the pups are loving the big windows ~ wordless wednesday

random wednesday rambles

I love corn tortillas   I forget about them, but when I ordered fajitas the other day at our local Mexican food restaurant I requested corn torts.  They were so good I bought some on my last grocery trip.  I realized I can eat two for what you can eat one flour tortilla.  I ate corn tortillas tonight instead of tostada shells.  The taste of a corn tortilla is good.  It's so Mexican.

I got my hair cut and colored today, and it happened right in time for the kids to be out of school for summer.  I got lots of blonde and I couldn't be happier.  I haven't been crazy about my hair lately and not adding low lights made all the difference for me.  Sometimes I just need a change and I'm happy to be happy.

Hayden is so funny.  When he plays heads or tails with a penny he says "heads or ladders."  Look at a penny and you'll know why.  It makes me giggle every time he says it out loud!  It only happens with a penny.  Also, the other day at Walmart we were in the checkout line and he say a grey haired man with longer-ish hair and he said, "look mommy, there is the man on the quarter."  He wasn't discreet.  I wanted the world to open a big black hole and swallow me up.  haha!

He looks the same huh?!?

We are moving and I couldn't be happier.  I despise moving, but tonight while I was trying to re-establish our internet connection (the modem needed to be reset) I walked down into the basement and the air conditioner was leaking onto some of our boxes.  It was just a few things we were storing...our Christmas tree, some pictures and a few books.  Any way... those things don't matter, but what does matter is that my heart is singing a happy song because we will be out of this house by the end of the month.  While I am terribly sad to leave this street and all my friends, I am so happy to be leaving this barn house.  I am thankful for my stay here because I made so many friends, but I am still in the same super small town and we'll still be buddies.  It's not like moving from TX to OH.

So yep, we are moving.  This weekend.  We are moving to a farm-ish style house about 6 miles away from here.  Our new house is smaller than this house which I'm loving.  I don't want to clean a large house and I feel like this house has wasted space.  Our new house is surrounded by land, but it is also right next door to the school.  It's really weird   We'll feel like we are out in the country, but connected to town too.  The kids and dogs will have so much space in which to RUNNNNN!!!  Our new house is right next door to the school.  Did I mention that?  This year I didn't drive Layla to school one time.  Even in the snow or rain we were close enough to walk.  The new house is that close too.  I'm so excited!  I should sell my car, but I love my Jeep, so that won't happen. heehee!

Two more days of school!  Yay!

Can you tell they are ready for summer?

we gotta take the bad with the good

I posted yesterday about how much we are loving our new town here in Ohio.  It seems like everything is really great here and mostly things are great, but I'm not a fan of this house.

It seems like every single day something new breaks or messes up.

The day we moved in there was no gas, so we couldn't use the heater for 4 days.  Finally the gas was turned on, but the heater still wouldn't work.  A coworker of Gary's came to fix it and finally we had heat in our new rent house.  For one week.  Then the heater went out again.  And it got fixed for a few days and then it was messed up again.  It was cold for this Texas girl, but we discovered space heaters and since the heater was fixed the last time we are good. (knock on wood)

The sink in the kids bathroom wouldn't drain for the first week we lived here.  The dishwasher doesn't clean the dishes very well.  The oven stopped working and I almost passed out as gas was pouring from it.  The toilets makes weird noises when we flush them, as if they are gurgling into the bathroom sinks.  The fridge had water leaking from underneath it.  Both of the kids ceiling fans are jacked up and they are loud and awkward.  The kitchen is missing trim between the cabinet and the counter tops. The heating system is zoned heating and we still don't know which thermostats control what heaters.  Tonight some crazy funky methane smell was coming from the bathroom.  I give up!

So, while some things are going great, other things are going haywire!  And you know me.  I am real.  I'm not posting this to complain, I am to the point where I just have to laugh it off.  I do realize it is all part of the plan.  I am okay with all these things knowing this rent house is temporary.  I do good as long as I don't let my mind wonder too much.  What if our house in Texas doesn't sell?  I don't want to own two homes.  What if we have to live here in this house longer?

What if?

What if?

See.  I just can't {what if} myself to death.  I am the kind of person who thrives off of the positives.  I must stay positive and know that it will all work out the way it is supposed to!  Gary and I have always done great in every situation thrown our way.  This one is no different.

