Final

We are putting everything in a box today. Packing it all up and dragging it to the garage to be moved into the truck bright and early tomorrow morning. I can't even tell you how much there IS to be done...Omigoodness it's overwhelming. But I guess it's a good thing I'm busy cause if I had a few minutes to really stop and think I would probably be sad and emotional and cry. I'm happy we are moving, I really am. I am not looking forward to not being settled and having us all share one tiny little bathroom until we refinish the tub in the other and build a whole new one for us. I am not looking forward to all the work my husband has planned for us during the whole Christmas holiday season. But I am excited to be somewhere we can stay forever. Cause if this process taught me anything...it's that I myself don't really enjoy change either. I guess Emmy gets that honest from me. I didn't have this reaction when we moved from Tolono. I was also pregnant and we had way outgrown that house and moving here was exciting because we never dreamed we would be able to have a house like this...let alone a BRAND NEW house. The kids were so little and I wonder if their age now is playing a part in my "sadness" because I know they are a little sad to leave the only house they've ever known.

So my mom and Russ are here and I need to give direction...actually....I need someone to give me direction:) My brain is fried and I just want to take a nap! I am hoping to not forget to get a picture of us all on the front porch before the night is over......

........What?.........

Pretty much. That's life these days. Always changing, always surprising....it's utter chaos.

Biggest news? Were moving. Yep.....when was my last blog entry? Sigh....Yeah. It's crazy. At this point I am not even sure I can muster up the energy to BE excited, but I should be. Because the only reason it all even came about is God, and it's really a pretty cool story. On a random comment by my husband like "hey...this houses price dropped, lets go check it out" on October 6 to signing final offer acceptances on November 4, we were bought and sold in 4 weeks. Our house sold in 3. Three week. Three. We were on the market for almost a year last year, with not even a hint of an offer, and in the end, we ended up having two offers (one was ridiculous, but still) on the house. When it's God, it's God. Were moving to the country people! If you want to see some pictures I posted on Facebook, check the out HERE. That should be a public link for you to see them and sort of see what I commented in order to know how it's all gonna be laid out. Is it my dream house? Definitely not right now. It is a well-built, super solid, upgraded house on a GORGEOUS 3.5 acres with a BARN...yep...a barn:) We can live there the rest of our days on Earth comfortably, and that was the most important thing to me. We can decorate and change things up course, and I will add some fabulousness to it:) There's room in the basement for an eventual indoor studio....theres a TON of room for some amazing outdoor photography, my husband's gonna grow me some wheat and wildflowers for more outdoor photog stuff, and I have about a billion apple, cherry, and pear trees for me to make some great home-ade goodness. It's gonna be awesome....sigh.....

So...off to get some sleep. I'm tired. It's well past midnight, and I only have a billion things to do in the next 13 days. Yeah...13 days. well...now it's technically 12. Oh my.....

Times....they are a changin!

It's been a whirlwind of activity in our house lately. The things that have gone on would make even the strongest person in the world hide and twitch uncontrollably in a corner. The biggest and the catalyst for everything that has happened since is that we decided to put our house on the market. We just feel the need for more space. We aren't bumping into each other or killing each other due to the close quarters, but our kids are only getting bigger (stinkin' things gotta eat three times a day.....growing being the after affect of such) and we want something that we are going to be able to grown into comfortably. I also need space for my business. I need an office with an area for a studio or a possible area for a future possible studio. So the look is on! It's been nuts, but we really feel this is the right decision for us at the time. The shame is that we are getting our house looking so good, I don't really want to leave. I've found that there is nothing in our area with as cool of stuff as we have, but compromise may be in our future on that.

So...here are a few things that have gone on the last month or so:

• Had a massive, 4-family garage sale. Threw it together in less than a week. Our profit reflected that. Most of it went to the garbage or to Goodwill.
  
• Painted every area of the house that had not been painted. Including the hallways and stairwell. If you've never seen the stairwell.......it's about 483 feet tall. Maybe not QUITE that tall...but....tall.
  
• Painted our room which also is 483 feet tall.
  
• Scrubbed every piece of trim in this house. I hate trim. If it's possible to not have trim in the next house, I would be ok with that.
  
• Looked at 6 houses. Haven't found one that I am in love with. Found one I really like, but will have to replace all the carpet.
  
• Have to replace all the carpet in our house. I'm calling Carpet Weaver's out on this one. They suck. Sorry.....they do. Our house is 7 years old, they "fixed" it twice before we even moved in (literally....there was JUNK under the carpet from their laziness in not sweeping up construction crap before they laid it!!). They stretched it once then. It looks like amber-waves-of-grain do to the mounds in it. Plus....our girls lived hard in it. Nail polish, make-up, you name it, its on it. So we are replacing it. Hence the reason I don't want to have to replace it in another house we are looking at.
  
• Taken, edited, and ordered about a billion pictures.
  
• Worked VBS all week this week.
  
• Re-arranged our living room, de-cluttered the kitchen, got rid of unnecessary toys, and on and on and on!
  

It's craziness. Literal and utter craziness. So if you know of any great houses going on the market in this area soon...let me know! And if you are in the market for a great house....LET ME KNOW!!

Living room remodel

We moved into our house almost 7 years ago this June. I had just had Emmy two weeks prior. And it had been the WORST two weeks a girl could have. Debilitating colon infection, two ER visits, tests that shall remain nameless that made me scream for drugs when birthing a child had not......Needless to say, rough was an understatement. We had the house built and had picked everything out in it. I was 7-9 months pregnant when doing this, so pretty much, I was useless. I didn't care, I just wanted in my house. I have regretted MANY decisions since then, and the living room carpet was a-number-one on the list. First of all....it was too light of a carpet in a SUPER high traffic area. Secondly, I have 3 kids. Thirdly, I babysit, and this is the main room for the kiddos. We TRIED to make sure people removed their shoes before entering the house, but that's not always been the case. So the carpet had to go......

We picked out some stuff from Menards and had bought it a couple weeks prior (since it was going off sale). Our awesome friend BK came over and helped my husband (and our wallet since he had all the toys necessary to do the job!) install it over two days. Those boys worked like DOGS for two straight days, and I am so happy, I am literally giddy! If I had not been in a neck collar (another story for another blog), I am pretty sure I would've done cartwheels!

I didn't really have a great "before" shot, but I have taken PLENTY of pictures in that living room. Just check the archives. The afters are.amazing.period.

Thanks BK for two LONG days of help, and thanks E for letting us have him for a weekend when I am SURE you have a "few things" going in your life you could've used him for:)

Baby it's cold outside

So.....it's pretty stinkin' cold outside. So cold, there's frost on our windows......

.........on the inside of our windows. Yep...we have frost on the inside of our windows, and our house is five years old. We moved from a house that was like 50 years old and thought "Awesome! we aren't going to have to cover our doors and windows with big 'ol ugly blankets anymore! We are going to have a brand new house with good windows that don't leak and it's constantly going to be warm", and now our house that is a mere five years old is leakier and colder than our over 50-year-old house....and we have ice in the INSIDE of our windows. (FYI, if you click on the picture and you can see it bigger)

Another interesting point; the builder who built our house informed us after we moved in that our house put him over with window sales at this particular company and they were sending him to Hawaii. Maybe I should show him a copy of what the inside of my window looks like. Hawaii sounds pretty nice right now.