Under Construction......

Ever since we closed on the house, we've been spending every spare minute over there trying to get it updated how we want it. I don't know if you'll remember the video I posted before, but I thought you guys might want to see how much we've changed already in one week.
#1. PAINT! We picked a pretty bold shade of gray to go in the main living room and dining room. It scared the crap out of me as we were painting it....I kept asking, "Is this too dark?" But once the tape came off, and the faceplates went back on....I couldn't help but love it.
#2. New Lights! There were some pathetic light fixtures in that house, with even weaker bulbs. Parker put those lights in on the first day, because we couldn't stand to be in the dark another day. We replaced the ugly stained-glass upside-down bowl that was in the dining room, for a pretty brushed-nickel 6-bulb fixture. TONS MORE LIGHT!
#3. Blinds. All the windows had ugly, smelly, sun-bleached lace curtains. Ick. We seriously considered special-ordering some blackout blinds (my parents have them and I love them) but at the last minute we found some feaux-wood white blinds that look really good, and they were already in-stock at Lowe's. MUCH CHEAPER. The only one we have to order is the master bedroom. For some reason they don't make them in that size.
#4. New microwave. We found a black-friday ad for an over-the-range microwave for 98 dollars, and then a 30 dollar rebate. So Parker got up and faced the crowds. We decided that the counter-space that we'll save is worth quite a bit as well. And the kitchen looks tons better with the microwave installed.
#5. Cabinet Lighting. Parker found some cabinet lights for 30 dollars! They totally change the way your kitchen looks. And since the kitchen was kinda the eye-sore of the house.....we decided that anything that can help....we'll do it. The wost part about the kitchen is those blue countertops. But it's just too expensive to replace them at this time. So we're trying our best to make everything else around it look good.
#6. A little elbow-grease. The oven and stove were completely DISGUSTING! Yesterday I spent over an hour scrubbing off the burner catch-trays and all the stuff that was underneath them. The bathrooms need a good scrubbing as well.....but I think I'll wait until RIGHT before we move in.
#7. Floors. Now the floors go in tomorrow. We have new wood vinyl floors that my uncle was clearancing out at Lowe's....so we bought 'em up. They're gonna brighten up the kitchen and dining area a TON!
#8. Carpet. You see how the nasty blue carpet goes with NOTHING, except maybe the nasty blue countertops. The carpet comes out on Tuesday, and the new stuff goes in Wednesday morning. After that.....it's time to move in!! I already feel like this house is our home. The apartment still has all our stuff in it, but it's just where we sleep at night. I'm so excited to move into our new place! Here's a video of how things looked yesterday.

Frog Tape

Last Friday we closed on our house! It's ours!! And Saturday we started painting..... now anybody who knows ANYTHING about painting also knows that you have to TAPE a lot when you paint. Well.....did you know that the blue painters tape they sell in the paint department SUCKS?!! Let me show you what I mean.....The strip on the right is what our ENTIRE house looked like yesterday after we pulled all that tape off. ..... OH! Except WAY WORSE. Cuz it bleeds worse on a textured wall. Well.....if you didn't read what the strip on the left is.....it's this stuff Parker's mom told us about.....a day later.....called "Frog Tape"


Luckily, we used it on the bedrooms, and it saved us a TON of touch-up work. I just wish she'd told us about this stuff a day before! Yes it's more expensive....but it's totally worth it, cuz I spent tons of time touching up the corners I'd so carefully taped off.

We've also put in a couple new light fixtures, cabinet lights, and new blinds for all the windows. The house already looks transformed....and we still haven't done the #1 thing that's REALLY gonna change it around.......new carpet! Yes we have been taking video of our progress....but the camera has been staying at the house....and the computer stays at the apartment....for now. So I don't have pictures or videos yet. But I promise they are coming.

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for my family, my job, my health, our new house, and FROG TAPE!

Pack-pack

I'm sure all children are guilty of calling the "backpack" their "pack-pack" at some point. Just a few minutes ago, Caleb asked Parker if he could put on his pack-pack. Now....parker is a college student, so he has a heavy backpack. Well....Caleb did his best. Take a look. It made me laugh.

is he sick or was it a one-time-thing?