For now I will enjoy our friends, neighbors and the beautiful scenery and try not to dwell on the house worries I have.

And I'll be spending every waking moment driving around looking at houses to purchase and searching Realtor.com!!  :)

Moving day Monday

The moving truck arrived today!  We are all packed up and ready to leave Texas for Ohio.

Hayden had his last day of school today.  Layla's last day will be tomorrow.

We will be hanging out camping here at the house until we head out of town!

Everything is gone and I have cleaned the entire house!  It's kinda fun for the kids.  They have been running around with a long lost beach ball.  Kick ball is super fun in an empty house!  We are making some fun memories this week! 

another random post

1.  I am so excited!  I got a delivery of new spring Thirty-One catalogs yesterday!!!!!  Let me know if you want one...I can mail you one!  :)  There are so many fun and cute things for spring!  Layla is dying over a new pattern called Flutter.  It is butterflies and it is so stinkin' adorable! 

2.  The mailman hand delivered our mail to the front door yesterday because the catalogs were too large for the box.  Those letters and that package were freezing cold.  It is cold day here again today, but hopefully we will warm up to the 50's later today.  I am sitting right in front of the fire as I type.  I am a tad jealous of a few people tweeting about snow.  I hope we get snow again this year!

3.  My 6 year old address book is old and just plain messy.  I really think I need a new one.  I'm thinking I need another Erin Condren item in my life.  I am really loving my on the go life planner!  I think the address book has a perpetual calendar!  I need!!!  Anyone have an EC addy book?  The picture below is of my life planner!

4. In April we will celebrate 6 years living in this house, our house.  Gasp!  6  years.  That is the longest Gary and I have lived in a house ever.  I am really thinking it is time to change up a few things.  Since Christmas our mantle is driving me crazy.  And the window treatment in the living room....blah!  There are so many things we want to do to this house.  Part of me thinks it is time to move, but the responsible part of me knows we need to stay here a few more years.  Redoing things is what it is all about.  Layla's ceiling fan has been giving us fits, so that seems like a great place to start this weekend!

the day we moved in back in 2006

5.  Earlier this week Layla woke up at night because of thunderstorms.  She slept in our bed with me.  Two nights in a row we  had storms in January. When do kids out grow being afraid of storms?  She has probably slept in our bed  maybe 5 times in her entire life.  All these times were after age 3 and during really bad storms.  I have to say it was kinda sweet to have her sleep with me, but she said I am a cover hog!

6.  Gary has been out of town working all week long.  We are so ready for him to come home!!!  The best part....he is bringing us Wisconsin cheese again.  Whooo hooo!  I love cheese!  We all love cheese!  I can't wait AND he buys the kids string cheese that is to die for.  I am hoping for another block of Tomato Basil cheese.  Yum!

7.  What in the world is it about Spongebob that kids love?  Hayden begs me every day to watch it.  I can't stand that show at all.  He doesn't watch watch it very often so why does he want to??  I have said before it makes kids brains mushy.  I caved though.  He got to watch it yesterday.  Right after one show I told him his brain was getting mushy.  He turned it off.

8.  Ok, last number...

Yesterday Layla and Hayden each had a friend come over to play at our house.  There were four kids running and playing in our house.  It was so fun to see them all play.  For the first 30 minutes I got my feelings hurt.  Hayden and his buddy went into his room and shut the door, and Layla and her friend did the same thing.  I just sat in the living room happy but sad.  Happy for quiet and thankful for great friends, but sad because I wanted to play too.   I did get to play later, so not to worry.  What am I going to do someday soon when they just stay in their rooms with their friends and don't hang out with me anymore?  I am enjoying every moment.  I don't take a second of time with my kids for granted!  They just grow so fast.  It seems like yesterday I was standing next to Gary and Layla when we moved into our house.  Time flies!!!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

A peek of our home during Christmas time ...

Our house is all decorated for Christmas.  I have pretty much the same Christmas theme every year.  My favorite Christmas things are reindeer, and I always decorate with red and gold.  I love to check last years blog posts to see how my decor changes from year to year.  As you will notice my style is a bit simple and functional.  I like to do just enough decorating to make the house festive.  I'm not the best decorator, because I'd rather be in the kitchen cooking.  I do have fun decorating, however I think could stand a few lessons. 

