Christmas!!!

Christmas time has finally come and once again lots of running to and fro...

This year, Kira was old enough to appreciate additional "stimulation" so on Tuesday, I, along with "momma d" took her on the train into Philly to see the Macy's light show, Dicken's village and the comcast show! She enjoyed everything and didn't fall asleep that night until late, she was so excited!

Wednesday was the church staff party. Even though I have been on staff since 2002, I have only attended for the last 2 years. We have lunch together and then do a pollyanna where everyone takes turns opening their present. Our church is getting so big, there was close to 25 staff at the party!

This year, we went with Tom's Dad and family to get a real Christmas tree. It was a nice experience, because it was one of those tree farms where you get to walk out and pick your tree and then they send someone to cut it down for you...although I would have happily cut it down myself to get to use a chainsaw again!

Christmas with Tom's Dad's family............................

Tom and his Grandmom wearing her Christmas present!

Kira got a wetsuit for Christmas....Daddy is VERY excited about this! Lol!

Kira always wants to see pictures whenever I pull out the camera!

Kira and Aunt Sammi

Christmas morning tradition at Tom's mom's house, tom and his sister's looking for the Christmas pickle! Julie found it this year...that is her facing the camera!

Kira getting a Christmas ornament, this girl sure got a lot of presents this year! Yikes!

Kira and Tom's sister, Aunt "Kiss"

All the grandkids on Tom's mom's side. From left, "Jojo," Keeley, Bobby, LJ, Katie, Kira, Joey, Shawna and Frankie.

Tom's cousins Kelly and John playing with Kira, she is miss popular at this party because she is the first great-grandchild.

Rolling around on the floor...

We still have two more party to go to (my family), will post on that a little later!

Thanksgiving

I realize I have not blogged since early November and so much has happened, I will have to make a few posts to catch you all up on everything! So we'll start with thanksgiving...

I always look forward to thanksgiving, because it means that there will lots of parties and catching up with family. And even though I am an admitted introvert, I love going out to parties and socializing! This thanksgiving we had a party every day for four days straight...

Thanksgiving day we always celebrate with Tom's Dad and extended family. The next day (black friday) was spent with my Mom and Dad, sisters and all the grandkids! Then saturday, was another party for another side of the family. Finally, the fourth party was celebrated with Tom's Mom's side at a restaurant. It was very fun but it took a toll on Kira this year. She came down with a fever on Friday afternoon and I had to keep her home all day on Saturday so Tom went to the Saturday party without me.

She loves to play with Naomi, whom she calls "Ni-Na" when she sees a picture of her! :-) They were having fun playing with Dad's exercise ball!

All worn out! Poor thing!

Fun with dirt

I am realizing when you have a house, the list of projects is endless. I find that no sooner have I crossed the "to do" items off my list that I discover a few more things that need doing. Ahhhh, such is life, and it is good to keep busy with projects anyway...

I have been wanting to make some changes to the front of the house but needed serious direction with what to do since I am a gardening newbie. So Mom graciously offered to come and give me some advice and help.

Last Tuesday both Mom and Dad came over on their day off to help me rip out the railroad ties and re-edge the new garden.

It was nice of them to come over on their day off. It was such a big help! I think they had fun though, Mom said at one point "I like digging in the dirt." Maybe that is partly why she is so slim. "Many hands make light work."
Saturday Mom and I drove out to her favorite local nursery to pick out some plants that would be appropriate for the front of the house. We got a crape myrtle for the corner (this should grow to about 20 feet) and liroipe (variegated ornamental grass) for behind the crape myrtle to give year-round color. Next to the liriope are 2 Euonymous flowering bushes. Then we planted winter pansies in front of both windows. We got all this planted on Saturday. We were able to get it done b/c Tom was able to help me with moving the two arborvitae that were in the front (see previous pic).
Then yesterday (Sunday) I laid wet cardboard down first, then mulch over top that. According to my mom, you can pay money for expensive black matting to prevent weeds or you can use cardboard. Since we just unpacked the last of our boxes from the move, we had plenty of cardboard on hand and so I just used that.
We also got 3 knock out rose bushes...one will be bright fuschia and the other two will be pink....

a little person...

What we've been up to...

Both Tom and I joined a Bible Study group...my ladies Bible study meets on Tuesday nights and is studying Philipians. It is a Kay Arthur study and I am really enjoying digging into the Word in this way again. Tom's men's group meets on Mondays and he is also enjoying getting to know some of the men in our church a little bit better.

