New Carpet!

When our realtor said that we should seriously consider replacing the carpet in the master bedroom, small bedroom and hallway, I have to admit I cringed.

I know, the carpets are old, stained, ripped, and just very sad looking. Just cleaning them up and trying a patch job probably wouldn't cut it. They are 23+ years old, after all!

But how much money were we going to have to spend to get it looking pretty? And was the money spent on new carpet going to have a good return of investment? While we do have some money set aside to fix up the house to sell it, I don't really want to dump a ton of money into the house, either.

The Thursday of Spring Break we actually went to a local furniture and flooring place to look at carpet and talk about getting an estimate. They did our church's flooring (which turned out great), so we knew they'd do a really nice job for us.

When we told the sales guy that we were looking for new carpet for selling our house, he showed us a sample of what their most popular carpet for situations like this was. Apparently they can't keep it in stock because it's so popular, and the sales guy even has it in his spare bedroom at his house. To quote the sales guy: "This carpet sells houses!"

I am not a huge carpet fan, but let me just tell you, I fell in love with this carpet. It is the perfect tan color with hints of dark brown in it. It's light enough to keep a room bright, yet dark enough to hide dirt, and the dark specks of brown will help hide lint and things in between cleanings. It's soft, yet super affordable.

And the best part? It's name is 'Cookie Dough'. That right there was the selling point for me! (I know, I'm weird...).

While the sales guy was writing up the estimation appointment order, Ryan was leaning his head on it, and Paige and Nate kept reaching over to pet it. I think they liked it, too!

The estimation appointment was actually scheduled for the following day (woo hoo!), but the guy was a no show. We waited and waited as we knew he had had another appointment, so maybe it was going late. Finally, Pete called in the early afternoon, and the guy was there but hadn't noticed a new appointment on his schedule. Oops! He came right out though, and was only here for a few minutes getting his measurements. He said he'd have an estimate on Monday (it was Easter weekend and he'd be away all weekend), but ended up calling us back that night with our estimate! We accepted it as the number was a lot prettier than we thought it would be, and the installation appointment was scheduled!

Well, today installation day! We opted to do the ripping out of the old carpet ourselves to save us a few dollars, so Pete, Paige, Ryan, and I tag teamed that on Sunday after church. With all four of us working, we were able to get it all out and cleaned up in two and a half hours! Not bad at all! Ryan loved helping so much that he says he hopes the new house has carpet so he can do it all over again.

We're glad that it was only a two day wait before the installation. All of our bedroom things (except the bed) moved into the living room, and all of Paige's things were in the dining room! Mozzie loved it, though, as he got to explore the tops of the bookcases for the first time.

The installers arrived at 9:30 this morning, and by 10 they had the tack strips and padding all down! They did have to leave for a little bit as they were double booked for today, but they still managed to finish everything by 2:15. That is super impressive, especially because they had the massive loft bed in Paige's room that had to be lifted and worked around.

The Loft Bed of Doom had to be lifted over the roll!!!

We are soooo happy with the new carpet! I wish we had done it earlier, just for us. It just makes the house feel so much nicer, it is so soft under our feet, and it's just so pretty. We're also really impressed because we had some issues with where the carpet meets up with the laminate flooring in a couple places (the laminate was the issue, not the carpet), and they totally fixed it for us.

SO PRETTY.

I'm waiting to see who ends up sleeping on the floor tonight; Paige asked if she could sleep on her floor tonight (would have let her if she didn't have an early day tomorrow), and Ry has been known to sleep in the hallway. They've all been rolling around on it or just cuddling it this afternoon, so I'm sure someone will be on it when we get up in the morning!

Or maybe I won't have to wait until morning as someone's already camped out:

BIG NEWS! With the carpet install, we have our first room completely ready for selling!!!! WOO HOO!!! Okay, so it's just the hallway, but still, one is ready!!!!

No, Ry isn't sleeping in this picture, he just didn't want to have his picture taken again! But the hall is so pretty without chips in the walls, it's new art work, sparkling clean trim and doors, and of course, new carpet that doesn't have a huge hole in it!