I love our tall skinny tree.  She is 9 feet tall and she came fresh out of the box 4 years ago.  This year her lights didn't work.  Gary (being the sweet man he is) cut off every single light and re-strung this tall lady!  Bless his heart.  I would have thrown her in the garbage and bought a new tree, but he saved our pocket book some pain!

The kids favorite part of our tree is this silly old gold star.  I was thinking I needed to get a new topper for our tree this year and Layla gasped in surprise.  "Mommy, Christmas trees must have stars!!"  So the gold star it is!

a few of my reindeer ornaments

Our mantle is always fun to decorate.  This year I decided to use lit garland.  I love it so much.  Our house is so cozy at night with the tree and the sparkling mantle.

Hayden insisted the nutcracker remain on the mantle.  He usually doesn't belong there, but Hayden insists he is protecting us.  Also the silly rooster match holder doesn't really mesh with my Christmas decor, but it belongs there. We have gas logs and the matches are stored up high right there for easy access for us adults, but the kids can't reach them.  The rooster holder was my grandmothers.  She hand painted it and I love it.

I wanted a simple center piece for my breakfast table.  We eat at the table every night so I didn't want a huge bulky centerpiece.  This glass bowl filled with read and cold balls is perfect!

Layla loves this little angel.  She has a place for a tea lite candle.  She looks so pretty at night with her candle burning bright.

Since I mentioned Layla....

She loves having a tree in her room.  I think this tree is PERFECT for her.

Hayden loves his Christmas tree too.  He always asks to sleep with the lights on, but we always end up turning them off.  He like to lay in bed and play by the light of the tree instead of sleep!

We have these fun little door knob hanging friends.  The angel hangs on our front door and the reindeer on the backdoor that leads to the patio.  They have little bells on them so you can hear the jingle when you open or close the door.

I love buying cinnamon scented pine cones every year.  They smell so good!!  These pine cones were just plain ole pine cones but I added a few balls to their basket to liven them up!  They are in the kitchen/breakfast area on the bakers-rack. 

My formal dining room table is suffering a bit this year.  I really haven't done too much in there, and now the table runner is holding all the Christmas cards we have received.    I usually set the table with fun dishes, but I'm not feeling it this year.

Here is a quick look at the outside.  The Santa is on the front porch and the snowman is on the back porch.  I need to take some night time pictures.  Gary hung clear lights all the way around our house.  I love the look of clear lights!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!

Our Laundry Room and Play Room take 2

This weeks theme at Kelly's Korner is Playrooms/Bonus Rooms/Laundry Rooms. 

I posted our playroom a few weeks ago when we did Guest Bedrooms.  So I will post a few pictures of the playroom again, and also my laundry room.

We recently got a new washer and dryer.  I love my new energy efficient washer and dryer.  I love all the fun settings and how much better they work. Gee our old ones were like 50 years old I think!!  I decided against getting the front load washer and dryer set.  I am a very low maintenance girl, and when it comes to a washer and dryer I like practical.  I love the top loading washer, and having a curious toddler...I wanted to stick with what I am used to.  Hayden already got a step stool and tried to climb into the washer...wow! He'd be chilling out in there if it were front loading. I am so happy with my new set!

My shelves are full of baskets with various things in each of the baskets.  I have a basket of nails, double sided tape and anything you'd need to hang a picture.  I also have another basket of batteries. With all the toys we have we are always changing batteries...gotta have those things on hand.  One basket holds light bulbs.  And one is full of cleaning supplies.  The last basket is full of old cleaning cloths.

I also store my vacuum cleaner, swiffer, brooms and shark in the laundry room.  As well as the iron and ironing board. I'm not sure why I have the iron...we never use it!  HA!

I have the craziest paint going on in here...it is wild.  I went to Lowe's and got paint form the discount shelf.  I just got whatever they had on hand.  The green was $2.50 and the maroon color was $5.00 for a gallon.  I am in the laundry room so much, I wanted fun wild colors!  Next I plan to get some fun pictures to liven up the walls.

See my tool set on the shelf above the dryer.  It is mine.  I love having my own tool set.  It makes me feel really handy...ha!