WARNING: this post IS about my kid throwing up. So if you don't wanna hear it, stop reading. But I learned some things that all mothers should know....you'd think I did...but nope. Here's what happened:

Yesterday I picked up Caleb from daycare after work. He was in the process of drinking a glass of water when I got there. Nothin' to strange....the kid loves to drink. We got in the car and then proceeded to go to the library as we do every Thursday. We pick out new books and a couple movies for Caleb and sometimes for me. As we're pulling up to the library, he starts complaining, "Mommy my tummy hurts." That's strange....I thought.....why do you have a tummy ache?
"Are you hungry??"
"No....I want some milk."
"Okay, we'll get some milk when we get home."
"No I want some milk.....my tummy hurts." And then he procedes to cry. Now any mother in her right mind would be thinking "he's gonna throw up". But for some reason, I didn't see the signs. I un-buckeled him from his car-seat and as he's climbing out he throws up all over the center-console of the truck. Which is where my lovely pay-check was sitting. Now the top of the center-console of the truck is concave, so it created a perfect "bowl" for almost everything to go. And thereby completely saturating my pay-check.

Now Parker has never been there when it happened (cuz it only happened when I've over-fed him when he was a baby....and one other time when he swallowed too much blood from a bloody nose.....(which I just have to add is the ONLY other time he's ever complained about his stomach hurting)). But he always says if he has to deal with puke he's gonna puke himself. cuz he can't handle the smell. But I have to tell you, as a mother, when your child throws up.....there is nothing but compassion that I feel (until it's over and I have to clean it up). I felt so awful! Now 90% of what he threw up was water. No food from his lunch.....and the smell was very mild. (thank GOODNESS). So I'm thinking......he must have had too much water to drink. He wasn't running a fever.

So I get everything all cleaned up and we go to the Library and pick out our books and movies. And we drive home. As we're walking through the door, Caleb asks for milk again. and he says, "My throat is hurting." Now I know better. I walk him into the kitchen (where there's no carpet) and I ask him if his tummy hurts again. "No my throat hurts, I want some milk." Then he starts crying again. Then he stops....and starts salivating and I knew it was coming. One more bout of sick onto the kitchen floor. Once again....mostly clear.

NOW i'm thinking "Okay my boy is sick......what does he have?" I was just getting ready to feed him dinner......do I still feed him? .......CALL MOM! She then proceded to prepare me for what a night with a puking child might be like, and how to prepare. What to feed him., and what NOT to feed him. Can you believe I didn't know all this? No I didn't. I talked to Caleb about throwing up in a bowl. He seemed to understand.....he kept the bowl right next to him for the rest of the evening. I thought for-sure he was sick and he'd be throwing up for the rest of the night. I fed him chicken noodle soup and saltines for dinner. He LOVED it by the way! (Cuz Caleb loves soup!) But he never threw up again. And he never got a fever.

Now here comes the real truth about motherhood. I'd say a majority of the time, you can't explain why your kid is sick.....it just happens. And you can sit there and hypothesize about what he ate, or what bug he's got (Now lets not forget......Caleb has been on antibiotics for 4 days for pink-eye.....so there's no WAY he's got some kind of bacteria......it's either a virus.....or something didn't sit right). But I have no explanation for why it happened last night. And I'm VERY glad I didn't have to spend the night with him throwing up. But I will never know why.

As far as my pay-check goes. I had Dr. Thompson print me out a new one. I shreded the now dried and wrinkly, but very bad smelling one that got thrown up on. So.....that's our weekend so far!

A pink-eyed Halloween....

For Halloween we dressed Caleb up as a cowboy. He already had the gun, and the hat. I found the shirt at DI for 2 dollars, and the handkerchief around his neck was 1 dollar. Problem solved. He was more excited about the candy than dressing up anyway.

But on Friday night, I noticed that Caleb's eyes were a little red. Then when he woke up Saturday morning, they were all goopy and gross. Augh. Pink-eye. I just knew it. So we called the doctor, and got him on some antibiotics. But.....that meant no trick-or-treating that night. Thank goodness he got to do the ward trunk-or-treat the night before...so he still had a bucket full of candy.

