The best part about Christmas is little kids. L was very excited about Santa and couldn't hardly wait to get downstairs to see what he brought. D on the other hand being only 2 was a little grumpy at first about why he couldn't go downstairs just yet. Anyhoo, Christmas only comes once a year, and it was fantastic.

"I Don't Want A Lot For Christmas..."

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Bags so they'll fit in a small pkg to ship, wrapping paper at home so the kids can't peek.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, flocked and pre-lit 9 footer.
3. When do you put up the tree? This year once we got our boxes unpacked it was Dec 6th! Too late. Next year the day after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? My parents are coming for New Years, so a day or two after that.
5. Do you like Egg Nog? NO! Every time and variety I'm co-erced to take a sip of is NASTY!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? One year I got an Armitron robot, with a remote control arm, spent lots of time trying to get it to pick up things. Thought it was going to clean my room for me.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Parents and hubby, but I think I did pretty good this year. Thoughtful gifts are the best.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids. I think they just enjoy opening gifts and want more to open.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, 4. One our grandma made, one of those olive wood ones, one more lifelike one, and one from Panama carved out of stone that's on the mantel.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Some years christmas cards, but I'm a slacker this year, can I use the excuse that I moved??
11. Lights on Yourself or Prelit? Lights on the big tree, none on little tree.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? We ALWAYS watch "Its a Wonderful Life." 13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Before Thanksgiving when the aisles are fully stocked and there's no crazy christmas shoppers out yet. And I'm forced to be done by Dec 16 so I can ship things. I just have a stocking stuffer or two left to get. Go me!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Heavens no!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas breakfast: ham, hash browns, blueberry muffins, eggs, and grape juice. And all the kitchen has to be cleaned up before we can open gifts.
16. Lights on the tree? The big tree yes, the little tree, no.
17. Favorite Christmas song? I really love Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You."
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year we actually get to stay home and enjoy Christmas with our little family. I'm excited to get to make our own traditions.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen...Rudolph!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Since my christmas decor is on a budget we have an old Angel I got along time ago, but our tree is so tall it wouldn't fit and one night during dinner she did a nose dive to the floor, and won't be going back up.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? That it went by too fast this year!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Green and Gold, however, I also am stuck with a lot of red ornaments when that was my favorite. I'm slowly acquiring more ornaments, but probably at the "after christmas clearance sale" for next year.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Breakfast is the main thing, but we might do a turkey this year.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Mostly gift cards to home decor stores like World Market so I can decorate! There's also a great lamp at Pier One, a membership to Smilebox (scrapbooking online) and another bird feeder (in case hubby reads this:-)) But whatever I get, I'll be happy just to be with my loved ones!

Now your turn to all who want to do this!

Which house did they pick??

After just a few weeks I have finally got the house somewhat in order to share a few photos of our new place. If you guessed house #1, you were correct! We are really enjoying it here, and with our furniture finally out of storage it is starting to feel like home. Our ward is great and we love the area. Our backyard backs up to the woods and we're enjoying the animals that live there. We've set out a bird feeder for the blue-jays and red cardinals. The kids rooms need paint and I'm excited to get on that. We still have pictures to hang and curtains to put up. I'll try to post more pics later as I get other rooms decorated. The photos I have taken will be reserved for my "before" makeover photos later.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We finally got all un-packed and moved in- Thanks to Matt's parents for coming up and doing all the work. The house is finally feeling like Home Sweet Home. The weather outside is frightful, yeah, it's snowing. And there's more where that came from. Although the fireplace inside is delightful. We wish you and yours the happiest of Christmases, and a Happy New Year.

And The Winner Is...

I am so excited to tell you which house we've chosen! We get to close on the 25th, take posession on the 26th, the day before Thanksgiving. However, I'll keep you in suspense until I get unpacked I'll post the house and some pics too! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Trick-Or-Treats

Halloween was a blast. Leah was (in her own words) an "Evil Witch," not a princess or a good witch. Drew was a pumpkin, minus his pumpkin hat he wouldn't keep on for more than 10 seconds. We had a good time at a friends house trick or treat party and then we went around the neighborhood. The kids both loved it, but after 30 minutes Drew was dragging his candy-filled-pumpkin on the ground and had to retire to the stroller. The weekend before we went to the Stake Fall Festival, also fun for the kids.

Decisions... Decisions...

I thought it would be easy. Find a house, move in. Well, not so much.