Now we just have to pick out the new counter top, and we'll have yet another big project ready to go. I'm hoping the weather will continue to cooperate as there's a lot of outdoor work that needs to be done. And of course, the perfect house has to come on the market for us, too!

I hope you all are doing well! I'll be putting up more posts soon from last week, the kid's spring concert, and a completed room reveal, so stay tuned! :)

Family Time

This past Saturday was the first day in awhile where the sun stayed out longer than for a few brief moments, so we had to enjoy it while it was here!

Earlier in the week I purchased a 5-in-1 game set, which included badminton, volleyball, horse shoes, a frisbee, and a catch and toss game. Growing up my family always had a badminton net, and almost every summer night we'd go out and play after dinner until it was too dark to see. Ever since we bought our house, I've been wanting a badminton net so I can have these memories with my kids as well. When I saw the set for $15 at the grocery store, it jumped into my cart and begged me to bring it home!

Jump, Nate, jump!

Yay, she got it!

We had to get more rackets as the set only came with two...it's no fun standing on the side lines waiting for a turn!

Making memories

We also had to test out the other fun games as well :)

Frisbee with Daddy

What a face!

Good toss, Paigey girl!

Yesterday the kids (er, Paige and Ry; Nate has a stomach bug) dragged the babysitting kids outside after school and they played volley ball and badminton for two hours! I think this was a $15 very well spent :)


Have you enjoyed some sunshine lately?

Two Weeks?!?

Has it really been over two weeks since my last post???

Eek.

If you haven't guessed, we've been busy:

- We went over to Pete's sister's house and helped her and her hubby tear up their backyard and reseed it. It's going to be perfect for my niece to play in when it grows!

- Pete and I had a movie date with our friends. We went over to their house for brunch and we finished up the Lord of the Rings trilogy with 'Return of the King' (extended version, aka 4+ hours of movie!). It was so much fun hanging out with a group of our friends eating waaayyy too much good food!

- My nephew was here for four days and three nights! It was lots of fun...but weird having to worry about changing diapers regularly again.

- The stomach bug invaded our family. Again. Paige was sick with it starting a week ago yesterday, and had a fever until Tuesday night, so she didn't go back to school until Thursday last week. I had a touch of the bug Tuesday night, but was fine by Wednesday at lunch time. Nate got sick on the bus coming home on Wednesday, and is still exhausted, but his stomach's been fine since Friday morning. Ryan got it Thursday night, was fine by lunch time on Friday, and then came down with it again yesterday afternoon. Ugh. Thankfully Pete hasn't gotten it, but he wasn't looking too good this morning. He thinks it's just his allergies making him feel off, but we'll see when he gets home this afternoon.

- Pete and I had a movie date Friday night. I felt like a terrible mom, going out and having a date while my kids were recovering from being sick, but they were in very capable hands at my in-law's house (my father in law is a nurse). The kids were fine the whole time, so that helped me not feel too guilty! We went to the drive in to see Iron Man 3 with our friends Stephen and Vanessa, Pete's brother Derrick, and our pastor and his wife. We didn't have time for mini-golf during this visit, but I got some much needed one on one girl time with Vanessa while we waited for the movie to begin. The movie was awesome; if you like super hero movies, go see it!!!! It was better than the second movie; although part of it was disappointing, I think it was at least as good as the first one. On the way home from the theater, we found a truck flipped over in a ditch. I called 911 and Pete and Stephen helped break the two people out of the truck as their doors were stuck. They were fine, just bumps and bruises. We were thankful we were there to help until the police and fire department showed up.

- On Saturday we had our church's monthly prayer breakfast. Pete and I met up with his dad and the kids and helped cook. Nate and I ended up leaving during breakfast as he wanted to come home and sleep, and Pete, Paigey and Ry met up with us here later after helping do some yard work. I went over to a friend's house to help her paint for a few hours, and then after coming home we spent time outside working on the yard and playing.

So that's what we've been up to lately. We haven't made any of the decisions that are still hanging heavily over our heads, but we should hopefully have some answers in the next couple weeks. I still have to do Ryan's birthday party post, and then I should be almost up to date with things. Here's hoping life will settle down enough that I can post at least twice a week :)


What have you been up to lately?

