Thee LAST House Update - no more are needed!

It is finally here! Moving day!

I wanted to put a few (close to 40!) pictures of the house on here before we pack it full of boxes and furniture that is going to look shabby now that it is in a BRAND NEW home.

Sorry! My excitement keeps bursting out - I will try and keep it under wraps. 

So I'm going to give you a virtual tour, which in no way compares to the real thing. I'm just going to throw in the little disclaimer also that I have had no time to edit my pictures so be prepared!

We are going to start the tour by pretending that we have just driven up in my car and I have used my awesome garage door opener to let us in. (Can I just say how happy I am to have a garage to park in again? No more scraping ice for this girl early in the morning!)

Watch your step! Here is the mud room. The washer and dryer will be placed on the immediate right and on the left side that you cannot see, there will be a bench, some coat hooks, and cube-like shelves to hold things like our soccer gear, pool stuff, and winter hats & mittens.

There is a pocket door that will be open most of the time but can be closed if the laundry is too loud.

Upon leaving the mud room, if you take an immediate right, you will see the door to the master bedroom. 

Not the best view from the doorway I know, but trying to take pictures inside a house is hard work!

In the bedroom you can see both the closet doorway and the entry into the master bathroom. (and the ladder that I was too tired to move out of the picture).

Closet: My side.

Closet: My other side (with a few inches spared for Mark's things). 

Here is the bathtub area in the master bathroom. (again my pictures aren't that great - the bathroom is Bee-you-tif-ful!)

Here's the sink area (mirrors weren't in yet). 

Here's the other side of the bathroom.

Heading out of the master bathroom, let's take a look upstairs in the bonus room.

I'm thinking this is going to be a playroom/guest room/workout room.

It will be interesting to see what it really turns into...

Heading back down the stairs, we get to go into the kitchen and dining room area next. 

Looking towards the dining room...

I have grand visions of this little area being used as a charging station with a calendar above it along with all our sport's schedules, doctor appointments, etc. located here but again, we'll see what it actually turns into.

Dining room...

My personal favorite... the kitchen!It is looking so purty!

One of my many favorite things about it is all the plug-ins that I have. They are all hidden underneath the cabinets so that they don't disrupt the prettiness of the backsplash (I'm not sure if that's officially why they are under there but that's what I'm going with!).

Now you see them!

Now you don't!

There they are again...

Next up is the family room.

On the opposite side of the fireplace is this view.

The first door to the left leads to the room we don't know what to officially call...

sometimes it's the library, sometimes it's the living room. This room is going to be a toy- free zone for reading and quiet conversation and reading. It will have bookshelves, comfy furniture, and I think a world map with pictures next to it of all the places I have been lucky enough to travel to. 

Here is Mark's room for all his camo and hunting stuff. Also, all dead animals with fake eyeballs belong in this room and this room only. It has pocket doors that can be closed also.

Caleb's room (that he has already moved Legos into. Nothing else, just his Legos). 

His desk and closet area.

Our second hallway in the house. We tried not to waste a lot of space with hallways. 

Here is the boys' bathroom. To the right behind the door is the toilet and the shower. 

Owen-ator's room.

His closet and desk area.

"

Looking from the hallway towards the dining room.

What you see if you come in from the front door. 

And that is the basics of the house! I left out all the outside stuff and if this post doesn't make much sense you can blame it on the fact that I am frantically packing, doing laundry, keeping the puppy from chewing up everything in sight, and cleaning. I give myself a 5-minute break each time I finish a task and I have been rushing over here trying to get this done tonight!

We will be up bright and early moving, moving, moving and tomorrow will be our first official night in the new house and it has been a long time coming - a year and a half in fact!

Guess what we did..

For those of you who know my husband, you know that he is not one to just go out and buy something.

He is methodical about his spending. Researching the best, looking for a bargain, carefully weighing all his options. 

Well this morning, imagine my surprise when I wake up to find out that Mark had made an appointment this morning based on something he read in the paper while drinking his coffee.

An appointment to look at puppies. 

Mark has been dreaming of having a rottweiler for a while now. He has met several through his job and he loves a lot of things about them. 

I on the other hand am a little intimidated by them. 

Maybe I should say a lot intimidated by them. 

To the point of crossing the street if I see one coming towards me and I will always automatically put the boys behind me if I see one near them. 

I have never had a bad experience with one but nonetheless, there it is. 

Today though, I was brave and I went with Mark to look at the rottweiler puppies. 

Why did no one ever tell me how adorable they are?

How fat and furry and sweet?

I was a goner as soon as I held one sweet little girl.

We stayed for a while but we all knew we were coming home with one.

It was just a given.

In the blink of an eye we had handed over our money, packed up our pup and headed back to the house. Everyone was thrilled! Everyone except Kye.