This first picture, isn't exactly what he looked like yesterday. He insisted on wearing his snow boots today. We didn't have cowboy boots, so yesterday he just wore his brown shoes. But he wanted those red boots on for the picture. :)

Caleb has been really good at helping me out lately. Especially if I'm cooking.
He likes to stand on a chair right next me and help me stir and so-forth. He also likes to help me if I'm mopping the floors. He has to have his own rag, and of course he gets WAY more water on the floor than I'd like. But it's nice that he's trying to help.

One other thing that I'm not sure I've ever mentioned.....Caleb is OBSESSED with shoes! I think I pick up more shoes than anything else. And they're either his or mine. Hardly ever daddy's for some reason. He loves to march around in my heels, or my flats. And he likes HIS shoes too. Esepcially the ones with velcro cuz he can put them on himself. Also his boots. The picture below he's actually wearing my pink socks, which go almost up to his thighs. No I did not help him. And then his little shoes over that. It looks like he's wearing tights! Parker and I were laughing so hard that I decided to take his picture.

We have been so busy lately getting things in order for our house, I'm sorry the blog updates have been a little more sparce. I'm gonna have lots to blog about once we move though. But we're all doing well! I have to just make one mention about my 28 weeks belly. I feel like there is NO WAY I can spend the next 3 months CONTINUALLY GROWING! I feel like I'm just big enough right now. And I know that the last trimester is the one with the most weight-gain. AUGH. I feel pretty darn huge, and I just have no idea how I can get three-months bigger. There isn't any more room.
Lastly, this pregnancy has been the source of some SERIOUS back pain for me. I'm already pretty much not sleeping at night. But the back pain gets so bad sometimes, that I can't pick up Caleb AT ALL (which I really try not to do much....but sometimes I carry him to bed and stuff ..... especially if he's sleeping or something) and even things as small as bending over, or climbing out of the car can cause some SERIOUS pain. Sleeping on my back is the worst too. It causes SERIOUS discomfort when I try to move. Luckily when I'm in serious pain like that.....it never lasts. maybe a couple days max. Then it's just standard pregnancy discomfort stuff. Nothin I can't handle.

A Peek Inside!!!

We got to see our house again today! This time it was different, cuz the people moved out. We came in while we were getting the place inspected. (By the way....passed with flying colors! No problems there!) So I took the liberty of making a video, cuz we're trying to pick colors and stuff for the inside. We are SOOOO excited about our new place.

The people left a buncha bagged up trash in the driveway though......and of course the local animals tore those things apart and strung it all across the yard. We'll see if we can work that into negotiations somehow.....the place wasn't very clean either. I'm gonna have to go through and STERILIZE the place before we move in.....although new carpet will take care of a lot.

We have so many ideas how to spice the place up! New carpets will go in BEFORE we move in. And some paint. Next on the priority list is new countertops. This will have to wait though, because it's expensive. But the ones in the house are truly disgusting!! Blue should NEVER be an okay color to put in a house. And LOOK AT THAT BLUE CARPET!! ICK! It looks like it's imported from 1975!! We'll then either stain (something DARK) or paint the cabinets. And the dining room needs a new light fixture. We want to put can lights in the house too....the overhead lighting kinda sucks. But all of these things will have to wait. Luckily....NOTHING HAS to be done right away....it's just cosmetic stuff. ..... except of course the carpet....which I already said will be out before we're in. :)

I'll post some more when we get the carpets changed out! We're very excited!

"My piece a dirt!!!"

Well folks, I never thought it would actually happen....but Parker and I are in the process of buying a house. Offers have been made, and accepted. We just have a few inspections to go through, and then we should close before the end of November. We're getting a home for Christmas!! I am so excited!!! The house is located in Filer (which is about 6 miles outside of Twin Falls), and it's in a great neighborhood. We will be tearing out the carpet (cuz it's ugly and gross.....which is surprising since the house is only 5 years old) so we'll post before-and-after pictures once the project gets under-way.

A garage, a fence, a yard......we're happy campers!