Spring is Coming!

A sure sign of spring in our house is when we lose a big chunk of our counter space for our seedlings and plant table. On Sunday we planted seeds for our vegetable garden and the kid's new flower garden.

First we gathered our supplies and made sure our table was protected:

So happy to be planting!

Then we mixed the potting soil with water to get it damp:

Ryan held the bowl while Paigey mixed

Then we filled our containers:

Ryan did awesome! He loved to help.

Working together to fill the tray

And put our seeds in:

Paigey loves to plant!

All the seeds sit in our plant stand. Pete's dad made it out of PVC pipe, and although you can't see it in the picture, a grow light hangs above the seedlings.

All ready to grow!

Although losing so much counter space for almost 3 months is frustrating, we all look forward to planting our seeds. It means spring is coming, even if it is still snowing outside!

This year we did things a little different. Normally I use old yogurt cups to put my seeds in, but on Pinterest I saw that people were using old toilet paper tubes for their seeds. When it's time to put the seedlings in the ground, you just put the whole thing in the hole and you're done! I tend to break a lot of roots when I remove the seedlings from the container which weakens the plants, so I'm hoping that I won't have that problem this year. It's also nice because I tend to over or under water, and I can see on the sides of the tubes if they need water or not. Each tube was cut in half, and I used paper towel tubes as well, which gave me 5 little planting containers. I didn't have enough tubes (we planted over 120 containers!), so the tomatoes all went into plastic containers.

Here's what we planted for our veggie garden:

Maskotka cherry tomatoes - These will actually go into pots on our deck. The kids are looking forward to having their own plant to take care of and eat from!

Cajun Belle peppers - Our favorite spicy pepper! I'm hoping I remember to wear gloves when I chop them to put in the freezer...the past two years I've forgotten, and have spent the next few days in extreme discomfort.

Agro tomatos - This is our first time planting paste tomatoes. We'd like to make our own sauce or ketchup, so we're hoping these grow well.

Fall Rainbow Blend Pumpkins - We tried these last year, but I over watered them and only two plants survived. These are awesome because it's a pack with four different kinds of pumpkin seeds in there: Cinderella (a nice round decorative pumpkin), pie pumpkins, jack o'lantern ones (great for carving), and   Casper pumpkins (they're white!).

Bell peppers - I have awful luck with peppers. I'm hoping these grow better than the ones I've been planting the past few years.

Cucumbers - These are supposed to be great for pickling (we love home made bread and butter pickles!) or for eating as cucumbers.

Malabar spinach - Oh man, this is the best spinach ever. Even our kids who weren't too fond of spinach now love it because of this plant! It grows on a vine, and looks gorgeous! We've had some bad luck when planting this, no matter how many seeds we plant, we only get like three plants. However, those three plants give so much spinach that when we harvest and freeze it, it lasts all winter. Our favorite garden plant EVER!

We'll also be planting green beans, snap peas, beets, swiss chard, lettuce, regular spinach, carrots, corn, onions and zucchini when we can get our beds prepped and ready.

Yesterday (Wednesday) our first seedlings popped through! Some of our flowers sprouted, as well as a cucumber and a tomato seed. More have popped through today!


Do you plant a garden? What things do you grow?

Another Daddyless Weekend

What a weekend.

Technically it was a three-day weekend for the kids as they had a snow day Friday. I apologize for the lack of Financial Friday posting that I promised on Facebook; I was playing referee all day to three super cranky kids and barely had time to sit, let alone blog.

The highlights of the day:

- We made holders for valentines. I didn't take pictures of the during or after process, but it was based on this craft here.

- We had a surprise visitor!!!! Our friend Preston (best man at our wedding, Ryan's named after him) lives out of town, but he was going on our church's retreat this weekend as the worship leader. He came in a day early to avoid the snow storm, and when he saw the kids had a day off, he had to stop by to see his niece and nephews!

Nate attacking Uncle Preston!