And once again, the playroom.  We love our playroom.  We spend a ton of time in here!

We rarely have company that spends the night, so we decided to turn the guest bedroom into a playroom.  IT is the BEST decision we made.  It works perfectly for our family.

We have all the dresser drawers filled with toys.  One drawer has all the plastic dishes and food that go with the kitchen.  Another drawer has play telephones and Mr Potato head parts.  One drawer has so many balls in it, it will hardly close. And the same for the drawer overflowing with toy cars. 

 The two middle doors are filled with games and puzzles.  Hayden decided to pour every single puzzle out onto the floor the other day.  I will never get that mess cleaned up.  I feel like throwing the puzzles away and buying new ones.  There were a million pieces and now they are all mixed up...ridiculous!!  Seriously shouldn't someone be watching that kid. 

Another funny thing about this storage dresser...the two top drawers handles are broken.  It is wonderful!!!  I store all the kids movies and crayons in those two drawers.  Only Gary and I know how to get into them...ha!  So I don't mind that the handles are broken.  Otherwise Hayden would break all the DVD's and then color all over them...teehee.

We love to lay the futon down and watch movies in the playroom.  Our plan is to get a new TV in here. As I said in an earlier post I still need to do more decorating, running around chasing a 5 year old and a 2 year old is keeping me pretty busy as of late!

Thanks for stopping by our house.

Our Bathrooms

Do you know how hard it is to photograph bathrooms?  Just sayin'!

This is our guest bathroom, which is also our kids bathroom.

It is little.  If we could change one thing about our house we have agreed we would add another bathroom.  As the kids get older they will need the space. 

I am very proud of the shower curtain.  I made the purple valance that hangs over the shower curtain.  I even added the beads...yay me!  I am not the craftiest person, but I am trying and love to learn!

I am standing in the bath tub for this picture!

The door to the left leads to the hallway, and the door straight ahead is the towel closet.

*****

This is the master bathroom.

A glance from Gary's side of the bed looking into the bathroom.

I love having our closet in the bathroom.

These pictures were taken before my sweet Callaway passed away.  :(

He loved sleeping on our closet floor.

I love having the potty room with a door.

There is the big tub I have used maybe 5 times in 5 years.  I am not a bath girl.

Thanks for stopping by to peek in on our bathrooms.  Jump on over to Kelly's Korner to see other bloggers bathrooms :)

Guest Bedroom is a Play Room in our house

This week at Kelly's Korner she wants to see our Guest Bedrooms!

We once had a guest bedroom in our house, and it only got used once or twice a year.  We are so lucky to have most of our family and friends close by.  So, after much discussion Gary and I decided a playroom was WAY more practical for our family!  When we do have visitors they get to crash out in here:

Once upon a time we had a couch in here, but we decided to switch to a futon because we can fold it down and watch movies!!  And of course our guests are more comfy too.  The sofa didn't have a 'hid a bed.'

The only furniture in this room is the futon and dresser.  Everything else is kids stuff...toys and more toys in the dresser drawers.  The dresser works perfectly for toys and movie storage.

Hayden and I spend a ton of time in this room.  He calls it the 'pwayroom'.

Our playroom is a work in progress.

I love this little book shelf.  It was Gary's parents.  It is perfect for little bodies!

Back to the work to do:  above the silhouettes I want to add "All because two people fell in love."  Btw...I am so happy with our silhouettes...I did them and I LOVE them :) 

[I am a cooker, not a crafter, so when I do something the slightest bit creative I toot my own horn!!]

And above the art clothes line I want to add a fun quote too.

I love these caricatures of the kids...my best friend had a caricature artist at her son's birthday party. 

What a fun idea...and an even better party favor!!

The play kitchen is the kids favorite part of the playroom.  We have tons of dishes and fake food.  I guess they see Gary and I in the kitchen cooking all the time, so they imitate us.  I love it.  I hope they are little chefs one day :)

And the vacuum is a huge hit.  Hayden follows me around the house while I clean.  I can always hear Elmo screaming 'clean up clean up'  Yes, the vacuum talks.  Ugh!

So that is our guest bedroom...can't wait to see yours.  I'm sure they are 100 times more glamorous than ours...heeehee!!  Happy Friday!