Kira is continuing to grow up too fast! She is a little ham and she knows how to "pose" for the camera when we tell her to "say cheese" she always obliges with some funny face!

Bath time fun!
Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In other news, I took a little break from completing my project in the basement to work outside while the weather still allows it. Mom and Dad came over on Tuesday and helped me get started by edging out the front garden. Mom and I will be going to get a pretty flowering tree to put on the front corner of the house so I hope to put some pics up soon to show you what's going on there. This is truly a learn as I go process b/c I really know nothing about gardening but I am getting lots of good advice and encouragement from my folks so that helps me get motivated about it!

More of the basement...almost done!

No pics this time around but yesterday I painted another section of the unfinished side so now I have completed 2 out of 3 sections! Whohoo, almost done! I'll post a pic when I am completely finished.

Other than that, things have been semi-quiet here lately. Just puttering away on little projects with the house. Dad came over recently and finished the shelving for the hall closet so I was able to fill that up with my extra towels, linens and toiletries. Tom and I also worked on organizing what we call "the great room" in the basement on Sunday. It is at a good point now where we are both pleased with how it looks. No more cluttered unpacked boxes, everything has a place now and things that could go in storage were moved into the attic. Once I finish painting the floor on the unfinished side of the basement, our next big project will be the great room. We already talking about some ideas for that room and it is kind of fun to think about what it could be with a little TLC.

Had homecoming weekend at PBU over the weekend and got to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while.

The basement, part 2

This actually may be a 4 part series...b/c it is going to take me a little while to finish this project! But at least I am 1/3 of the way there! And it is sooooo nice to survey all one's hard work and take pleasure in a job well done!

Since I had all the work done prepping the floor (ie, cleaning), once I got the paint I was able to get right to it...so brushed out the edges with a hand brush and then rolled the floor.

Tom insisted I wear a heavy duty respirator and I think that was a good idea...this stuff is pretty strong-smelling!
Done! Well, that section of the floor anyway...now it's just a matter of waiting for this to dry completely and then I can move on to the next 1/3 section.

How things have changed

This weekend marks the 3 month mark that we have been living in our home. Now that we are settled in a bit more, I am realizing how different this is from the college/dorm life that was our world for the first 6 years of our marriage. Here are the differences that have really stood out to me:

1. No more constant interruptions!

We not only lived in the dorm but T also was responsible for the building and people in it. That meant, anytime there was an overflowing toilet or a serious argument among room-mates, or even something more serious than that, it fell to my husband to resolve it. It wouldn't matter if he worked all day (and he did!), he would still have to be "on" when he came home from work b/c with nearly 300 students under his care, there was almost always something going on that needed his attention. Often, he would work a full day, come home for dinner, then have to go out for meetings and I wouldn't see him the rest of the night. AND there were the fire drills...I will never forget the more memorable one where the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night (someone had burned popcorn!), I had to get Kira out of bed, wrap her in a blanket and wait outside with the rest of the students while they figured out what the problem was. Kira was about 4 months old and it was the dead of winter. That was interesting!

But...I wasn't lonely without him! God provided people for me to pass the time with, I had a wonderful neighbor across from our "house" that worked with T but lived in the dorm and we used to hang out a lot. There was also a family that we were really close with that we used to get together for dinners on a regular basis. And of course, if I ever wanted to look for something to do, I had merely to walk outside my door into the lounge and there would invariably be something going on.

2. Privacy!

This second note kind of goes along with the first. This type of job that T had for 6 years does not allow for much privacy. I remember the first year we lived in the dorm, T was tickling me one night in the bedroom and I was laughing really hard...all of a sudden we both heard on the other side of the wall, clear as day a voice say, "I can hear you!" Living in a dorm is similar to living in an apartment complex in that there are people on either side of you but in our case, these walls were VERY thin and we always had to be quiet as not to disturb our neighbors...

3. Peace and Quiet!

I have to say, I am especially enjoying this one. 6 years of listening to one commotion after another, be it some guys having a wrestling match outside our door, an impromtu praise and worship time in the lounge, the constant clicking of the main door unlocking (this drove me crazy!), a talent night or concert in the lounge, there was always something going on and we could never get away from it.