Pete also went on the church's retreat this weekend. He left late afternoon/early evening Friday and was home yesterday mid-afternoon. It was weird not having him home but having the kids here; it really didn't feel like a weekend

When we weren't fighting/throwing tantrums/sitting in time out, we had some fun:

- We made mini deep dish pizzas for lunch. This is one of our favorites, and the kids love being able to choose their own toppings:

Ryan's pizza: Olives, pepperoni, cheese, no sauce

Nate's pizza: Extra sauce, cheese, olives, pepperoni.

 

Paigey's pizza: Sauce, olives, pepperoni, onions, extra cheese

 

 

- We had popcorn and hot chocolate as we watched 'Mary Poppins'. After the popcorn was gone, we snuggled <3

 

- The cat gave me a heart attack: I was making my bed when out of the corner of my eye I saw someone watching me...

Excuse the mess...Hi Moe!

 - We watched deer in the cornfield behind our house

- We were blessed with a beautiful Sunday morning:

- We had a Spaghetti pie faced Darth Vader who was so happy to have his daddy home:

- And to top it all off, Nate lost his first tooth! He was soooo excited. Not only did he get to use his monster tooth bag I made him, but the Tooth Fairy was coming to visit him, not his sister!

I can't complain too much about the weekend. I mean, the kids fought a lot, I was exhausted and barely had time to relax, but we had some fun, too. Pete enjoyed the retreat, and even though he came home exhausted, he was refreshed. That helped the rest of us take a chill pill and relax, too!


What did you do this weekend?

Our Saturday

This past week has been crazy, long, and draining:

- With the exception of one night, Ryan has been pulling a newborn's sleep schedule; the one night he slept through the night? I had 2 cups of regular coffee after 7, so I was up most of the night. Oops! His allergies have been awful and/or he's been having nightmares.

- Pete, Nate and Paige went back to work/school on Wednesday, which threw us all off. We never knew what day it was, so we tried to put 5 days of jobs/activities into 3 days.

- I had a super heavy babysitting schedule this week. The pay is nice, but the kids were all over the place because their routines were off.

We were all ready relaxing today, so how did we spend our day?

- We had prayer breakfasts! Pete and the boys went to church to help cook and serve the men, and Paige and I went to my in-law's. My mother-in-law cooked, and it was only the three of us today. It was nice visiting and catching up on our crazy lives, and then we helped her pack up four packets to be made into Cozy Quilts after we prayed.

- Paige and I left our prayer breakfast later than we intended to, so we raced home, got Paigey dressed up and hair all pretty, wrapped up some gifts, and sent her off to her best friend's birthday party! Today was the first day Paige let me do her hair in any style other than pony tail without fussing; she's growing up!!!

Paigey and her french braid headband

- The boys watched Cello Wars over and over and over again while they ate lunch:

They love Cello Wars!

- Pete, the boys and I all got a nap!

- Nate and Pete worked on clearing the driveway

- I started working on another custom order for SEA Creations; they'll be identical cross body tote bags. I got the fabric all ironed and cut out, now just waiting for the rest of the supplies to arrive at some point this upcoming week:

Getting ready to iron the fabric

- I started working on a birthday present for Paige while she was gone; we'll be turning it into an American Girl doll wardrobe/storage chest for her first doll that she'll be getting! It's going to look similar to this, but using this tutorial:

It's now missing two drawers; demolition will start tomorrow, hopefully!

- I snuggled my babies

Oh how I love them!!!!

- I'm updating the blog and even writing a few more to have ready for the next couple days!


How did you spend your Saturday?

Daddyless weekend, Day 2: Awesome yet busy day

Our day started off really rough. Ryan was exhausted from being up so late, and Paige is just not a morning person in the first place. Nate missed his Daddy, so he was grumpy, too. Every little thing was a fight, and instead of leaving the house by 8:15 to go to my aunt's house like I had planned, we didn't leave until 8:45. I missed my exit and had to take another one, but it worked out really well as I hit green lights the whole way. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm severely geographically challenged, so the fact that I didn't get lost was a huge accomplishment!

All set to head to Aunt Sharon's house!

