pounds 7 ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long. He is wearing 6-9 month onesies and 3-6 month pants. He laughs at sister and loves to sit in the high chair. He watches you eat and loves rice cereal. He is beginning to nap longer at a time in the afternoon. He is "talking" and "squawking". Aiden has also found his feet recently. While they can't quite get to his mouth he does hold on to them and roll from side to side. He is not rolling from back to front yet but it will be soon, front to back is mastered and he doesn't stay on his tummy for long when he has decided enough is enough.

Bacon and Blue Onions

A new love has found it's way in to my life. These bacon and blue cheese onions. They are so stinking easy to make and so incredibly fattening tasty. I am not a photog, so don't judge the image below but it is my own.

This recipe is from http://www.jamesandeverett.com and was found on Pinterest.

The original post can be found at http://www.jamesandeverett.com/whatscooking/2012/09/23/grilled-blue-cheese-bacon-stuffed-onions/

Bacon and Blue Cheese Onions

4 onions, sweet. I used Vidalia 
1 stick of butter softened
4 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled
2/3 cup blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the tops and bottoms off of the onions and peel the outer dried layers off.

Scoop out a portion of the insides using a melon baller or a small spoon. I used my strawberry huller from the Pampered Chef and it worked great, this product is no longer available, but the Core and More is. Be careful not to dig down too deeply

Mix all filling ingredients together and stuff in the cavity of the onion. Press it in really well so that the cavities are completely full.

Wrap in aluminum foil and grill on a medium heat for 30-40 minutes. We did just 30 because we thought the heat was too high, but 10 more wouldn't have hurt. Let the onions steam for just a little while and be careful when opening the foil.

Oh man were these good. My husband sure can man a grill!

Back in the swing of things

School is starting again soon.

In some ways it is too soon -  I love spending time with the kids and I will probably be very teary the first day without Aiden and Carly. Thank goodness it will be an inservice day.

In some ways it is going to be glorious - I am NOT the stay-at-home-mom type.

Back up, did she just say "thank goodness for an inservice day?"

Yeah, I did, I would much rather cry in front of other moms that get it, than in front of my students on the first day of school.

Who am I kidding, my students all know I am ubber emotional.

So while I am getting back in the swing of things. My kids are too. Here are a couple pictures of Carly, Aiden and I swinging together. Finding myself on this side of the camera is strange.

 

 

Strawberry Cream Pie

Sometimes we cook, sometimes we bake and sometimes we make food that is just yummy. This Strawberry Cream Pie is perfect to use for those early spring strawberries that are very tart.

Since I am prego and really wanted strawberries I kept my eyes out for a good deal - our local grocery store had 1 lb containers for $1.99!! So I got two and wouldn't you know, they were dissapointing. So I scrounged for a recipe and found one for Strawberry Cream Pie, sure to make any tart strawberries much better.

Strawberry Cream Pie
1 1/2 lbs sliced strawberries
1 sm box of instant vanilla pudding
1 sm box of strawberry flavored Jell-O
1 graham cracker crust (or make your own)
1 cup of boiling water
1 cup of milk

First - Wash, hull and slice the strawberries

Then mix the strawberry gelatin with the 1 cup of hot water and stir. Stir a lot - like 5 minutes until it is all dissolved. This is important because mine was a little grainy still and it wasn't so god.

When gelatin is mixed set it aside and in a separate bowl mix the instant pudding with the 1 cup of cold milk - again mixing for about 5 minutes. 

Then put them together and mix.

Put the strawberries in the pie crust (I made my own graham cracker crust because I am cheap) and slowly pour the pudding/gelatin mixture over it so that it has time to sink through the strawberries.

Refrigerate for an hour or two and you are ready to eat! 

If I had used a regular sized pie pan the strawberries would have fit, but because it is an 8 inch they did not - nor did all the pudding/gelatin mixture. What did I do with the left overs in that small bowl? Poured it over some vanilla greek yogurt before it was set up and Carly and I had a snack

That's a Chicken!

The super bowl was great wasn't it?

What you didn't have fun?

I did...had breakfast with the cutest kid ever, played with Mags, went to church, went to a fabric store because they had $1.00 fat quarters, came home, took a nap, made a corn n macaroni casserole, went to a super bowl party, did some for-reals college homework, graded some student homework, laundry, bed.

Back up...you went to a fabric store for fat quarters...what the heck are those?

Fat quarters are a fourth of a yard of fabric but instead of the fabric being cut into four even "strips", the yard of fabric is divided into four quarters...giving it a nearly square appearance.

For those of you who like visuals

And those of you who need a real life scenario

This is a big deal?

YES, fat quarters are typically between $1.75-$3.00...these were ONE DOLLAR!! (Do you feel like you were just in an episode of Sheldon Cooper Presents Fun with Flags on The Big Bang Theory..'cause you should!)

This little adventure with my mom, grandma, and Carly was the highlight of my super bowl...Paul Harvey's "Why God Made Farmers" was a close second.