Other than my basic requirements of 3-4 beds, 2.5 baths, double sinks in the master and on a quiet neighborhood street, there are too many factors to consider. So far, we haven't seen that one house with the perfect combination of interior, exterior, neighborhood, and of course price. So now I've come to the realization that I'm going to have to compromise and weigh all the options and try to make a good decision. As for now, these are my top 3, and my dilemmas:

House #1: Large and In Charge
This house has great curb appeal, and the best part about it is the 3 car garage, which also carries the highest price tag. While spacious and roomy on the inside, the nicest part about it is the exterior. There's a beautiful stamped patio in the small backyard. Unfortunately, the interior has been finished rather cheaply. We're talking linoleum floors and the dreadful laminate countertops (although at least its not white). It does have wonderful 9' ceilings, but for the price you'd think you wouldn't have to go in and tile half the first floor and spruce up all the bathrooms, and we'd still have to try to negotiate the price down to our liking.


House #2: Feeling Good in the Neighborhood
This home has great curb appeal. While 300sf smaller than home #1 the price is do-able. It's in a lovely neighborhood and actually has tile floors (while also off-white). Large master bedroom and bath as well. One issue is the small backyard, which is taken up with a goldfish pond and surrounding landscaping (beautiful, but not much room for the kids to play). While only a few years old the kitchen is Blah-zay and definitely needs a face lift in the way of countertops, appliances and paint. Well, the whole house is a blank slate actually, just waiting for me to splash paint all over it. It also has 4 bedrooms like house #1 and #3.


House #3: Location Price Location

This Home is lovely throughout and at 2300sf there is room for all my furniture. The only project is to tone down a few bright walls to my taste, and perhaps tile the vinyl floor which is actually quite nice as far as the colors. The kitchen here rocks. Stainless appliances, tons of counter space, has a place for bar stools and a lovely morning room dining area adjacent. The master suite is dreamy with his and her closets. The price is awesome for the sf-age, the only catch here is the town. It's a little less developed than the previous 2 homes' neighborhoods, and may be a minute or two longer commute for work. Extra parking for our 3rd vehicle is a plus, and it has privacy being at the end of the street. The yard is LARGE, and this is where the work starts in landscaping or seeding the patchy grass backyard. But for a bonus there is a full privacy fence and nice deck. At this price I may be able to get some nice patio furniture... I wish I could decide and I feel like the clock ticking since I'd like to get in somewhere before the holidays...

The Cleve

We Made It.

From DC to the West and back to the East, we survived 4 days of driving with 2 little kids! We finally pulled into town in one piece. It will be a bit before I can post pics of our last trip to DC and our new Cleve adventures, as I'm at the hotel and there's been a mix up with our movers and we will not be getting our household items tomorrow after all!! So who knows when I'll get my computer and then internet service after that. Anyhoo-- we miss you all already--more to come soon:-)

Cross Country

I'm looking forward to another trip back to the east coast. Its been awesome fun to go there twice this summer, but I'm glad this is the third and final trip I'll have to make, and then I'll finally get my husband back:-) We've got some fun things scheduled, a tour of the capitol, and we're going to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where our grandpa was a guard back in the 60s. The adults in the family are coming along so it should be a lot of fun. Maybe I should set another countdown clock-- but now that its almost here it feels like time is getting slower, which is probably just because I'm looking forward to it so much. I'll be sure and post some pics and let you in on all the fun from my next trip.

4 Months Later...

I'm happy to announce we've accepted an offer on our house! We close on the 24th of September and then we'll start off on our major road trip cross country. I'm very happy with getting an offer after 4 months on the market... especially with the way the housing market is right now. A shout out to Grandma and all her hard work, and also her side kick for taking care of all our open house signs and sharing all their real estate wisdom and experience with us.

All that's left to do is cross our fingers that the buyers loan goes through the bank and we close as planned.

Earlier when asked about moving if I'd miss this house I said no without hesitation. However, since I've been looking online at homes to buy in our new city, I'm reminded that it took alot of work to make our house look this good.

I do feel a little sad to leave it. However, I'm excited for projects in the next house, since I love decorating. I'm hoping to find a house that just needs a few cosmetic things-- like painting and decorating and gardening, not major projects like finishing our backyard which we did here. Plus, I'm a little tired of my red color scheme. I think there are red accents in almost every room. Moving is a good excuse to change it up at our next place. Anyhoo, I'm sure I have the next house fixed up just in time to move again, and the cycle continues.

Another Wash Weekend

Another great weekend in D.C. Friday night we got dinner and saw Batman. Then Saturday we spent downtown at the Spy Museum. It was amazing to see all the little gadgets on display from the ~50's. Definitely worth the $18 ticket. We got lunch at the California Tortilla, ice cream at Haggen Daz. Then we went down to Georgetown and took a boat ride on the Potomac to see the monuments from the River. We spent the evening shopping on King Street in Alexandria. It was a gorgeous old town. We ate dinner at the Austin Grill-- great chicken enchiladas. And found a bench on the busy dock, where we listened to a one-man-band, complete with his guitar, tambourine, drum, and harmonica. For one lively song we turned around to see the crowd clapping as 2 small kids were dancing up a storm to the music. We ended the day with another treat at Pop's Old Fashioned Ice Cream, mainly because I was doing the dance and felt obligated to make a purchase to use their restroom.