Upon arriving at my aunt's house, the kids were super whiny about being hungry and not wanting to play. However, my Aunt Sharon pulled out a bag of outdoor toys and I had packed a snack for them, so they cheered up right away!

Nate watching to see what toys Aunt Sharon is pulling out

Paigey's a goon!

My cousin Lindsay and I got to work on taking down the concrete pavers that were a wall around one of my aunt's gardens and loaded them into the van. We got about 1/3 of them into the van (about 50) and then noticed the van was looking a lot lower. I was hoping to load more, but silly me forgot how heavy pavers are!

I let the kids play some more while Lindsay and I got caught up on things in our lives. The kids had a snack, then played hide and seek in the yard. They had so much fun!

This is Nate's concentrating face as he looks for Ry and Paigey

Ryan ready to go find Nate and Paige!

When it was time to leave, the van was too heavy and was making nasty groaning and grinding noises. We unloaded some pavers and only brought 40 home. I was nervous about potholes in Greece and the hills on the road we live in, but was panicking about making into our steep driveway. We made it home safely with no troubles and no grinding!

Fresh air + lots of fun = sleepy Nate!

And a sleepy Ryan, too!

After lunch, naps, and snack time, we headed outside to play and unload the pavers from the van. Can I just say that moving pavers is a great work out? My whole body aches today like I worked out for hours! It's fantastic :) We were unable to go to the birthday party; Ryan has some health issues, and he was having difficulties after nap time. I would have loved to try taking the kids, but with him stopping every few minutes to scream and have difficulties was just not going to be a fun time for any of us.

The kids playing nicely together

Mason enjoyed laying in the cool grass

Mommy taking a break from working to snuggle her Ry!

Silly Paigey!

A smile? He's like his Daddy and isn't a fan of getting his picture taken

My little ham!

We put some pavers under the kids' swing set. They'll be able to sit and have tea parties there and we'll be able to move their outdoor toy box to the space now and not have to worry about little creatures living in the tall grass.

Before...

And after!

I also lined the new garden we're starting to put in at the fence by the driveway. I'm not sure how far I want to take the garden down the fence, or if I want to stack the pavers. Once Pete gets home, we can decide together and then figure out how many more pavers we want to go pick up from my aunt's house. Any thoughts? Should we stack the pavers to two high? Would the garden look nicer continuing down the driveway? I can't decide. I took them down as far as we had things planted. It's a work in progress, so excuse the mess of it all!

The highlight of our day was getting the mail. In April we became sponsors for an almost 4 year old girl from Colombia named Freyle, and we just got our first letter from her! The kids were super excited about it, and as soon as I texted Pete about the letter, he called the first chance he got so I could read it to him. Here's the drawing she did for us:

For dinner I made pasta salad (my Mom's recipe!) and hot dogs, and we relaxed by watching another Shaun the Sheep DVD. The kids were so tired not all of them made it through the movie without falling asleep! Dessert was home made ice cream sandwiches.

Ry was too tired to make it through the movie and dinner!

The kids passed right out at bedtime, so I got caught up on cleaning and dishes before watching a movie. I'm glad we have a dishwasher; Pete usually does the cleaning up after dinner and takes care of the dishes, and as I'm not used to it, things got piled up over the two nights. I can't even imagine how long it would have taken if I had to have done all those dishes by hand!

I had a special surprise when I went to bed. Nate had picked me flowers, but I thought he had left them outside...but he had snuck them into the house and put them on my night stand instead! I wish I had known so I could have put them in water, but it was such a sweet gesture that it didn't matter that they were wilted.

My pretty flowers <3

It was an awesome day, and we really got to do some fun things. I think they were used to just having Mom be around, and keeping busy and getting out of the house really helped.

We're super excited Pete's coming home tonight, although we won't see him until tomorrow! It's hard to explain, but I feel homesick when he's gone. Home is wherever he is, so it's hard not having him here. Does anyone else ever feel that way when their spouse is gone, or am I just weird? No comments allowed from my brother on me being weird! ;0P

I hope everyone's enjoying their Sunday!