This is not to say we didn't enjoy it while we were experiencing all these things...but God places us in circumstances for a season and we enjoyed it while it lasted b/c that was our normal and we had never known different. Now we are in another season of life and we are discovering what it is like to have a home with so much quiet, hardly any interruptions and privacy!

Friday was such a nice night hanging out with my dear sisters and extended family. The reason for the get-together? Gmom and Gpop's 60th wedding anniversary! So we all schlepped the 7 grandkids to mom and dad's where the babysitter was waiting. The kids had a nice time, and although I complained initially about having to leave Kira behind, I think she had a good time hanging out with the kids and she absolutely loved petting Christy and Christian's little yorkie Lilly.

Sigh. Wish they all lived closer and we could hang out more often but I am thankful that we had a great night together none-the-less!

Our basement

So I decided to start the seemingly endless project of cleaning the basement in preparation for painting the floor. Tom and I had talked about painting the floor and we both knew that the floor would need a good cleaning before painting it. That being said, I decided now was as good a time as any to get started since Grandpop was done working on the boiler which has, up to this point, been generating a lot of dirt (see our new little red boiler on the left of this picture!). Grandmom W came over yesterday to help me get started. She has always been a great cleaner...she helped me in cleaning lots of things in our house before we moved in so I knew she would be a good one to ask for directions as to the best way to go about cleaning this sooty concrete floor! So, we decided it would be best to work on small areas as to not track new dirt on freshly cleaned spots...

First, we vacuumed this section, then we got two buckets, one to wring out the mop and one bucket to rinse the mop in when we done with the area. She had me wet down small 2'x2' areas at a time, sprayed it with bleach and mop it up. Then keep spraying and mopping this one small area until my mop wrung out almost clear water. Only then could I move onto the next small section. I worked this way during Kira's morning nap, then again last night. So this small section is sufficiently clean but it may also need to be primed with a special kind of primer before we paint it. I am going to the paint store today to talk to the guy about it.

Why am I smiling??? I actually kind of like doing stuff like this, haven't been able to do as much with Kira so I am enjoying getting my hands "dirty" again. And it will be so nice when it's done b/c I'll be able to take pleasure in my hard work! :-)

The beach...ah!!!!!

Things have been getting pretty busy lately, in-between playdates, doing my coupon runs, organizing the house and visiting with family, I was afforded the opportunity to spend some time at my in-laws beach house the past two weekends in a row. To say I love the beach would be an understatement. There is something so relaxing about the beach. Thankfully, our daughter loves it too and since she just started walking only a few weeks ago, she is even more enthralled with the beach!

I know, I know, it's been a while since I posted but I just haven't been able to find the time recently and all of a sudden it has been a month since I last posted...GAH! I thought I should post some pics of Kira's room, since I haven't included that in our pic updates of the house, I really am happy with how it turned out. And yes, I do like green!

Hanging out in the living room! If anyone has some ideas for where I can find a cheap area rug, let me know! I am taking my time now though fixing up and "beautifying" the rest of the house, we are pretty much out of money right now so we have to wait a while now til we can save up some more money to finish the basement. But at least the top floor is done! These pics are from a party I had at our house for Kira's birthday with my side of the family a couple weeks back. Both my sisters and their families, my parents and Gparents were there that day, I think it was 18 people in my small house...crazy but fun!

Another pic of the bathroom, all decorated now. I think the bathroom and Kira's room are my favorite rooms. I do not fancy myself a very creative decorator but I actually really like how these two rooms turned out in particular!

The birthday party

There is a little known secret about me that I do not share with many people...shhhhh...keep it to yourself...I DO NOT like hosting parties at my house! It makes me anxious, sweaty, and in general, a nervous wreck for the duration of the party. That is why I had been putting off planning a party for Kira's birthday, the idea seemed so overwhelming, I just didn't know where to begin. If it were for me, I probably never would have done this...but it wasn't. It was for Kira. So I gritted my teeth and kept telling myself that it was going to be okay and that I was doing all this for her.