We have been talking about farm animals and wouldn't you know it - 5 minutes into shopping at the fabric store Carly decided she was bored. SURPRISE!! Luckily there was another little girl there and they had so much fun running in between tables and undertables and trying to knock down 70 year old women and break their hips...fun was had by all.

Finally I corralled my heathen and took her over to look at the cool wall hangings that looked like this...

I pointed to one similar to the above picture and asked her what it was..."K-State Wildcats, Mama" and without missing a beat she pointed to the next one and proudly said...."That's a Chicken!" Oh yes. The KU wall hanging, she thought, included a chicken.

 

Close enough. 

Christmas Crafts - Letter shirts

I don't like crafts that involve a lot of skill, because I don't have a lot of skill.

I call these, crafts for real people.

Not that other crafty people aren't real - they are super. I am not super. I am just me.

Things I do that make me less super than the super moms that blog a new craft each day include: eating foods from their containers, spending hours on Pinterest with no intent to do any of the things I pin, only folding half of the laundry, not ironing a thing until 5 minutes before we need it, watching crap TV when I should be sleeping, napping with my daughter, playing outside when it is really warm, taking Maggie to the creek to cool off, gardening -sort of, only cleaning really well when we are going to have guests.

This is why when I get crafty, I also get real.

 These shirts are from the Walmarts, they were super cheap. I had my husband draw some letters for me. An I and an E for my cousins' daughters.

Then I took those letters and I cut 'em out to make stencils. Using my white colored pencil (not a good idea to use crayon) then traced the letters on the shirts.

Next the buttons were sorted and the ones I liked were put on the stencils.

I sewed the buttons on as they were layed out on the stencils. That's right...I can sew. I am actually a 4-H Champion seamstress several years in a row. BOOM!

Only a few buttons were sewed on at a time, then the thread was tied off and a few more were sewed on at a time... like 3-4 buttons.

Why do this? That is a simple question, if a thread gets caught and breaks you only loose 3-4 buttons not all of them. Mind blown again? Thought so, you are welcome.

Oh, you don't have a giant container of sweet buttons lying around? Go get some, now. There are a billion buttons at flea markets or your mom or grandma might have some old ones lying around they aren't using. USE THEM!! No one wants some old stuff lying around, people would rather wear it.

Especially your two year old child.

Birthday time!!

Carly's birthday was a great time. As usual we had it at the community building here in town because our house can not fit everyone in it and I refuse to have 40 b-day parties for her. Our divorced/remarried families can just suck it up and come to one party.

Since Daddy was really sick last year, he got all the fun of helping to open the presents! I think he really enjoyed it. Carly did.

 The balloons are from my dad and Kim. Instead of packing peanuts they packed the tricycle in about 200 balloons. Wow guys, thanks.

Carly's shirt says "Happy Birthday To Me". The hilight of the party was when Carly pulled a card out and took it out of the envelope. She opened it and Cody said "What does it say" without missing a beat Carly said "Happy Birthday to You!" the promptly pitched it to the side and dug into the paper!

 This was from Mom and Daddy - we got her a "Meowsic" piano. Shaped like a cat - it is a little freaky looking but Carly is super into it.

Last but not least - CAKE! yes those are shot gun shells and feathers - I washed them all, no worries!

Plans and Choices

First you make plans then you make choices to either see the plans through, change the plans or ditch the plans.


I planned on marrying off my best friend,  blogging twice a week, sorting out the basement, cleaning the stuff you don't do each week unless you are my grandma or Heloise (baseboards, windows, behind the fridge, etc) organizing the house, rearranging the bedroom, loosing 5 pounds, going on morning walks with Carly, canning bushels of tomatoes, salsa, and pasta sauce among other lofty goals of the summer.

I chose to clean out 2 totes in the basement, reorganize the cabinet with the pans in it, canned 15 pints of salsa 25 quarts of salsa or pasta sauce with my SIL, made 2 quart baggies of sun dried tomatoes, froze a gallon bag of basil,  let the garden go a week ago. Spent a lot of time on short walks, spent a lot more time watering the garden, and a lot more on the living room floor playing with Carly or with the girls and their kids. I only got the baseboards wiped down!

And of course Kelly made a beautiful bride and we had a great weekend!



There were lots of things on my list to do and a few got done, but we made a lot more memories. So I suppose it is only fitting that a week and a half before school begins I start blogging again....such is life. So I leave you with a few pictures of my summer!

Carly loved putting Daddy's change in her piggy bank.

 Thank you Daddy and Maggie for putting up the swing set!

Ellie and Carly taking turns in the car on the 4th of July.

            All the kids enjoying the BBQ!

Becca and Carly playing on the new swing set. 

And having a sleep over!! 

 
Carly is really into silverware right now. She needs a fork or spoon for everything. This is cereal, with a splash of milk and a "Bid poon" aka a big spoon which is just a regular spoon but she doesn't want her kid sized ones anymore.