Sunday morning we went to the Francordia ward, in the Mount Vernon Stake (cool stake name). We ran into some old neighbors that moved to Virginia, small world isn't it. We spent the remainder of our day in Alexandria, in the photo above this appears to be an original door, only about 2 feet wide, in the middle of the row houses turned into small shops. Everything was so quaint and patriotic. The flags flying and knowing that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had walked some of the same streets. I especially liked being close to the water, and surprisingly enjoyed the humidity, which wasn't too bad this trip. Thanks so much to Jerry and Rose for watching the kids. While they were missed, I definitely enjoyed the break and the few days to spend with my handsome hubby.

What's in a Name?

On the news last night there was a clip about a new world record. While I can't remember the number, it was the record for the most people gathered together with the same name: Muhammed. It was quite a sight, over a thousand people I think. I've seen other fun human interest stories about gatherings of people with the same name, I think Jim Smith was one of them, with each one saying to the camera, "Hi, I'm Jim Smith," and they really were! So, having a fair amount of time on my hands, I decided to google my name in search of others out there who call this name their own. I must admit it was a fun search. I found a college student in Minnesota with a very funny blog about Dick Cheney-- she's obviously a democrat. A young realtor in Nebraska, and a famous soap opera star, who shares at least 2 of her 3 names with us.

This brings me to an episode of Seinfield. Elaine is dating a guy and is embarrassed because he has the same name as a serial killer. By the end of the show they're trying to come up with names for him to switch to, and neither of them can agree on a name. Its interesting that all of us are "named," we don't get to pick a name for ourselves. At least not usually. There are people like my sister who unconventionally changed her name to that of a heroine in a sci-fi novel she liked, while our family still calls her the name we're used to, she pretty much goes by 4 different names, or a combination of them.

I suppose most women still take their spouses name when they get married, which makes sense in order to distinguish families. I was quite happy to change my last name when I got married, not only does it sound nice, but I can let go of my old association and perception of myself that went with it. Occasionally I'll write out my old name when I doodle, and it feels foreign to me. It's an odd reminder that I'm not the same person I used to be.

While I don't think my name is common enough to break any records, I enjoyed discovering people with my same name. I thought about posting a little comment on a blog, but what would I say? "Just wanted to say hello to someone who has the same as me?" Ummm, I don't think so. While all people are unique, names are common, we might not be the "only one of us" out there. Just do the best you can with the name you have, and try to give the rest of those with the "same name" a good one.

Leah's Launcher

What's summer without a water party? Everyone loves an old fashioned water balloon fight, relay races, slip and slides and balloon popping contests with your behind. That's all the fun you'd expect at our wards' awesome Primary Party today. Leah and Drew loved it, although we were keeping the little boy up from his nap to attend...

Zooalicious

We spent our 4th of July at a place the kids and I love- the Zoo! I am amazed at how many different creatures there are on the earth. We had a lot of fun, especially since M could be here too:-) D-Roo was a little sad at first, he got sunscreen in his eyes:-( and he loved the train ride. Lil'L mostly liked Dad to race with her in the stroller. The weekend was busy, and time went by too fast, but it was great, I know the kids and we parents had a lot of fun.

Daisy Crazy

Okay, I suppose its time for a gardening update. Here's D-Roo in front of the daisy explosion I came home to after my hiatus in Denver. Daisys, though beautiful, were everywhere. I staked a few, pulled out a bunch, and cut some for vases. Leah loved cutting the arrangements and was a great helper.
I am very sad to report on my petunia seedlings I was so pumped about. Yes, its true, I left the tiny seedlings in the sun while I was at church, and when I came home they were all completely fried!! oh boy I wanted to cry. So, now that its been at least a month or more I can finally talk about it:-) After such a disaster I can't hardly bring myself to waste the effort starting more seeds, I think I'll be waiting until next year. The only thing I might do is sow zinnia seeds directly in the ground in the front flower bed, after I clean up the bottom tier of the daisys as their blooms fade.

A few other lessons I've learned so far this gardening season, is to not believe everything I read in gardening catalogs. I ordered some hydrangeas, which were said to "thrive in shade to full sun", well after planting 2 in full sun, 1 in part sun, and 1 in full shade, only 2 are "thriving". The 2 nikko blue hydrangeas planted in full sun are weak and the brown leaves look quite sickly. I think I might try to save them and move them to a container on my front courtyard, where I have the other blue one. At least my Forever Pink Hydrangea is flowering.