And, as it turned out, it really wasn't as bad as I had imagined in my head. All week, I thought and thought about the party, writing lists and cleaning little nooks and crannies of my house in preparation for the big day. When Saturday rolled around, I set Tom to work (putting the valances up in the living room, mowing the lawn, cleaning and organizing the basement) while I made brownies, vaccuumed the house and found more things that needed to be cleaned. I must have been pretty nervous that morning though, I changed my shirt 3 times before people showed up for the party at 3PM, I was sweating so much from anxiety I guess. But I shouldn't have been so nervous, by 1PM, everything was done in the house. And no matter how hard I looked for something that needed to be cleaned, there really wasn't any more to do, the house was honestly (If I do say so myself) immaculate. So I lay down on the couch for a little to rest while Kira took a nap. At 2:30PM, Kristina, Tom's sister, showed up with party decorations and helped me get things set up. Right around that time, Tom's grandparents (his Mom's parents) showed up. They only stayed an hour because they had to be somewhere that afternoon and almost as soon as they had left, Tom's other grandparents along with his stepmom and her 2 kids showed up so it really worked out wonderfully.

Around 4PM, we put a candle on Kira's carrot cake and sang "Happy Birthday." Then everyone gathered in the living room to eat cake and watch Kira/Mommy open her presents. She got some more cardboard books, clothes and a little miniature grocery cart with fake food and condiments. By 4:30PM, the party was winding down and everyone said there goodbyes and were on there way. And with that, it was over. All that silly worrying over a little party that actually went fine and everyone had good time.

Yesterday in church, our Pastor was preaching on Isaiah 40. At verse 11, the scripture tells us that "He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, [and] will gently lead those that have their young." In one of his illustrations in reference to this passage, our pastor was talking about how having kids isn't just about helping them grow, it is also to help US to grow as parents. This is so true. Without Kira, I wouldn't have really had to face this fear and throw a party. But I felt it was important to do for her so I did it and grew though it. Isaiah 40:11 is a comforting thought to me that the Lord is gently leading us and carrying us in his arms because I can understand it now in relation to how I feel about Kira.

She's 1!!!

I probably should have posted this on her birthday but time just slips by these days...What a joy Kira has been this past year. I thank God every day for her, she is truly a blessing

Got her 1 year pics done at Sears since they offered me a free sitting fee and free 10x13....I guess they thought I was going to buy a package from them. Maybe I would have but the cheapest deal they had was $99! Yikes! You can look at them here...

http://www.SearsPhotos.com/ViewSharedAlbum.aspx?ShareID=a7d3a16e-55c0-404b-988a-91809d2db53c

Things we take for granted

Definitely took hot water for granted until we went without it for almost a month! After almost 8 weeks of waiting, waiting, waiting, we got hot water installed today and we are up and running!

Hot water!

Since we moved in on June 24, we have not had any hot water. I have been wondering when it was going to happen, feeling a little blue about it when lo and behold they showed up at OUR HOUSE today! Maybe we will get hot water this week!! Stay tuned...

Drumroll please...

No, not pictures of the house but I thought I would throw in one of a handsome, hardworking husband and a cute, smiling baby! ;)

Here's the kitchen after the tile work was finished...awesome job Dad! Tom helped cut most of the tile so it didn't take as long as it could have!
Another view of the kitchen..........
The bathroom, we didn't have a toilet or sink in there until the week we moved in! Talk about cutting it close!
Living room, before the floor was refinished and before any painting or trim...
The "master" bedroom...another "before" shot
Kira's room, painted and getting closer to being ready...no carpet yet though!
Jim working on some electrical stuff...he rewired the two bedrooms so that we were able to have a center light with ceiling fans. He also helped Tom put together all the cabinets which was a tedious job. I realize now that I uploaded these pics that I have NONE of Dad working and he has done so much of the technical things. Boo to me!
Moving day pics...can you say "CHAOS?"
Goodbye old apartment! We enjoyed making you our home for the past 5 years but it was time to move on...
The new kitchen...that box on the floor is the remaining two kitchen chairs for my little drop leaf table...I spent 2 HOURS putting two chairs together last night and just couldn't do the other two, I was too tired! So I guess I will finish it tonight!
The living room, floor looks nice now with the refinishing done! Notice no curtains or rug yet...curtains I wanted are backordered until Aug 6. Also, nothing hung on the walls but it has still been less than two weeks since we moved in so I got to cut myself a break I guess!
Another view of the kitchen! *Sigh* (of happiness)
The bathroom-sorry all these pics are side views...I am too impatient to rotate and save all of these the right way I suppose!
The master bedroom...I forgot to take a pic of the new carpet for you to see...well, next time I suppose!
And...no pic of Kira's room as she is sleeping at the moment and that is the reason why I have been able to post finally!