She was not impressed. Not one little bit. 

We watched her carefully but other than some growls and putting her body in between us and the puppy at all times, she has done ok. 

For about 5 seconds she even let the puppy lay on her blanket with her. 

Her name is Mercy and I think she is neater than snowflakes in July.

Owen keeps repeating "she's adorable!" (he's smitten!)

Caleb swears that she is the cutest puppy ever (he's head-over-heels!)

Mark has ignored the rest of us all day and has just hung out on the floor with the puppy (I think Kye has a good reason to be jealous!)

Puppies are the best!

And summer starts now...

Today was the day.

The last day I had to work before summer vacation. 

It has been a whirlwind since I went back to work this week. 

Report cards, permanent files, work sample requirements, volunteer thank you's, field day, etc. 

As of 2:45 today though I had it all done. 

It was a great feeling!

Now, lots to look forward to as the summer days begin to stretch before us. Lots of plans for small things: swimming lessons, pool time, walks/family bike rides, snow cones.

I love the summer.

This evening as I was washing the dishes, I realized what a bad parent I was.

I was probably the last person in our whole city to ask their child to see their report card. 

I had spent hours laboring over mine and for some reason the simple fact that my own child would be bringing one home slipped my mind. 

I wasn't worried at all about what I would find on the report card. Caleb is a great student and one smart little cookie. I just felt bad that I hadn't had the chance to go over it with him and let him know how proud we were of him!

When I was rooting through his backpack, I also noticed some things cleaned out from his cubby. 

He had a picture poster that I promptly hung on the fridge. 

2nd grade moments captured forever!

This one was my favorite...

Then I remembered a paper that his teacher had passed to me on the last day of school. 

On it was a poem that Caleb had written about Owen.

I don't think any poet has brought tears to my eyes faster. 

Here's to brothers that love their brothers,

warm summer days that I know are bound to appear,

camping, fishing, hiking, 

our trip to the beach...

and to children who think doing the dishes together is more fun than giving peanut butter to the dog. 

May Photo Challenge

May has not been my favorite month so far this year.

I'm just saying...

I blame it on the 8 spider bites that I had on my stomach. After that happened, things just went downhill from there.

Needless to say, I didn't get a chance to do a lot of picture taking. 

Tonight, Mark and I went down to Farmer's Market and I brought my camera with me to try and capture (in June!) some of the challenges for May. 

(You have to forgive me Sarah. I have 4 stab-like wounds in my tummy so right now I have to be forgiven everything. It's part of the "feeling-sorry-for-the-girl-who-had-to-have-surgery" rule). 

And just to show you how this month has been going when I went to snap my first picture I realized that I had forgot to put my CF card back into my camera. Luckily though! I always carry one in my camera bag which my Hero Mark went back to the truck and grabbed for me.

But then, once I put my back-up CF card in, my camera battery died. I didn't even want to tell my Hero Mark but he saw the look on my face and asked. I told him my dilemma and he, very kindly, ran back to the truck again for me because I luckily! always carry a spare battery with me. 

See how mean the month of May has been to me? I was hoping June would be a little kinder!

But enough whining! Let's look at some pictures!

Sarah came up with the challenges for this month and here are my entries:

A Baby or Young Child:

These sweet little peanuts are the twin boys of a fellow 2nd grade teacher here in town. They will be 1 in August and her new baby is due in the same month - crazy huh?!

       This sweetie was my first choice for a baby picture but after I snapped it, I started thinking that Sarah had meant it had to be a human baby. This sweetie is a baby mini-Australian shepherd. 

A Portrait:

One of my favorite things about Farmer's Market is running into friends. The first family are some friends of ours from church - love them!

The second picture is Owen's speech teacher. She is the sweetest person ever and I love her relaxed look now that the weekend is here!

Grass:

I love to have some tall grasses in my larger flower containers and these ones were very pretty!

Something Red:

Mark spotted this guy for me (he even had red shoes on!) and once I saw his T-shirt, I knew I had to approach him for a pose. He was quite the character and didn't mind me taking his picture at all.

Something Wet:

I came up with a big old goose egg for this one (that's what I get for leaving it to the last minute!) It was trying to sprinkle on us while we were out and about and I was all excited but no dice. It always quit after a few drops. 

Nothing spectacular on the photo front here but I am loving how these challenges are making me get my camera out and using it! 

Here is next month's challenge:

Channel your inner paparazzi and take these 5 pictures of people you don't know (and aren't related to, Sarah!) doing the following things:

1. A sports activity

2. laughing

3. displaying some public affection

4. attending a community event (car show, farmer's market, etc.)

5. something possibly embarrassing 

These are going to be hard! But I'm hoping that with school out, the two of us will have more time to go out with our cameras and shoot some pictures. It would be fun too if we met somewhere and took some pictures together..