Other successes involve my strawberry plants, which have produced a delightful harvest, I think Leah has eaten almost every one. Not to mention last year I planted 8 bareroot strawberry plants, they all died except one. Walking by that one living plant a few days ago I was pleasantly surprised to find 5 ruby red strawberries! the kids and I quickly carried them in to wash and eat them.

The area I'm really proud of is the potted plants in my courtyard. I planted impatiens, begonias and some others, and I think they look pretty nice. The large green leafed one in Lil L's photo is my other blue hydrangea, though I have yet to see buds on that yet. All around I think this gardening venture has been well worth all the effort and the work still to come.

Drab to Fab

I thought you could get a better idea of how the house looks from these pics. Here's the "before" and "after" kitchen pics. The white laminate countertop had cracks and bubbles in it and was stained, so after alot of M's hard work, and some help from SM, the countertops and backsplash look amazing. We also got new hardware for the cabinets, new faucet and stainless appliances to match. Hopefully the new owner will appreciate our hard work:-)

We got a new gas stove and refrigerator to match our stainless dishwasher in December, they are all staying, especially after we completely squeezed the fridge in there, there's no way its coming out- I'll miss you stainless appliances!

Touch a Truck

Today the next town over had "Touch a Truck."  D loved getting in the bulldozer and driving the RTD Bus.  All the city vehicles were there, and a few more. Who would have thought it would be so fun to touch a truck?

Cleveland Rocks

I found a few fun facts about Cleveland:

The Cleveland area has 3 professional sports teams, The Browns, Cavaliers, & Indians. (Plus the not pro hockey team "Little Monsters.") 

Is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It sits on Lake Erie .

There's a temple in Columbus- only 2 hours away.

The average winter temp is 25 degrees, and the average summer temp is 72 degrees.  It's a little chillier than I would prefer, but I hear the ice storms are beautiful.  

As of the 2000 Census, the city proper had a total population of 478,403, and was then the 33rd largest city in the nation^[6] and the second largest city in Ohio. 

In studies conducted by The Economist in 2005, Cleveland and Pittsburgh were ranked as the most livable cities in the United States.   

Scenes for Spider-Man 3 were filmed in Cleveland in April 2006.

The city was also the setting for the popular sitcom, The Drew Carey Show which starred Cleveland native Drew Carey.

If anyone asks us how we feel about our assignment to Cleveland, the music starts playing in our head and all we can do is smile and say "Cleveland Rocks!"   

The Mistake on the Lake

Anyone catch that 30 Rock episode where Liz's boyfriend asks her to go to Cleveland? "I could be a model in Cleveland." and "How would you like to pet a real police horse?" The happy music and the slowed down pace of the city vs the hustle and bustle of New York.  Well folks, we're going to Cleveland! While I was thinking we might get Miami or DC, Cleveland was the 4th choice in our 4th choice region. But I'll take it! I'm so glad it wasn't CA or NY.   I think the McQuiveys where the closest on their guess, I'll be sending a milkshake your way!   I'll catch up with more details, but now I'm off to the airport for a weekend of fun in the capital city.

Countdown

I admit it, I'm full of anticipation, a little anxious, and excited. Its like being a kid on Christmas Eve and I just can't fall asleep, wondering if there will be presents under the tree or a lump of coal in the stocking. Yes I'm thinking of June 6th, a very important day. No its not some wierd holiday like Step-Sisters Day or Janitor Day (don't forget to send them a boquet of mop heads for all their hard work throughout the year), it is what I'm calling Destination Day! Some time that evening we will find out where we'll be headed to for the next adventure, and it could be anywhere... in the 50 states most likely. Feel free to venture a guess as to where you think we'll end up, and the winner (or person whose guessed location is closest to the actual) wins a milkshake! ok, I may have to see if there's a virtual one somewhere online (light bulb over head with Chocolate shake from Carls Jr, yum..) I'll do my best to post the results as soon as the countdown ticker reaches Zero.

Down in the Valley-O

Our house has been for sale for just a few weeks, and we've had tons of showings. It's the time of year when buyers come out of hybernation and hit the pavement. We've had 6 showings in the last 5 days. Hopefully the foot traffic keeps up and someone's interest will turn into an offer. Our backyard has been graded and power raked, and the sod should be showing up next week, so long as the weather cooperates. Hopefully someone will buy our house! Its an unusual situation (at least for me) to be selling my house without having any idea of where we might buy our next one. We should find out next month some time... I'm waiting with anticipation. Meanwhile I'm constantly keeping the house in order and thought it would be a good opportunity to take a few pics to remember the house, and all the hard work we put in to it. Its been nice being close to family, being in a nice ward, and having an amazing view from our front door. But now it's time to get going-where to? Stay Tuned.